Ivy Tech is Indiana's largest community college, serving nearly 200,000 students with 23 campuses in the state; 1,300 students attend the Lawrenceburg campus. Ivy Tech is also one of the state's most affordable colleges, with an average yearly tuition of $3,000. Given its low cost, students often can reduce future college loans by attending Ivy Tech for two years and then enrolling at a larger school for a bachelor's degree. The college consists of several schools with concentrations in business, nursing, applied science and engineering, public and social services, technology, health sciences, and liberal arts.
The Lawrenceburg campus of IUE offers Bachelor of Science degree completion programs in nursing, business administration, and elementary education. Enrollment in these programs requires an associate degree, which can be obtained from Ivy Tech or any other accredited community college. The school has an impressive student-faculty ratio of 13:1 and offers nearly $10 million per year in financial aid, making it an affordable option for working students.
The University of Cincinnati is a large public university with 304 programs of study on a 473-acre campus. The National Science Foundation has ranked the school as one of the top 25 public research universities in the country, and it has a particularly strong reputation in environmental engineering, toxicology and environmental sciences. In-state residents pay an annual undergraduate tuition of $10,065, as opposed to out-of-state residents, who pay $24,588. For this reason, inhabitants of Lawrenceburg may want to consider establishing residency in nearby Cincinnati during their years of study at the university.
Founded in 1831, Xavier University is a Jesuit university with 83 undergraduate majors, 52 minors, and 11 graduate programs for its 7,019 students. U.S. News and World Report has ranked the school as one of the top 10 universities in the Midwest for the last 16 years. Additionally, it has been ranked first for the highest graduation rate among Midwest master's-level colleges and universities. Undergraduate tuition fees average about $15,000 per year, but the school has a range of financial-aid resources, including merit scholarships, grants, loans, assistantships and fellowships to make attendance affordable.