Kent State University (KSU) is an institution of higher learning located in Kent, Ohio, which is one hour south-east from Cleveland. It is the second largest university in Ohio, with more than 35,000 students on eight campuses. Regional campuses include Ashtabula, East Liverpool, Geauga, Salem, Stark, Trumbull and Tuscarawas.

The school's sports teams are called the Golden Flashes. They compete in the NCAA's Division I-A, and the Mid-American Conference.

Kent State has colleges of Arts and Sciences; Architecture and Environmental Design; Business Administration; Communication and Information; Education; Fine and Professional Arts; and Nursing; along with a School of Technology. Furthermore, the university has interdisciplinary programs in Biomedical Sciences; Financial Engineering; and Information Architecture and Knowledge Management. Their Liquid Crystal Institute has an international reputation for research in optics and chemical physics.

The university is best known, outside Ohio, for a single event: the Kent State shootings, when four students were killed and nine were wounded by the National Guard on May 4, 1970. A photograph of a 14-year-old runaway girl, kneeling over one of the bodies as she cried, is the most famous image of the event and one of the most enduring images of the turbulent Vietnam War era in the United States. The photo won a Pulitzer Prize for photographer John Filo.

Tuition Effective Fall 2004

• Undergraduate: $3,752
• Graduate: $3,990

Noted Kent State alumni include members of the new wave band DEVO (Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale) and actor/comedian Drew Carey.