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. OSU STATISTICS . COLUMBUS . CAMPUS .
. LIVING . FOOD & DRINK . STUFF TO DO .

Columbus--Overview
Columbus is a fairly large city with one of the fastest growing economies in the United States. The downtown area is just a small section of the much larger area, and is comprised mostly of tall office buildings and hotels. Columbus's downtown area is about a mile or two south of the OSU campus--within walking distance--and its skyline can be seen from just about any point on campus.
Many OSU students commute from one of Columbus's many suburbs, like Worthington, Upper Arlington and Clintonville (there are many more). And not everyone goes to Ohio State University, there are several other colleges in the Columbus area: a DeVry branch, Columbus College of Art & Design, an Aveda Institute, Columbus State, Ohio Dominican and Capital University (a law school). Although acceptable to apply for a character attending one of these schools, several of them are far from OSU's campus (Aveda is actually on OSU's campus, so it's a slightly different case), so applicants are advised against sending your character to a non-OSU school.

Geography & Scenery
Columbus is mostly flat, save a few hills--most of which were manmade, anyway--and a gentle downward slope toward the Olentangy, a small river that runs through campus. The landscape is crisscrossed with train tracks, and even on campus you can occasionally hear the distant roar of a train. An airport also lies East of the campus, and airplanes and helicopters very frequently fly overhead--sometimes disturbing first year students trying to sleep in unfamiliar dorms.
The city has its fair share of densely populated, run down areas, but it also hosts a large number of beautiful suburbs with lovely homes. On the outskirts of the city, you can find some farmland, and a staggering number of cow farms.

Climate
Even students from the harshest of regions will come to OSU and complain about the horrible weather. Columbus' winters are cold and snowy, and its summers hot and humid. In a single day, the temperature can fluctuate more than twenty degrees (this is especially common late in winter, when it starts out at 40 degrees in the morning and jumps up to 65 degrees by the afternoon) and clear skies can randomly change to rain.
Columbus is a rainy city. It rarely goes more than a week without at least one shower in Spring and late Autumn, and rarely sees a day of sunshine in April. Rain storms tend to last quite a while--from several hours to several days--and are generally very miserable. Columbus's storms are rarely very severe, although it's not unusual to find branches down after a heavy rain.

Other
Traffic - Traffic in Columbus is terrifying for both drivers and pedestrians. Many people refuse to drive down High Street--especially within the campus limits. There seems to be a problem with people not stepping on the break soon enough and stopping in the middle of intersections. Accidents are very frequent on the highways, occurring multiple times a day. Traffic isn't that heavy, normally, unless it's rush hour or the dreaded move in day (when traffic is literally backed up for miles outside of Columbus just to get into campus).
Despite the horrible driver situation, Columbus is a very easy city to get around in. The COTA bus services are fairly reliable, with a website that gives the exact time a bus is to arrive at a spot and routes that will take you practically anywhere in Columbus. There are multiple routes to almost any destination, and although parking can be difficult to find at times, it's almost always a reasonable price.
Crime - Columbus is not a safe place to walk around at night, especially if you are female and alone. Cases of mugging, theft and break-ins, especially in the campus area, are very common. Columbus also has a fairly high homicide rate, with almost 200 reports filed by February of 2006. The campus area is considerably safer than some other areas in Columbus, but the threat of mugging, rape or kidnapping still exists.
Diversity - Columbus is an extremely diverse city with many different kinds of people. The homosexual community there is the largest in Ohio.