Involvement Fair 2017 – Credit: Jack Westerheide | Photo Editor

The demand for an Ohio State education is at an all time high; this year’s freshmen come from a pool of 52,349 applicants. Of those accepted, 7,500 freshmen will live on campus, alongside nearly 7,000 more students.

In comparison, 49,407 candidates applied in 2016.

This record-breaking number comes on the heels of Ohio State’s class of 2020 entering in with the highest average ACT score of 29.2 in university history. The average score throughout America was a 20.8 that year, according to Time.

Though the average ACT of this year’s incoming freshmen has yet to be announced, President Michael Drake hinted that the class of 2021 trumped the class of 2020.

“This new group of students coming in are the most talented we’ve ever had and we’re going to have a wonderful time working with them,” Drake said in a press release.

Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson echoed the idea, saying this year’s class “will likely be (Ohio State’s) most talented and diverse freshman class.”

The data on diversity and test scores will be available in September, Johnson said in an email.

The 14,000 students living on campus vary in age and academic year, with the majority being freshmen and sophomores, due to the second-year living requirement. Around 600 second-years are living in Greek life housing off-campus, according to Ohio State spokesman Dave Isaacs.

The second-year on-campus requirement began Autumn 2015. The introductory phase had some hiccups; Ohio State offered an agreement with roughly 130 upperclassmen to live in off-campus apartments because university housing was unable to meet student demand.

No such incident occurred this year.

This year’s freshmen are the first class to be part of Ohio State’s newly introduced Tuition Guarantee program — a tuition freeze for in-state students until 2020, with accompanying dining and living fee increases of 3 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

As part of this freeze, incoming Ohio resident students will not see their tuition cost change during their time at Ohio State, assuming they graduate within four years. However, out of state students and international students are still subject to tuition increases, alongside the dining and living fee increases introduced this year.