Campus Life

<p>I read on one of the college ranking sites that only 24% of students live on campus at ODU. Is it more of a commuter school then a college type campus?</p>

<p>Not anymore. 20 years ago ODU had many more commuters than they do now. The previous University President, Dr. Runte changed that. I believe there are about 4-5000 students on campus (which would be about 24%) but there are another 4-5000 that live nearby or within a 10 minute drive. It seems they are constantly building new dorms to try to catch up with on campus housing demands. In fact they just announced plans to build four more around the old football stadium as soon as the new football stadium is done. (probably 3 to 4 years)</p>

<p>I would avoid the hampton roads area at all costs haha. Spent two lovely years there, 2 semesters with ODU. Enjoyed the school, but despised the surrounding area. If you do end up going, pay a visit to Raisin Caines…amazing chicken.</p>

<p>ODU has a nice on campus experience. I have two cousins there that are enjoying there experiences. ODU will tear down some housing in order to make room for the new football stadium before the new ones are built. Regarding the surounding area, Norfolk is a city and ODU students have deal off campus problems simular to VCU and Georgetown.</p>

<p>DS went to ODU and graduated 3 years ago. At that time, lots of kids didn’t live ON campus, but were so close as to be on campus. The on campus percentage, therefore, was a little deceptive.</p>

<p>That being said, DS didn’t find campus life to be particularly active. That could have been more related, though, to his girlfriend who was going to JMU :)</p>

<p>I graduated from ODU with my Masters in 1995 and I still have family in the area. I will say that from my experience, most kids commute to that school. There is not a feeling of “being on a university” like there is at other schools in Virginia. I also have 2 family members that are commuting there as well. If you are looking for the full college experience, I can’t really recommend ODU. It is a decent school, but most students commute or live off campus. The area surrounding ODU it not the greatest either.</p>

<p>ODU is considered residential now, though it is in an urban area and many students do commute from the surrounding cities. Student life improving has helped in this area and is continuing to grow with the development of the “Monarch Experience” program which encourages first year students to join an organization within a month of attending ODU. ODU has also shifted to MonarchLink (the ODU version of OrgSync) which tracks involvement and works as sort of a social network for student orgs. Both of these are still new though, so I suspect over the next few years ODU will become much more residential and much more traditional in that sense.</p>

<p>I go to ODU and yes the school is trying to move away from its reputation as a commuter school but it still is one. Personally, I can’t stand it as there is no true sense of school spirit or pride. The football team is honestly the only thing the school has to form a sense of community yet it isn’t enough. By the time its 3PM you can expect campus to be dead and Hampton Boulevard flooded with traffic. Its sad as the school has so much potential yet it still requires a lot of improvements. I wouldn’t recommend the school if you want a strong school pride with a lively student life.</p>

<p>We have to consider that in all honesty most college students do not live on campus. The exceptions are probably small liberal arts colleges. However, I would say by and large if you think about it whether in a college town or a city, the average upperclassmen live off campus. When it comes to schools in urban area like Norfolk people will call it a commuter school. But if it were a small town like Blacksburg (only 9,000/30,000 live on campus) then we’d call it a “college town.”</p>

<p>As long as the students are engaged in university activities and the resources are there, the difference is negligible.</p>