Recent enrollment data from a fall 2025 snapshot showed that the University of Toledo’s top high schools where first-year students enroll from are local to Northwest Ohio. But, historically, has this always been the case? Where does UToledo stand in comparison to universities across the state in terms of attracting Ohio students, and where should it be targeting its enrollment efforts?
According to the most recent publicly available data from the Ohio Department of Higher Education, UToledo ranked as the eighth most popular choice where Ohio direct from high school students chose to enroll at among Ohio’s 36 public universities and colleges in 2023.
Top Ohio university destinations among 2023 Ohio direct from high school graduates included Ohio State University (10,256 students), the University of Cincinnati (5,087), Miami University (4,727), Kent State University (4,607), Ohio University (2,966), Columbus State Community College (2,852), Bowling Green State University (1,950) and the University of Toledo (1,827). While UToledo still ranked among the top, it was no longer positioned in the middle of the pack as it was back in 2016.
Ohio’s public universities and colleges enrolled 49,373 direct from high school students from the class of 2023 — 15.7% fewer than the 58,545 in 2016, which was the earliest year included in the data source. UToledo’s share of these students fell much faster: From 3,046 direct from high school freshmen in 2016 to 1,823 in 2023, resulting in a 40.0% drop that cut its statewide share of all Ohio direct from high school students from 5.2% down to 3.7%.
Across Northwest Ohio in 2023, 3,387 direct from high school students in this area enrolled at an Ohio public university or college. UToledo received 989 of Northwest Ohio’s direct from high school students, followed by BGSU (538), Ohio State University (455), Owens Community College (384) and Northwest State Community College (172). These numbers show that UToledo enrolled more students from this regional group than BGSU or Ohio State, and more than twice as many as Owens.
And when looking at just Lucas County, the gap gets wider: 660 to UToledo, 233 to BGSU, 205 to Ohio State and 190 to Owens.
UToledo still ranks as the top choice in its own backyard, and this is an obvious advantage; winning Lucas County and Northwest Ohio is how UToledo fills a freshman class, and if it can continue to hold its place, UToledo can remain the first choice among local students.
But, there’s more to the story.
If you were to sit down with a current Rocket who came to UToledo straight from high school in 2023, most likely they would have come from Northview, Whitmer or Anthony Wayne high schools rather than a county on the other side of Ohio.
Take a look at the map below, and you’ll notice an obvious gap. In 2023, UToledo did not attract students from every county in Ohio. The counties grayed out below represent counties where no direct from high school students had enrolled to UToledo. Meanwhile, UToledo’s home base in Lucas County is significantly darker than any other county. In this pipeline, UToledo stands as a Northwest Ohio university, not a campus that attracts students from across the state in the same way Ohio State or the University of Cincinnati may.
This means while Toledo-area high schools remain the core of who still enrolls at UToledo, the university has many opportunities to broaden its reach across Ohio and beyond.
