2005-2-23
I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.
We continue our Foreign Student Series for students who want to
attend an American college or university. Today we tell about one of
the largest public universities in the United States: Ohio State.
It opened in eighteen seventy-three as the Ohio Agricultural and
Mechanical College. It became the Ohio State University five years
later, after expanding its programs. Ohio State now has twenty-five
colleges. Among its better known programs are linguistics, business,
education and engineering.
The main campus is in Columbus, the state capital. The Ohio State
university system has over fifty-eight thousand students.
More than four thousand of them are from outside the United
States. Of these, the International Student Office at Ohio State
says almost three thousand are graduate students.
Most of the international students come from Asia, especially
China, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Indonesia. Most of the
graduate students are studying engineering, mathematics or the
physical and biological sciences. The undergraduate foreign students
are mostly studying business or engineering.
The cost of attending Ohio State is a little different for
graduate and undergraduate students. Undergraduate foreign students
pay about thirty thousand dollars a year. That includes books,
health insurance and living expenses.
The cost is about thirty-two thousand for graduate students.
Graduate students can get financial aid by working as a teaching or
research assistant. Aid money is also given to outstanding graduate
students. The university generally does not give financial aid to
foreign students at the undergraduate level. But officials say some
aid can be found.
University officials say they want international students to know
that they do not have to take English tests to attend Ohio State.
They do not even have to speak English when they arrive. The
university offers intensive English training through its American
Language Program.
Information about this program and others at Ohio State can be
found on the Web at osu.edu. Internet users can find other reports
in our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish dot com. And, to
send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen.