Reviewed on May 15, 2025(Enrolled 2022)
What Students Say
Likes
- Diverse Learning Opportunity.
- Big Campus.
- Alot of resourses to pursue research idea.
Dislikes
- Hefty tuition fees.
- Limited GRA opportunities (atleast in my stream)
- Not safe walk around at night.
Course Curriculum
8
- The curriculum is fairly moderate. If you take 3 courses a semester, you should be able to handle the load. Sometimes the curriculum forces you to pick up subjects that may not be useful to you but you have to take them because that's a course requirement. I did not like that.
- Typically you will have 2-3 classes per week per course. It's not a lot. The tutors are very nice. They are helpful, approachable, and very smart. Typically you could see a classroom strength of 65. but I have seen classes with only 30 and also as many as 120.
- It depends on how popular that course is. OSU has a fair number of Indian Students. mainly Engineering and finance. so you shouldnt feel too homesick (but again, this depends on the person)
Admission Experience
-
I applied for the following universities:
- UIUC – rejected. The competition pile was better than my application. probably.
- TAMU – Admitted but liked OSU better.
- UCSD – waitlisted. took too long to reply.
- UT Austin – rejected
- OSU – accepted and took admission
- In general, I think I did not have a great SOP. I did not have enough projects to convince the bigger schools to admit me. I also think Covid has a little adverse effect on admissions, with more people deciding to pursue masters right after covid.
- OSU has a great centre for automotive research. My area of interest was in controls engineering, specifically applied in automotive engineering. OSU had excellent faculties for me to dive into my interests. I scored 314 in the GRA and 8.0 in the IELTS. I am not sure what the minimum required score for the GRE was but the IELTS minimum was 6.0. The overall college admission experience was nice.
- The admission process took 5 months. I applied in october 2021 and got a reply in April 2022. You can also apply for an early bird in august which helps you undercut a lot of your competitors. My application wasn't ready by then so I couldn't apply. Once you get the admit letter in April, you have about 3 weeks to accept/reject the offer letter. You may be able to request an extension but that depends on the DSO. You can also decide to defer your admit letter by up to 2 years if you want to join the following academic year. OSU allows that.
Faculty
10
- I don't remember the faculty ratio. you should be able to find it on osu website. The teaching methodology is quite advanced. Teachers use both blackboards and smart boards to try and get their point across in the best way possible. Faculty members don't explicitly help students find jobs but they may refer you to people who might be able to get you jobs. It depends on your rapport with the faculty member. Just like any other person you are trying to network with.
- I had a special admiration for my advisor, Dr Lisa Fiorentini. She was extremely smart and knowledgeable. She was also very friendly and approachable. I felt like I could talk to her about almost anything OSU-related.
Campus Life
10
- OSU believes deeply in being inclusive of all cultures so we had a lot of cultural activities. I wouldn't necessarily call them fests but it was a sizeable gathering. We had holi and diwali celebration for indians.
- There were other cultural festivals being celebrated too. I can't remember their names but I remember eating a lot of new kinds of food at Union, which is like a front desk building to OSU. Most of the information you need is at Union.
Part Time Jobs
- There are many part-time jobs available on campus. They should be enough. Don't do off-campus part-time; they are illegal. Maximum hours allowed are 20 hours/week. you can earn up to $12-15 per hour.
- You can earn $12-15 per hour on average if you are doing part-time work, which is not GRA or GTA. It's easy to find decent-paying part-time jobs. It's neither easy nor difficult to get a job on campus. Networking helps; sometimes online platforms help; going to the places and asking for a job helps too; and word of mouth helps too.
- Once you speak, there may be an interview just to see if you are genuine. You can take help of various online platforms and university websites as well to find one for you.
Placement
8
- There are campus fairs that give you the opportunity to talk to employers but it's up to you to network with people and showcase your best self. About 25% of my batch is employed after 6 months. Students generally find jobs by networking or applying on Linkedin .
- Building a strong resume, gaining relevant skills, and networking with professionals in the industry are key to securing a full-time job. Many companies value the global perspective international students bring to their teams, making it a mutually beneficial opportunity.
Accommodation
Off Campus
6
- I opted for off-campus housing. I lived in University village which is about 2-3 miles from the main campus. The housing isn't too good but it will be enough to get by as a student. A lot of Indians who come to Columbus, Ohio for education end up living in University Village.
- So there's a good indian community there. I would recommend students live in UV if they don't know anybody in Columbus already. It's easier to make friends from the Indian community in Columbus.
Exams
- The GRE wasn't required but was good to have. I heard any score above 310 was good. But the GRE has gotten a lot more competitive since I gave the exam. so expect the score to be at least 320. IELTS/TOEFL was required to prove English proficiency. I gave IELTS.
- A score more than 6.5 is good. Although, if you score 8.5 in speaking, you automatically qualify for a GTA position, which allows you to teach some of the lower classes. GTA is more exclusive than GRE, so it's tough to get. Mostly, students pursuing PhDs get GTAs. in rare cases, some master's students might get it too.
Fees
- $22k per semester for tuition. Although in the last semester, if you only need less than 8 credits to finish your master's, then you may be able to opt in for a reduced course load, which sees you pay per-credit fees up to 7 credits. I don't remember the exact number but I think it was $2500 (maybe) per credit.
- I only had 3 credits to finish in the last semester, which saw me pay only $9k in the last semester. Students can choose to stay off campus, which isn't too far and commuting is easy. A reasonable monthly budget could be around $1200 (not counting in any extra luxuries). $400-500 for rent. $200 for monthly groceries. $100 for Wi-Fi, electricity, etc. $400 for any extra miscellaneous expenses.
Scholarship
- There are GRA opportunities available but the scholarship is extremely selective and I did not get one. getting a GRA not only pays your entire tuition fees but it also sees that you get paid around $2000 per month. Typically, profs have the power to offer you GRA but you have to approach them requesting a GRA and project idea.
- If the prof agrees to accept you as a GRA, then you get an offer letter from OSU. Many of my friends got GRA offers. Most of them were from Mechanical. OSU is a great school if you are in mechanical engineering since there are ample funding opportunities.
- In electrical engineering, the high-voltage electric lab got a lot of funding. (I graduated from OSU in 2024 so this could have changed since then.)
