Photo: Nyttend (Public domain)
School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio, is the state's only public historically Black university, situated in a town whose name is itself tied to the history of Black higher education in Ohio. It is a land-grant institution with an access-focused mission, serving a student body many of whom are first-generation college students.
Academics
Manufacturing engineering is a distinctive program for a school this size, connecting to Ohio's industrial base, and education has deep historical roots at Central State going back to the institution's founding purpose of training Black teachers. The university's land-grant status also supports agriculture-related programs.
Campus & student life
Wilberforce is a small town, and campus life is correspondingly self-contained, with the university's marching band a particular point of campus pride and identity — a fixture of HBCU culture that draws attention well beyond the size of the student body.
Getting in
Central State's mission is explicitly access-oriented, with a review process built to serve first-generation and historically underserved students rather than a highly competitive selection process.
Worth knowing
The marching band is a genuine cultural institution at Central State, central to campus identity and alumni pride in a way that punches above the university's size, and the manufacturing engineering program is a notable, less commonly known technical offering for an HBCU this size.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
centralstate.edu ↗High school coursework
RequiredHigh school diploma or GED with a cumulative unweighted GPA of 2.2 or higher; minimum ACT score of 18 (or SAT equivalent) required for some academic programs; no specific high school course pattern published
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