The region that later became the state of Ohio was ceded to the United States from Britain in 1783, opened for land sale in 1785, and officially organized as an American territory in 1787. A year later, a settlement called "Losantiville" (a name awkwardly combining words from Greek, Latin, French, and the language of the Delaware tribe of Native Americans meaning "town opposite the mouth of the Licking River") was founded at the southern edge of this territory. The commander of the nearby fort changed the town's name to "Cincinnati" in honor of a Revolutionary War officers' organization inspired by Roman farmer Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, who became a general and later a dictator in defense of the Roman Republic, but gave up those powers and returned to his plow. Cincinnati became an incorporated city in 1819, and developed rapidly after the Miami & Erie Canal linked it to other western Ohio towns and finally to the Great Lakes between 1829 and 1845. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Cincinnati as the "Queen of the West" (or the "Queen City") in his 1854 poem "Ode to Catawba Wine."

In its early years, Cincinnati consisted largely of wooden buildings, and the city has had an abiding concern with emergency services. In 1853, the Cincinnati fire department became the first paid full-time fire department in the U.S., as well as the first fire department in the world to use steam-powered fire engines (invented in the city in the previous year). In 1865, the city became the home of the world's first ambulance service. Cincinnati has also had a healthy interest in sports. The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the world's first all-professional baseball team, were founded in 1869; they still play in the major leagues today as the Cincinnati Reds. Ninety-nine years later, the Cincinnati Bengals were charter members of the American Football League and continue to compete in the NFL. The region offers many other opportunities for sporting, recreation, and entertainment, including such destinations as the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and Museum, American Sign Museum, Carnegie Visual + Perfoming Arts Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Coney Island Park, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Kentucky Speedway, Loveland Castle, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Newport Aquarium, Paramount's Kings Island Amusement Park, and Taft Museum of Art.

The city has been pioneering in education as well. It was the first in Ohio to introduce graded primary schooling in 1840. Cincinnati College was founded in 1819 and became the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 1870; one of its presidents, William Holmes McGuffey, published in 1836 the first of the McGuffey Reader textbooks for young people, which were widely used throughout the country for the rest of the 19th century. Cincinnati's St. Francis Xavier (now known just as Xavier) University was founded in 1831 as the city's first university. UC's College of Engineering established the world's first cooperative education program in 1906, and the city remains a strong co-op ed center (more on that later).

"Diversity of institutions" is also the first item mentioned by Thomas Canepa, Assistant Vice President for Admissions at the University of Cincinnati. He says, "The region has everything from community colleges and technically based institutions all the way to Top 25 research institutions." He goes on to talk about "diversity of experience": The area offers the best qualities of both the Midwest and the South, with many different ethnic and cultural communities, and he jokes that "unlike so much of the Midwest, it isn't flat." Canepa points out that, unlike in other cities, none of the colleges or universities in Cincinnati are downtown, "but students can easily take advantage of downtown opportunities." Within a 125-mile radius, he says -- encompassing the cities of Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville, Frankfort, and Lexington -- "a student could study whatever they wanted and have a path to their goal regardless of their point of entry." When pressed to name an educational shortcoming of the region, Canepa sounds almost apologetic, but professes: "I couldn't easily identify a deficiency."

Canepa also singles out the city's beautiful Ohio River waterfront as a selling point, and so does Debora DelValle, Media Relations Specialist for Xavier University. She enthuses that Cincinnati has a great location in the "heart of the Midwest" and it's "easily accessible"; it has major employers and pro sports teams; it's "family-friendly" and has "art, culture, music, theater, and outdoor recreation"; in short, it's just a "very nice city."

Piccirillo agrees that the city is a "nice place to live". It has a "fairly low cost of living," employment is "not an issue," and it's "an attractive place to settle down and have a career." She also identifies the many collaborative agreements between the Consortium's institutions and the area's high schools and technical schools as one of the region's nice features. "The last census highlighted that the people in the region aren't taking full advantage of the higher education," she says, "so the Consortium's member schools are making an effort to address that need," working with the state's Department of Education, the local Chambers of Commerce, Cincinnati Public Schools, and other agencies. One result of that effort are the Consortium's College Access Partnerships, "supporting collaboration between members and public schools in Ohio and northern Kentucky, to improve access to higher education and to provide information to middle- and high-school students, their parents, etc., about their opportunities." She urges people, whoever and wherever they are, to seek out information and be open to all of their options: "Even if you feel that you might not be quite ready for a four-year liberal-arts school, [there are] community and technical colleges you can consider."

• Art Academy of Cincinnati*
• Athenaeum of Ohio*
• Brown Mackie College [Cincinnati campus] (formerly Southern Ohio College)
• Chatfield College*
• Cincinnati Christian University* (formerly Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary)
• Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science
• Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (CSTCC)*
• College of Mount St. Joseph*
• God's Bible School and College
• Good Samaritan College of Nursing and Health Science**
• Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion*
• Miami University of Ohio [Hamilton campus]*
• Miami University of Ohio [Middletown campus]*
• National College of Business and Technology [Queen City campus]
• Northern Kentucky University*
• Southwestern College (formerly Southwestern College of Business)
• Thomas More College*
• Union Institute and University*
• University of Cincinnati*
• Wilmington College*
• Xavier University*

*Member of the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities (GCCCU)
**Associate member of GCCCU

According to The Princeton Review's website, among reporting schools in the area, average student/faculty ratios range from 5 to 1 at the Art Academy of Cincinnati to 25 to 1 at CSTCC, with most schools having a ratio from 11 to 1 to 19 to 1. The schools tend to be one of three sizes: very small, with enrollments under 200 (Art Academy, Athenaeum, Chatfield); midsize, with enrollments from 1200 to 5000 (Miami, Union, Wilmington, Xavier, and most others); and very large, with enrollments over 11,000 (CSTCC, NKU, UC). (Cincinnati Christian is an exception, with an enrollment in the high three digits.)

Be careful to choose an "accredited" institution whose facilities, faculty, finances, and procedures are regularly investigated and approved by an educational standards organization. In the Cincinnati area, colleges and universities are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

• Raymond Walters College (career-oriented undergraduate school) of the University of Cincinnati: $3,292 for Ohio residents, $8, 534 for out-of-state residents
• Miami University - Hamilton: $6,216 for Ohio residents, $17,748 for out-of-state residents¹
• College of Medicine (graduate) of the University of Cincinnati, non-M.D. programs: $6,984 for Ohio residents, $13,054 for out-of-state residents
• Cincinnati Bible College of Cincinnati Christian University: $9,120 for all students
• Wilmington College: $9,240 for Cincinnati campuses, $19,206 elsewhere
• Salmon P. Chase College of Law of Northern Kentucky University: $10,128 for Kentucky residents, $17,328 for Metro residents², $22,104 for out-of-area residents
• Master of Science graduate program at Xavier University: $11,952 for all students
• Mount St. Mary's Seminary of The Athenaeum of Ohio: $15,180 for all seminarians studying on campus
• Professional law program of the University of Cincinnati: $16,210 for Ohio residents, $29,284 for out-of-state residents
• Thomas More College: $17,600 for all students
• Art Academy of Cincinnati: $18,500 for all students
• Master of Nursing graduate program at the College of Mount St. Joseph: $33,600 for all students

¹These figures are for "upper tier" students who have accumulated at least 68 credit-hours at Miami University - Hamilton; tuition for "lower tier" students with fewer credits is slightly less.

²"Metro" students are those living in selected nearby counties in Ohio and Indiana.

US citizens attending almost any Cincinnati college or university will probably qualify for the standard federal low-interest student loans such as the Stafford and PLUS programs. Many schools, corporations, organizations, and foundations offer scholarships based on need, merit, or other criteria. Lots of these are specifically for students from the Greater Cincinnati region; see the list maintained by the Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation.

Once you've graduated and and if you want to stay in the Cincinnati area, there are many websites advertising local positions, including Cincinnati.Com from CareerBuilder, Computerwork.com - Cincinnati, Queen City Jobs, and the Cincinnati Employment Guide, to name just a few. The most important thing you can do, though, is to network: Make sure that your family and friends (and any professional contacts you have) know what kind of job you're looking for. The fact remains that, even in the Information Society, most jobs are filled as a result of personal ties and interactions.