Ohio Wesleyan University is a small liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, about 20 miles north of Columbus. OWU is one of the Colleges that Change Lives.
With just fewer than 2,000 students, OWU’s student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1, and the average class size is 17. In this welcoming community, about half the students call Ohio home. California students are the next largest group, and about a quarter of the students are multicultural and/or from 37 countries around the world. About 12% of the student body identifies as Jewish, and the Hillel group is active.
The performing arts are strong at OWU, which offers fine arts, theatre, music and dance as majors, offering BA, BFA and Bachelor of Music degrees. Student athletes are strongly supported in OWU’s 23 varsity Division III sports programs. Academics come first for athletes, and teams compete for the team with the highest GPA (cross country has won recently). OWU offers over 90 different majors.
Learning both in and out of the classroom is encouraged; more than 50% of Ohio Wesleyan students go abroad, sometimes with groups and a professor, and more than 80% of OWU students are involved in community service – the university is nationally recognized for their high service participation. OWU wants its students to be “global citizens,” so students can study abroad [or at OWU programs in Philadelphia (business), NYC (performing arts), or Washington, DC (politics)] as early as their freshman year.
Fraternities and sororities are among the dozens of student organizations active at OWU, and Greek organizations have houses on campus. Students are required to live on campus all four years. Other organizations include political groups, ethnic and religious groups, literary/publication groups and service groups, among others.
Ohio Wesleyan is very generous with financial aid and scholarship offers will come with a student’s acceptance. Admitted students are also invited to come to campus and compete for additional awards. OWU superscores and the midrange ACT is 24. OWU considers very highly students who do community service during high school.