<p>I just got accepted to OSU like six days ago and I’ve been wondering somethings about it. Is any currant student willing to answer a few questions for me?
thanks a lot</p>
<p>Feel free to post 'em here, I’ll see if I (or someone else) can provide some answers.</p>
<p>What is Columbus like?</p>
<p>What are your professors and classes like?</p>
<p>What do you do on any given Friday/Saturday night?</p>
<p>What is there to do in the city?</p>
<p>Whats the party scene like?</p>
<p>How are Buckeye Football / Basketball games?</p>
<p>What do you guys do when it’s too cold to go out?</p>
<p>Will my slightly artsy, very political, very witty and physically awkward, slightly nerdy, but still liking to watch a good game of football, and go to a party if I have the chance, EXTREMELY extroverted personality fit in at OSU?</p>
<p>Are there places to run? Basketball Courts (indoor or outdoor)?</p>
<p>How popular is the school paper, and do you know how hard it is to write for it?</p>
<p>What are some unexpected little things about OSU and Columbus that you found, or that might interest me?</p>
<p>and what are you favorite and least favorite things about going to Ohio State?</p>
<p>Okay, lots of questions! A lot of these you can find by googling info about Columbus, OSU and reading these boards more. Check out wikitravel for the city or columbusunderground.com</p>
<p>–What is Columbus like?
Awesome city. Cool neighborhoods, incredible restaurants, good arts and music scene especially, good internship opportunities, nice community. One downside is poor public transit. </p>
<p>–What are your professors and classes like?
Good. I like my professors a lot and classes are interesting but go by quickly because of the quarter system. You have to stay on top of them.</p>
<p>–What do you do on any given Friday/Saturday night?
I hang out with friends at their places or go out to bars, or just stay in and be lazy and read or watch movies.</p>
<p>–What is there to do in the city?
Lots. There are always many good concerts, bars/pubs, restaurants, cafes, museums, thrift shops, bowling, parks, free events, etc. Columbusunderground advertises all the weekend festivals/events each week, there’s always something to do.</p>
<p>–Whats the party scene like?
Pretty wild, if you want to get involved in all that.</p>
<p>–How are Buckeye Football / Basketball games?
Lot of fun to go to, even if you don’t know anything about sports. People are more into football, once basketball rolls around people are usually tired from football season. However there’s still a good following for bball.</p>
<p>–What do you guys do when it’s too cold to go out?
People still go out in the winter, it would take a lot to stop them. Usually I’ll go hang out at a friend’s house or go to the movies/bowling/something like that. The campus does die down somewhat as people stay inside.</p>
<p>–Will my slightly artsy, very political, very witty and physically awkward, slightly nerdy, but still liking to watch a good game of football, and go to a party if I have the chance, EXTREMELY extroverted personality fit in at OSU?</p>
<p>I think you just described me and many of my friends. 
So, yes.</p>
<p>Honestly, it’s a gigantic state school so you’ll get all types of people. Most people are smart, interesting, friendly, and down-to-earth. You won’t be happy if you want a bourgeoisie LAC environment where everyone is the same (artsy and intellectual, whatever) but personally that sounds really boring. </p>
<p>No one holds your hand here, though, one really needs to take initiative and take charge of one’s experience. </p>
<p>–Are there places to run? Basketball Courts (indoor or outdoor)?
Yeah. The RPAC has really nice courts and indoor tracks. There are several rec centers around, all of which have basketball courts. There are outdoor ones, too, and nice outdoor trails you can run on.</p>
<p>–How popular is the school paper, and do you know how hard it is to write for it?
There’s the Lantern (official, you take a class to write for it - not sure how hard, but I assume not very) and UWeekly (unofficial, you apply for a part-time job with them).</p>
<p>Lots of people read them, but I don’t think they’re regarded very seriously.</p>
<p>–What are some unexpected little things about OSU and Columbus that you found, or that might interest me?
I didn’t expect to like Columbus as much as I do. I was surprised that I ended up loving OSU as much as I do. I just came here because I got a scholarship, but I really love it.</p>
<p>–and what are you favorite and least favorite things about going to Ohio State?
Favorite: huge range of opportunities in everything imaginable
Least Favorite: I wish the classes were less decentralized so you wouldn’t end up taking humanities classes in random engineering buildings.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. Its a lot different to hear it from an actual student than from some random link on google, so thanks a lot.</p>
<p>Good questions and helpful answers. Thanks to both of you!</p>
<p>I am keen to know:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How far is the OSU campus from downtown Columbus? Is there a regular bus that ply this route?</p></li>
<li><p>Other than the downtown city, is there also the natural side of columbus near to OSU such as streams, mountains, parks etc where one can go for a good walk or trek?</p></li>
<li><p>How’s the weather there like? More sunny than gloomy most times?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<ol>
<li>How far is the OSU campus from downtown Columbus? Is there a regular bus that ply this route?</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s like 15 minutes by bus. There are bunch of buses that you can take to get down there, and there’s the 21 (Night Owl) for weekends to get to bars in the Short North and Downtown.</p>
<ol>
<li>Other than the downtown city, is there also the natural side of columbus near to OSU such as streams, mountains, parks etc where one can go for a good walk or trek?</li>
</ol>
<p>There’s a bike trail that runs parallel to the Olentangy river that runs through campus that extends north to a lot of parks that are adjacent to the river.</p>
<ol>
<li>How’s the weather there like? More sunny than gloomy most times?</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s usually more sunny. Winters aren’t great though, but not as bad as in Cleveland.</p>
<ol>
<li>How far is the OSU campus from downtown Columbus? Is there a regular bus that ply this route?</li>
</ol>
<p>Not far at all. Everything’s on high street: it goes campus – short north district (hip artsy neighborhood, think nice gay bars and restaurants) – arena district (bars, concerts, sports) – downtown (gov’t, business, not as much at night). You can always walk to the short north, walk to the arena district in nice weather, and easily take a bus further. The #2 bus goes up and down high street, it’s reliable and heavily used. Lots of people use it to commute downtown for work.</p>
<ol>
<li>Other than the downtown city, is there also the natural side of columbus near to OSU such as streams, mountains, parks etc where one can go for a good walk or trek?</li>
</ol>
<p>No mountains at all, it’s very flat. There are several nice parks, and a river (the Olentangy) that runs through Columbus with extensive paths alongside it.</p>
<p>The outdoor adventure center regularly does cool trips around the country for all kinds of outdoor things (mountain climbing, white-water rafting, kayaking, w/e). [Outdoor</a> Adventure : Ohio State Recreational Sports](<a href=“http://www.recsports.osu.edu/activities-classes/outdoor-adventure/]Outdoor”>http://www.recsports.osu.edu/activities-classes/outdoor-adventure/)</p>
<ol>
<li>How’s the weather there like? More sunny than gloomy most times?</li>
</ol>
<p>The weather is absolutely beautiful in the spring, summer, and fall. The winter is pretty long and gloomy (not too snowy though), but the wonderfulness of the rest of the year makes up for it. In spring you’ll see “Oval Beach” because the main oval becomes completely overrun with sunbathers in bikinis, frisbee players, etc. </p>
<p>Here’s a page on the climate.
[Climate</a> in Columbus, Ohio](<a href=“http://www.rssweather.com/climate/Ohio/Columbus/]Climate”>http://www.rssweather.com/climate/Ohio/Columbus/)</p>
<p>Thanks, guys. Great stuffs.</p>
<p>I have a question about the tuition and fees. According to the chart it would be about $23k per year for OOS for example. Is this divided into 3 quarterly payments? And if you wish to do summer quarter, you pay extra beyond this? And how much would that be? Per module or per quarter?</p>
<p>I know people usually do fall, winter, spring and enjoy summer but if one chooses to skip winter and do fall, spring, summer, would that then be $23k still?</p>
<p>OSU charges fees quarterly, and it seems like tuition is a flat rate. You must take 12 units to be full time and you cannot take more than 20 units.</p>
<p>I really don’t know about stopping a quarter (e.g. Winter) during the regular academic year (Autumn thru Spring), but I’ve heard that often students who take internships or study abroad leave for Spring term. You should ask admissions directly if you can take a break during the year. Frankly, I don’t see why you couldn’t since fees are charged quarterly. But you might need to file some paperwork to do this. And housing would have to be worked out.</p>
<p>I am OOS and the tuition part of my bill for Winter term was Instate fee of $2847 plus Non resident fee of $4728. (weird the numbers are a mirror image) So they take the total tuition and divide by 3 expecting you to attend the three quarters (AU-WI-SP).</p>
<p>Hey guys. I was just accepted yesterday!</p>
<pre><code>I don’t know much about the quarter system, what’s it like?
</code></pre>
<p>for anyone who is attending osu from out of state, was it hard to go far away from home for school? im considering it and there are 2 kids from my school who go there who im mildly friends with and my aunt who im really close w lives in the columbus area but…its like leaving everyone behind here bc almost everyone i know is going to the state schools around here (mostly umcp, towson, and salisbury…)</p>
<p>love osu tho. visited over the summer. was unbelievable.</p>
<p>wishhope: On the quarter system, each quarter is pretty much equal – you pay the same for summer quarter that you do for any other. Housing would be a problem. You would need to live off campus: you can’t easily live on campus during the summer, and I don’t think you could just skip winter quarter and still live in the dorms. </p>
<p>esjackson27: Each class lasts for 10 weeks. Most students take 3-4 classes that meet for 5 hours a week (for humanities, typically 2x a week for ~2 hours each time). I like it, especially how you change classes often so it doesn’t get boring and you can focus on fewer classes with longer class periods. Negatives are lots of crunch time (it’s easy to fall behind) and much less time for long research projects.</p>
<p>But they’re changing to semesters in… 2012 I think? I’ll have graduated by then, so I don’t pay a lot of attention.</p>
<p>cammac: I’m in-state, but thinking of my OOS friends: For me, the hard part would be being far away from family, dealing with driving/flying back for holidays, etc. Friends are less of an issue: everyone will make new ones to an extent, even if you go to the same school. To be honest, everyone strikes out on their own eventually - during college or after it. College is a good opportunity to become familiar with a new area.</p>
<p>Thanks, kelseyg. Now I am worried. Why is it hard to get housing during summer? Aren’t most students away and hence lots of empty rooms? It doesn’t sound like a good idea to start in the summer now. Oh dear, will they allow it if I ask to defer until Fall instead?</p>
<p>wishhope</p>
<p>there is a lot of dorm renovation and maintenance in the summer so not all of them are open. Also, the incoming students use one dorm for their overnight orientation stay.</p>
<p>But you can’t live off campus as a freshmen so probably you should plan on doing a conventional year (Sept thru June) your first year.</p>
<p>I guess I should have added that people from the Columbus area can live at home their first year, and I guess people with other reasons to off campus might be excused from the dorm their first year. But generally speaking most freshmen live in the dorm.</p>
<p>Thanks, caolila. I am due to begin my freshmen in the summer actually and now wonder if they will allow me to defer until fall. I definitely prefer to live on campus than anything else.</p>
<p>i have a question as well! does ohio state guarantee housing all 4 years? i know freshman are required too. I just want to know if it would be available after that as well - thanks so much!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not all the dorms are open in the summer. (They’re not going to keep utilities running and staff around in each building for a handful of people.) I know student workers, RAs, etc. live in the dorms during the summer but I don’t know if anyone can. They’re not like apartments you can rent from any time period you want, they open and close and there are rules about when you can live there and move out.</p>
<p>You should really call… like, today… and ask them about their policies.</p>