Is Ohio State University-Main Campus Worth It?

Ohio State's numbers work in your favor if you finish and pick the right major. An 87.7% graduation rate and 94% retention mean you're very likely to walk out with a degree and not eat costs for a fifth or sixth year. Median debt sits below one year's median earnings, which is the ratio you want.

Engineering is where the payoff is clear. Industrial, electrical, mechanical, and materials engineering all land around $71k to $76k a decade out, while carrying roughly $19k to $22k in debt. That debt-to-earnings gap is comfortable, and it holds across the whole engineering slate here, so you're not betting on one narrow program.

The school-wide median tells a softer story. If you're not in a high-earning field like engineering, your degree still lands you near the campus median, which is solid for a public school but not spectacular given Columbus living costs. Ohio State is large and broad, so your major matters more than the name on the diploma. Non-engineering, non-technical paths here carry real risk of earnings that don't justify the sticker price.

Net price is the deciding factor for your family. If your household earns under $48k, you pay around $6,300 to $7,100 a year, and the math is easy at almost any major. Between $48k and $75k, the price roughly doubles, and above $110k you're paying about $27k a year. At the top tier, the return only clearly works if you're in engineering or another high-earning field.

This is a strong financial fit if you're aiming at engineering or you qualify for the lower net-price tiers. If you're a higher-income family planning a lower-earning major, run the full four-year cost against realistic starting salaries before committing.