<p>Whenever I tell people where I’m going to school in the fall, they reply “oh… football. Fun.”
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of sports. So here’s my question: is there more to the culture on this campus than just football and drunken parties?
I don’t know if it makes a difference if I’m in the honors program, but… The people I’ve met on campus have seemed very… normal. I’m wondering if maybe honors kids might be a little more quirky and interesting?
I know there’s tons of clubs to join and I’m bound to meet some fun people, and I’m definitely excited for that, but are the majority of the people I’ll meet going to be football-obsessed partiers?</p>
<p>You’ll be fine as long as you join some clubs and activities to meet some like minded people, and a lot of those “normal” people have their own like quirks and interests outside of sports. Plus if you ever get sick of campus (like on game days), you can always take the #2 bus down to the Short North. There’s going to be a whole lot of football related activities during Fall quarter, but for Winter and Spring you’re not going to get a whole lot of that.</p>
<p>A “strong” culture outside of football? Hmm.</p>
<p>I had exactly the same concern when I came to OSU, although I was probably more melodramatic than you. When people started crying at the big “Welcome to the Next Four Years, God-Knows-How-Many Freshmen Filling a Stadium” event, I wept bitterly because I hated that they’d brought in a sports guy to talk to us and I hated what I felt to be faux school spirit surrounding football. So yeah, I had a pretty bad attitude.</p>
<p>It took me three years to find a place within the vastness that felt like home (but I’m a late bloomer.) I don’t consider myself the traditional OSU student with the traditional OSU interests, and it took me a long time to define my interests enough to find the people and projects I really cared about. I think it’s there–if you’re interested in art, music, theater, service, environmentalism, politics, whatever–but sometimes it’s hidden and sometimes it’s under appreciated. (Like, did you know OSU has one of the biggest names in Disability Studies in its English Department? It’s likely you don’t care, but who tells incoming freshmen that kind of stuff?) </p>
<p>I don’t know if this applies to you, but for me, part of the reason it was so hard to find a place at OSU was that I had such a negative attitude. I felt like I didn’t identify with being a “Buckeye” and I didn’t want to be one. I wasn’t particularly proud of telling people I go to OSU–I dreaded the, “ohhh, football” response. Now when I tell people I go to OSU, maybe I don’t swell with amazing pride and “Buckeye spirit,” but I can speak honestly about the wonderful people doing work at OSU and about the number of ways OSU positively touches the Columbus community. </p>
<p>On honors students: they are and they aren’t more quirky and interesting. It’s such cliched advice, but keep an open mind about people. Bros will surprise you. Join stuff. Go on trips (London Honors is a great experience, or try the Buck-i-Serve program) where you’re forced to get to know people you wouldn’t normally hang out with (or who wouldn’t normally hang out with you.) </p>
<p>You’ll find people.</p>
<p>Yes, definitely. There are 50k students here - they can hardly be fit into one box. There are art majors, music majors, lit majors, wildlife majors, astrophysics majors, neuroscience majors, ling majors, majors for lots of languages. You can definitely find your niche.</p>
<p>I will say that if you try to label people as “normal” “football obsessed partiers” vs. those who are “quirky” and “interesting” you will miss out on a lot of great friendships. At OSU there are a lot of people who are quirky AND interesting AND like football AND like parties. Just keep an open mind and don’t worry about that stuff.</p>
<p>Also to add on to that, even though there are so many people at our school, you’ll be surprised how many people you end up meeting and knowing. So don’t worry about trying to find that one person out of a haystack of thousands of people. </p>
<p>Btw, you might like joining Off the Lake Productions ( [Off</a> the Lake Productions Homepage](<a href=“http://offthelake.org.ohio-state.edu/]Off”>http://offthelake.org.ohio-state.edu/) ) once you get here. I have a friend who loves it and she loves the people who do it with her.</p>
<p>-Scott</p>
<p>Wow, this is all very encouraging to hear. Thank you guys. I think the reason I’m a little biased/hesitant is because many of the people from my high school that are going to OSU are… not nice people, nor very intelligent. Then again, that describes the majority of my graduating class.
I’ll try to follow your advice and keep an open mind, and if it’s miserable, transfer. I’m still a little worried that grad schools see OSU as a party school, and won’t take my application as seriously as they might, but hopefully the work that someone does at school matters more than the name of the institution?</p>
<p>@anneeatswords: That’s actually really interesting, seeing as I want to study english and psychology, with a focus on mental disabilities. That’s the kind of cool stuff recruiters should talk about.</p>
<p>@Scott: Thank you, I was looking for a theatre group to join, I’ll definitely check that one out.</p>
<p>Wow the vast majority! It must have been hard to be the only intelligent person at your high school.</p>
<p>Lol, ohiopublic, have some sympathy for someone who maybe didn’t have the most positive high school experience. </p>
<p>caseymh2010, maybe I’m biased–after all, I’ll be getting a degree from this institution, and its name has been on my resume for the last three years–but I don’t think having OSU on your applications is going to disadvantage you (especially if you’re in honors or scholars.) I don’t want to overstate it, but I think OSU’s reputation is one thing among the public, which is interested in parties and football, and another thing within the rest of the academic community.</p>
<p>Grad schools do not at all see OSU as a party school, it’s a well-respected public flagship research university. It’s not like the professors are out partying. Not sure where you got the idea that the name of the institution would be disadvantageous to your academic career.</p>
<p>Really, though – it seems like you’re approaching this experience with a negative outlook, expecting not to like it. You get what you want out of life, if you expect to be miserable you will be miserable.</p>
<p>I can’t wait to go there. And I’m not at all interested in football. I didn’t even try to get tickets.</p>