ScriptOhio;2097875; said:
In 1966 Ohio State's admission standard was basically do you have a high school degree? I said "yes" and was accepted. I guess I lucked out; I never would have made it under today's admission standards. However, back then they did have a "flunk out rate" of over 75%.
P.S. The tuition fee my 1st quarter was $125.
Move over, kid; it was $75 my first quarter. And $350 a quarter for: Room - 11th floor corner room in Park Hall, shared with two others, 20 all-you-can-eat meals per week, 3 outside phone lines per floor, maid service every week day and Ru-Don's subs and pizza just across the street. Freshman girls had 3 2 o'clocks per semester, had to be in by 11 M,T,Th, something like 6 12 o'clocks they could use on Sunday and Wednesday, 1 am on Friday and Saturday. Further, they got punished for coming in late or PDAs, Public Display of Affection, ruled on by a board of girls who didn't date much.
I was accepted strictly on the strength of my SAT/ACT scores as my GPA was probably hovering around 2. I didn't like school.
Since Ord has not yet jumped on board... OSU WAS
the state flagship until Jim Rhodes was elected governor. In the early 50s Governors Frank Lausche and Mike DeSalle looked at the flood tide of potential college students about to hit the market and began a dorm building program on all state campuses. Jim Rhodes took it a step further in 1962 by promoting a bond program (bonds sold by his buddies, the Wolf Brothers through the Ohio Company) that promised a dorm room would be available at a state university to any Ohio student who graduated from a certified Ohio high school. At the same time the presidents of OU and Miami gained control of the Ohio Board of Regents and both were given the right to lift their admission standards. That was an easier sale in Miami, less than 30 miles from Dayton and Cincinnati, than it was for OU. OU dropped their standard after a couple of years -- along with their self proclaimed status as "Harvard on the Hocking." Miami begged off of building more dorm space, claiming that their rural location couldn't draw the numbers, BUT if they could just be allowed to be the only state school with selective enrollment... OSU was ordered to drop all but the minimal requirements for admission.
Rhodes raised millions of dollars and the result was a flood of dorm rooms - 4 11 story mens dorms, 1 11 and three 4 story womens dorms. He took a campus designed for 20,000 undergrad students in terms of classroom/lab space and more than doubled the enrollment without adding any money for classrooms and faculty. (!!!) The school met their end of the bargain by using freshman English and math courses as flunk out courses. As stated by Script, the flunk out rate among freshman was 75%, a good 25% of that accomplished by the end of fall quarter. After 1962 the towers and north campus dorms were brought on line. Still no money for classrooms or faculty to fill the classrooms.
One last note: at ALL Ohio colleges, male students were required to take 2 years of ROTC courses or add nine quarter hours of advanced language, math or science courses to their basic ed requirements. That didn't end until the 70's.
