Ohio State Holds the Upper Hand
University’s smaller class sizes drawing students
Small class sections are making a comeback…sort
of. Ever since the 2008 recession, universities have
worked to repair their enrollment numbers.
Ohio State Leads the Way
As can be seen above, although Ohio State
experienced only a 15% growth in their
undergraduate population (over the past
decade) compared to Ohio University’s nearly
28% growth, their student body still dominated
over its sister schools beating Miami enrollment
for 2016 by nearly 46%.
For Miami and the Ohio State University this means
touting smaller class sizes to prospective students.
Yet the future may see a decline in small class
sections, as colleges such as Ohio University opt to
eliminate them.
Additionally, observation of Miami’s red line
indicates the university’s enrollment stagnation
for the past decade when compared to Ohio
University and Ohio State whose lines display
slowly creeping inclines. So, what is it drawing
prospective students to The Ohio State
University above Miami? Tuition? Location?
Class size? This study compares the latter.

The Ohio State University is the only school
not to cut small class sections from their
curriculum. Their number of small sections has
increased 48% in total over the past decade
(excluding class sizes of 10-19 students.)
Conversely Ohio University has seen a sharp
decrease in its number of smaller class sections
with not even one type of small class sections
surviving the threshing floor.
Miami resides somewhere in the middle with
its smallest class sections on the decline and its
other two (10-19; 20-29) on the rise.
Perhaps this attempt to increase the number of
small class sections is Miami’s latest marketing
tactic to draw in the students it so desperately
needs to compete with Ohio State’s monstrously
larger student population.
The Limits of this Data
This data does not consider the financial aid
each university offers and therefore a study
comparing enrollment and university-provided
aid could explain subsequent reasons OSU
holds an upper hand to Miami.