OSU still nation’s largest public university

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio State University is the nation’s largest public university for the second year in a row, new enrollment figures show.

The school’s main campus in Columbus has 52,568 undergraduate, graduate and professional students this fall, 750 more than last year. University of Florida at Gainesville is second with 51,876 students, and Arizona State University at Tempe is the third with 51,481.

University officials credit most of the increase in enrollment to an increase in transfer students and higher first-year student retention levels. This year, the school projects just over 94 percent of first-year students will continue to their sophomore year, up from 78 percent a decade ago.