Housing options for students hold two main categories: on- and off-campus. But many may not know where to begin when searching for options outside of their required first-year living on-campus.
“It’s a very stressful topic because it’s where we’re gonna live next year and you got to make decisions so soon, like so far before,” said Eliot Rivera, a first-year student studying chemical engineering.
University Housing and Dining Services strived to put some of those anxieties at ease with their Second Year & Above Housing Kickoff event at the end of January. The event included tables for students to ask questions about different dormitory or apartment options.
The university offers five residence hall options that are purely for second-year students. Second-year and above students have designated dorms including all of Halsell Hall and specific floors of Tebeau, Hawley, Buxton, the International Living and Learning Center and Callahan Hall.
The residence hall application opened on Jan. 30 for those who attended the kickoff event and on Feb. 3 for all other second-year and above students. The application period for dorms concludes on March 31.
“This can vary from year to year, but we typically have more than 500 beds in the residence halls and over 500 spaces in our apartments that are open to second year and above students,” said Brian Stroup, director of Operations and Facilities for University Dining and Housing Services in an email.
Students who return to staying in a residence hall after their first year are eligible for a $400/term discount, according to the UHDS website.
For students looking to save money while living on campus, the live-in student staff options such as resident assistant, diversity learning assistant and academic learning assistant provide free residence hall housing, food and a stipend.
However, student staff position applications for next academic year closed on Jan. 28.
Stroup said that students can still apply for dining hall positions.
“We find that students who work in our dining locations not only have many hours available to them to work at a high starting wage (currently $15.90) but they also receive a 50% discount off of a meal during their shift,” Stroup said. “This additional benefit helps students in those positions to stretch their food budget.”
In addition to residence hall living, the university owns two on-campus apartments aimed at second-year and above students. Both have a year-round application cycle and applicants are waitlisted until space becomes available.
“Students who live in the residence halls are on an academic year contract (9 months) and students who live in the apartments are on a calendar year contract (12 months),” Stroup said. “Students can move from our residence hall contract to our apartment contract (depending on space availability) with no financial penalty.”
Serenity Dahl, a third-year transfer student studying computer science, is searching for housing to move into during summer term. They preferred apartment options over dorms.
“I’m not really interested in having more than one roommate, so a lot of them usually, maybe you have three or four people per room,” Dahl said. “And they’re actually just a little less expensive than the rooms that are in the Gem or (Madison), where I only have one roommate.”
The Gem apartment building, located at the intersection of Monroe Avenue and Kings Boulevard, is composed of studio and one-bedroom apartments. The Madison Avenue apartments are located on the east side of the McNary Quad and have a mix of studio and two-bedrooms.
For students with families, OSU owns an apartment complex called Orchard Court located on the northwest corner of campus.
Dahl said there is a trade-off of staying on campus rather than finding an apartment.
“It’s really your first time to take that step into the adult world, so choosing to stay on campus is kind of choosing to, I guess not have your hand held, but have additional resources during that transition,” Dahl said.