January 1, 1970

Penn State vs. Ohio State: A Real Big Ten Comparison

Beaver Stadium at Penn State and Ohio Stadium at Ohio State side by side

Ohio State beat Penn State 38-14 on November 1, 2025, in Columbus — Ohio State's ninth consecutive win over a program it used to find genuinely difficult. The last time Penn State left that game with a victory was 2016. Nine years is long enough to start asking whether the gap has become permanent. And yet this matchup still brings ESPN's College GameDay to Columbus or State College more than any other pairing in college football. That says something about what both programs mean to people.

The comparison runs deeper than football. These two schools sit about 280 miles apart, share a conference, and compete for the same pool of Midwest and Northeast students. On paper they look nearly identical: massive enrollment, over $1 billion in annual research output, Big Ten brand recognition that opens doors. The differences are real. Here's what they actually are.

The Football Rivalry: Ohio State Has Had the Better of It

Ohio State leads the all-time series 26-14. That number needs context.

Penn State controlled the early chapter of this rivalry. The teams first played in November 1912, with Penn State winning 37-0. The Nittany Lions took the first four meetings, including a 31-19 win in the 1980 Fiesta Bowl. Through the 1970s, Joe Paterno at Penn State and Woody Hayes at Ohio State ran two of the most respected programs in the country — but they rarely played each other, which kept the rivalry from developing the intensity it has today. After Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993, the ledger shifted sharply: Ohio State holds a 24-8 edge in conference-era play.

Some of the most memorable individual games in the series:

1980 Fiesta Bowl: Penn State 31, Ohio State 19
2016 at State College: Penn State 24, Ohio State 21 ("Block Six")
2017 at Columbus: Ohio State 39, Penn State 38 (Buckeyes overcame a 28-10 halftime deficit)
2018 at State College: Ohio State 27, Penn State 26 (ending PSU's 16-game home winning streak)
2025 at Columbus: Ohio State 38, Penn State 14

"College GameDay has broadcast from Columbus or State College 13 times — a record for any single matchup in college football."

The 2016 "Block Six" game is Penn State's touchstone in this rivalry: a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown in a 24-21 upset of the #2-ranked Buckeyes at Beaver Stadium. Penn State won the Big Ten East that season. That's still the last time they beat Ohio State.

Penn State's White Out is a real spectacle. Over 106,000 fans dressed entirely in white for prime-time home games creates one of college football's most intense atmospheres. Beautiful to watch. Doesn't change the nine-year losing streak.

Campus Life: The City vs. the College Town

This is probably the sharpest real-world difference between these schools, and it deserves serious weight before you look at any ranking.

Ohio State's campus sits inside Columbus, Ohio's capital and a city of nearly 900,000 people. Students can intern at major corporations during the school year, access a diverse arts and food scene, and start building professional relationships before graduation. Columbus has developed one of the Midwest's stronger job markets over the past decade — a corporate base that includes Nationwide Insurance, Cardinal Health, and JPMorgan's significant regional operations, alongside growing tech and healthcare sectors.

Penn State's main campus (officially University Park, though everyone calls it State College) is a small town of roughly 42,000 people, organized almost entirely around the university. The coffee shops on College Avenue exist because Penn State students need them. Game weekends transform the surrounding county into a slow-moving tailgate that runs from Thursday through Sunday. For students who want the all-in college-town experience — one where the campus essentially is the world — State College delivers something Columbus cannot replicate.

Penn State's campus spans 7,958 acres, one of the largest land footprints of any American university. Ohio State's campus is more compact and urban, organized within Columbus's city grid. At Penn State you walk from class to a hiking trail in fifteen minutes. At Ohio State, you walk from class to a recruiting event. Cost of living in State College trends high for a college town — the housing market is university-captive — while Columbus offers neighborhoods at a wider range of price points.

Neither campus is objectively better. They're genuinely different daily lives, and students who treat this as a minor detail often end up with regrets.

Academics: Which Rankings You Trust Changes the Answer

The academic comparison is messier than either school's marketing suggests.

QS World University Rankings 2026 puts Penn State at 89th globally and Ohio State at 151st. The Times Higher Education 2025 list reverses it: Ohio State at 113th, Penn State at 135th. Two credible systems, opposite conclusions — they weight different factors, and both schools have uneven profiles depending on what you're measuring. Program-level data is more useful:

Program	Ohio State (US News 2025)	Penn State (US News 2025)
Business	25th (Fisher College)	33rd (Smeal College)
Engineering	27th	35th
Medicine (Research)	28th	Not in top 30
Earth Sciences	—	Top tier nationally

Fisher College of Business at Ohio State has been a consistent top-25 program with particular depth in accounting, finance, and management information systems. Penn State's Smeal College is solid — top 35 nationally — but Fisher holds a clear edge on most measures. Engineering follows the same pattern: Ohio State ranks higher on most lists, though graduates from both schools place at major aerospace and tech firms without friction.

Penn State's real academic distinction is its College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, which has built serious depth in geoscience, materials science, and energy fields over decades. Pennsylvania's industrial history created real demand for that expertise, and the programs reflect it. Few peer institutions match Penn State's concentration in that specific cluster of fields.

Both schools admit roughly half of their applicants and graduate 72% of students within four years. On selectivity and completion, there's no meaningful gap between them.

Tuition: The Elephant in the Room

Penn State in-state tuition runs about $20,644 per year. Ohio State's sits at roughly $13,244. That gap — approximately $7,400 annually — adds up to about $29,600 over four years of school.

For out-of-state students, the math shifts. Ohio State's out-of-state tuition runs approximately $40,022 versus Penn State's $41,790. At those prices the annual difference drops under $2,000, small enough that other factors should drive the decision.

The reason Penn State costs more in-state has nothing to do with quality. Pennsylvania provides relatively low state appropriations per student to Penn State, which is technically a "state-related" institution rather than a fully public one. Ohio State, as a traditional public land-grant school, receives stronger state funding that directly subsidizes in-state tuition. For an Ohio resident comparing these two schools, cost deserves real attention — $29,600 is real money.

Financial aid can offset some of the difference depending on your profile, but Penn State's merit scholarships for Pennsylvania students are not typically large enough to reliably close a gap of that size. Research your specific package before assuming the costs will equalize.

Research: Both Over $1 Billion, With Different Strengths

Fewer than 20 universities in the country spend more than $1 billion annually on research. Penn State and Ohio State are both on that short list, but they got there through different paths.

Penn State's research expenditures reached $1.44 billion in fiscal year 2024-25, a record and an 8% jump over the prior year. Federal funding accounted for $922.6 million of that total. Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory — founded in 1945 at the U.S. Navy's direct request and now ranking 2nd among universities in Department of Defense research funding — has earned Navy contracts worth up to $2.1 billion. The ARL employs over 1,000 researchers and technical staff, making it one of the largest university-affiliated defense research centers in the country. Its work in undersea systems and electro-optics represents a niche that Ohio State's research portfolio simply doesn't overlap with.

Ohio State's R&D expenditures ran approximately $1.58 billion in 2025, placing it 12th nationally. The Wexner Medical Center received $209.6 million in NIH funding in federal fiscal year 2025, with 12 medical departments ranking in the national top 30 for NIH support. Ohio State leads Penn State on total research volume; Penn State leads on growth rate and holds a unique position in defense-applied work.

Both schools absorbed headwinds from federal research funding changes in 2025. Penn State anticipated a $35 million loss from NIH indirect cost policy changes. Ohio State faced similar uncertainty in its biomedical programs. These pressures are ongoing and will shape graduate research environments for several years to come.

Career Outcomes and Networks

Where you want to work after graduation should actually influence which school you attend, and most students underestimate how much.

Penn State's alumni base tilts toward the Northeast corridor. New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Boston have dense Penn State concentrations. The school places well into investment banking, management consulting, and federal government, and its alumni chapters in major East Coast cities are active enough to generate real referrals rather than just directory listings. Penn State engineering graduates also appear throughout the East Coast's defense and advanced manufacturing sectors, partly because the ARL's network feeds into those industries.

Ohio State's alumni strength runs through Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago, and Cincinnati. Fisher College of Business graduates appear throughout the finance and operations leadership of major Midwestern corporations. Columbus in particular has such dense Ohio State alumni representation that the network functions less like a formal organization and more like the operating fabric of the city's professional world. Ohio State's co-op programs in engineering and business give students structured ways to build work experience before graduation, which directly accelerates first-job placement for students who engage early.

My take: if you're targeting Northeast finance, law, or policy careers, Penn State is the better-connected choice. For Midwest corporate or tech work, Ohio State wins on proximity and alumni density. Neither school's network is universally stronger — geography matters more than most people admit when they're 17 and picking a college.

Bottom Line

Penn State and Ohio State are genuine peers in most categories that actually matter to graduates. The choice is about fit.

Ohio State wins on in-state cost — the approximately $29,600 four-year gap is significant for Ohio residents and hard to justify on marginal differences in outcomes.
Penn State wins on campus atmosphere if you want the all-in college-town experience; Ohio State wins if city access and an early career start matter more.
Football belongs to Ohio State right now — nine straight wins says it plainly — but Penn State's White Out is one of the sport's best individual game-day experiences.
Business, engineering, and medicine programs lean toward Ohio State; Earth sciences, materials, and defense research lean toward Penn State.
Both schools produce competitive graduates across engineering, sciences, and professional fields — the ranking differences rarely translate into outcome differences that show up in salary or career trajectory.

Visit both campuses before deciding. The contrast between Columbus and State College is stark enough to answer questions that no ranking table can.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Penn State or Ohio State harder to get into?

Both schools admit roughly half of their applicants, placing them in the moderately selective range by national standards. Ohio State and Penn State have similar academic profiles among admitted students, and both are substantially easier to get into than highly selective private universities. Strong coursework and solid grades matter at both, but neither school is a reach for a well-prepared student.

Which school has the more important rivalry — Penn State vs. Ohio State or Ohio State vs. Michigan?

Ohio State vs. Michigan, and it isn't close. "The Game" carries 130-plus years of history and genuine cultural weight in both states. Penn State vs. Ohio State generates serious national attention — College GameDay has visited 13 times, a record for any single matchup — but the Michigan game is what Ohio State players and coaches talk about all year. For Penn State, the Ohio State matchup is their most prominent annual game but doesn't carry that same defining weight for their program identity.

Is Penn State more expensive than Ohio State for in-state students?

Yes, meaningfully so. Penn State in-state tuition runs about $20,644 annually versus Ohio State's roughly $13,244 — a gap of about $7,400 per year, or $29,600 over four years. For out-of-state students, the two schools are nearly identical in price ($41,790 vs. $40,022). The difference comes from how Pennsylvania funds Penn State as a "state-related" institution rather than a fully public one.

Which school has stronger research programs?

They're strong in different areas. Ohio State leads on total research volume (approximately $1.58 billion annually, ranked 12th nationally), driven in part by the Wexner Medical Center's $209.6 million in NIH funding in federal fiscal year 2025. Penn State's research hit $1.44 billion in FY2024-25 and its Applied Research Laboratory ranks 2nd among universities in Department of Defense funding — making Penn State the stronger choice for defense and applied research specifically.

What makes Penn State's White Out so well-known?

The White Out fills the entire Beaver Stadium — 106,000-plus seats — in white for major home games, creating one of college football's most visually striking and acoustically intense atmospheres. The most cited example is the 2016 upset of #2-ranked Ohio State, 24-21. College football's elite home-field environments form a short list, and the White Out belongs on it, even if it hasn't changed the rivalry's recent results.

Which school is better for business students?

Ohio State holds a meaningful edge. Fisher College of Business ranks 25th nationally (US News 2025) and Columbus gives students genuine year-round access to major employers for internships and co-ops. Penn State's Smeal College ranks 33rd nationally and connects well to Northeast employers, but Fisher's ranking advantage and Ohio State's dense corporate ecosystem make it the stronger choice for most business-focused students.