Is college in the future for you, your child or another loved one?
Ohio has public and private colleges and universities all across the state, but which one is the right fit? Potential students and their families have to consider many factors: The overall value for the money, the cost of tuition, acceptance and graduation rates, program choices and more.
If you're researching colleges, websites like Niche can help. Niche gathers that data and more, assigns a letter grade to each institution and gives students a platform to post reviews.
And Niche's list of the Best Colleges in America for 2025 compares 1,000 schools "based on rigorous analysis of key statistics and millions of student and alumni reviews," according to its website.
Here's a look at how Ohio colleges and universities fared.

The top 10 colleges and universities in Ohio, per Niche
Niche ranked Ohio's colleges and universities based on an analysis of their academics, admissions, financial and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education. These are the 10 schools that came out on top:
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
Overall grade: A
Net price per year: $41,351
Acceptance rate: 29%
Total undergraduate students: 6,186
Popular majors: computer science (149 graduates), biology (114), mechanical engineering (106)
The Ohio State University, Columbus
Overall grade: A
Net price per year: $19,575
Acceptance rate: 51%
Total undergraduate students: 45,728
Popular majors: finance (817 graduates), research and experimental psychology (646), communications (528)
Kenyon College, Gambier
Overall grade: A
Net price per year: $44,470
Acceptance rate: 31%
Total undergraduate students: 2,184
Popular majors: English (86 graduates), economics (61), psychology (47)
University of Dayton
Overall grade: A
Net price per year: $31,551
Acceptance rate: 62%
Total undergraduate students: 7,740
Popular majors: finance (171 graduates), mechanical engineering (166), marketing (155)
University of Cincinnati
Overall grade: A-
Net price per year: $21,511
Acceptance rate: 88%
Total undergraduate students: 41,233
Popular majors: marketing (502 graduates), nursing (385), finance (326)
Denison University, Granville
Overall grade: A-
Net price per year: $42,177
Acceptance rate: 17%
Total undergraduate students: 2,405
Popular majors: economics (78 graduates), communications (51), biology (47)
Cedarville Univesity
Overall grade: A-
Net price per year: $27,047
Acceptance rate: 63%
Total undergraduate students: 4,916
Popular majors: nursing (136 graduates), mechanical engineering (48), psychology (39)
Ohio Northern University, Ada
Overall grade: B+
Net price per year: $26,396
Acceptance rate: 73%
Total undergraduate students: 2,847
Popular majors: pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences (87 graduates), mechanical engineering (66), biology (23)
College of Wooster
Overall grade: B+
Net price per year: $29,529
Acceptance rate: 54%
Total undergraduate students: 1,730
Popular majors: political science and government (43 graduates), research and experimental psychology (36), biology (31)
Ohio University, Athens
Overall grade: B+
Net price per year: $20,550
Acceptance rate: 85%
Total undergraduate students: 16,597
Popular majors: nursing (1,398 graduates), marketing (260), psychology (247)
The top 10 colleges and universities in the nation
These colleges and universities are the tops in the nation per Niche's 2025 ranking:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Stanford University, Stanford, California
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, California
University of Chicago, Chicago
Columbia University, New York City
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What are the best colleges in Ohio? See the top 10, per Niche. Full list
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