CEDARVILLE — With students from 49 states and 57 countries, Cedarville University has the reputation of being a leader in Christian higher education. Intelligent.com, an independent marketing service, recently supported the reputation by listing Cedarville among the highest-ranked universities in Ohio — and the highest-ranked Christian university in the Buckeye State.

In the ranking, Cedarville is seventh among Ohio’s 118 public and private universities. The Ohio State University is the top-ranked university in Ohio, while both the University of Cincinnati and the University of Dayton closely follow Cedarville in the independent ranking.

The rigorous classes and caring campus environment aid in Cedarville consistently having one of the highest retention rates in Ohio. Cedarville’s most recent rate of 85.1 percent retention is higher than the 76 percent national average, while its 99 percent career placement rate is among the leaders nationally.

Intelligent is an organization that is committed to “helping students in their pre-college journey by ranking colleges and programs across the country using aggregated publicly available data,” according to its website.

Intelligent ranked Ohio’s universities based on tuition costs, admission standards, retention and graduation rates, faculty and reputation as well as the resources provided for on-campus students. They compared this list to a list of aggregated college rankings from reputable publications, such as U.S. News & World Report.