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

Housing
One of the most important things to figure out when attending OSU is where you're going to live. There's a slew of dormitories, apartment complexes, frats, sororities and neighborhoods for your character to live in. This list will pay attention to basic room layout for each area, with special focus on some of the more unique places.

The MYTHOS Organization
The MYTHOS Organization offers free room and board to its members as long as space allows. This is an obvious choice for Mythos-aligned characters, as it puts you in the heart of the action. MYTHOS has a kitchen area, a study area with library, a living area, and many bathrooms and two to three-person bedrooms. The MYTHOS house has a large backyard with patio, perfect for grilling or setting up a kiddie pool to wade around in when it's hot.
Currently, only SailorGeras is living here.

Alpha Mu Omega
All members of Alpha Mu Omega will probably reside here, unless their human guise, for some reason, requires that they live in the dorms. Alpha Mu Omega exists in Rage, and to outsiders invited there, appears to be a lovely mansion situated in a lonely neighborhood. The interior is dark and mostly stone, with ornate decorations--it's quite reminiscient of the planet Mythos. Each member of Alpha Mu Omega has their own "room". Because of the unstable state of the Alpha Mu Omega house, it can pretty much look howevery they want it to--although they can't have a mansion to themselves, the rooms are generally kind of small.

On-Campus
On Campus housing is the basic, bread-and-butter dorm life that everone hears so much about. Dorm life can be terrible or wonderful, it just depends on your roommates and the people around you. Living in the dorms is generally the most expensive lifestyle (unless you're paying $800/mo rent for an apartment), but it's also the most unique experience you'll ever have. Dorms are located closer to campus than any apartment (obviously), and offer the safest living place with electronically locking doors and a staff of people who are there to make sure you don't get raped or robbed. That doesn't mean that dorm life is 100% safe, as at least one or two cases of break ins, attacks or rapes are reported each year--usually in autumn.
Dorm living is, of course, required for first years. Many people live in dorms up until their junior year, when they seek out apartments. Dorms offer opportunities like scholars housing, where everyone shares a similar major or living and learning programs, where diversity within the major is emphasized for roommate assignments. Students are given sign up sheets to live in the dorms where they fill out information about themselves: majors, minors, interest in living-learning programs, hobbies, whether they smoke/drink or not so that they can be assigned to someone who is at least remotely similar. Sometimes this doesn't work out and the roommate set up is an absolute disaster (this is about 40% of the time), but OSU is careful to not put certain groups together, like smokers and non-smokers together. There are three main sections of campus with clusters of dorms for students to live in, and a number of other dorms scattered about campus.
Other:
For floor plans and names for individual dorms, please see housing.osu.edu
All windows on all campus dorms are either screened or unable to be opened to avoid "jumpers" or people throwing random stuff out their windows.
The only pets allowed in dorms are fish. Many people try to see how far they can get with this rule by bringing in full aquariums; many others ignore the rule and hide hamsters, turtles and other small creatures in their dorms, away from where their RA can see.
North Campus
Home to graduate students, scholars, and studious students, North Campus is known for being the quietest section of dorms. This doesn't mean that you don't hear people playing drunken volleyball at 3AM on warm nights, or random guys shouting "OH-IO!" at dawn--you do--it's just much calmer than other dorm spots. North Campus is located just off of High Street on (obviously) the Northern edge of campus.
The dorms there are either 3, 4, or 11 floors tall (only three of the dorms are 11-story buildings), and are arranged so that they are connected by tree-lined pathways and courtyards. Dorm rooms are possibly the nicest on campus, with three rooms (bedroom, living room and bathroom) per dorm, but were said to be built to accommodate four people--three people can barely survive. Freshmen living in these dorms usually end up living with two or three other people, upperclassmen only have to live with one other person.
RA rooms are one room with a bathroom in the North Campus dorms, and are usually situated at the end of a hall. Graduate and Professional Students live in one-room set ups by themselves in Jones Tower.
Other: North Campus is the only campus with air conditioned dorms.

South Campus
South Campus is a popular spot for anyone who wants to make their academic year into a 24-hour party. It's notoriously the rowdiest place on campus, which can be seen as positive or negative, depending on who you are. Closest to the Oval and the South Oval, the south campus dorms are centrally located in a hotspot of campus activity, as those to areas are where everything goes down.
Most of the south campus dorms are long and tall, twelve floor buildings lined next to each other down 12th Avenue, with large courtyards and paths in between each. The Baker dorms are two large four floor dorms that sit right on 12th Avenue. Dorms are usually one room, with one large bathroom on each wing (this creates the "There's Puke in a Stall on Monday, It Gets Cleaned Up on Sunday" problem). Each dorm usually houses two people, although cases where three people live in one room, or one person has the room to themself, is not unusual.

The Towers (West)
The Towers are a ten minute walk from central classrooms (the center of campus), putting them a fair distance from most of the action, but they're the most common place for Freshmen to live. The Towers are two, asterisk-shaped buildings with twenty-six floors; their cement and metal construction is painfully reminiscent of the 70s, and is kind of an eyesore.
The room setup in the Towers is kind of hard to describe and is best illustrated by taking a gander at the floor plan at the housing website. One large sitting room is connected to a hub that connects to one large bathroom, four study rooms that connect to bedrooms that are separated into two small "rooms". Usually 8 to 12 people live in one of these complexes. There are three complexes per floor. Floors are co-ed but complexes are not.
Other: The Towers both have 24-hour computer labs, accessible only by people with Tower-access BuckIDs.

Other Dorms
Jones Graduate Tower - Located on North Campus, Jones Graduate Tower is a twelve floor dormitory with many one-room dorms and study rooms on each floor. Jones is specifically designed for graduate and professional students who need quiet. Foreign students who are older than average (24+) are usually set up with a room here to avoid being pestered by 18 and 19-year-olds.
Jones Graduate Tower has a number of odd amenities, including a swimming pool and its own computer lab.

Worthington/Neil Avenue Apts - Worthington Avenue Apartments are the nicest places to live. It's essentially an apartment, but sponsored by the college, and is only available to upperclassmen honors students. The Worthington/Neil complex features air conditioning, a living room, two bedrooms (for two people) and two bathrooms (with a tub and shower) and are the newest dorms. These apartments are also open the entire academic year, so many students taking classes during the summer quarter are transferred to live here.

Mack Hall Scholarship Housing - A dorm on the South side of campus, near the medical school, that offers cheaper room in exchange for 5-7 hours work a week with the residence hall community. This is offered to Mack Hall Stadium Scholarship winners, Tomorrow's Teachers Scholars and International Affairs Scholars. There is a rumor that receiving the Mack Hall Stadium Scholarship means you have to clean the stadium after football games.
Mack Hall has its own alumni association, its own library, and a private courtyard that connects it to Oxley Hall--the linguistic and international student department building. Mack Hall residents are considered very close, since their living quarters are so near each other.

Neilwood Gables Apartments - Located right next to Fischer Business College, Neilwood Gables is a series of apartments for students that's open, like Worthington Avenue, year-round. It's very similar to the Worthington Apartments, but is much older and each apartment houses only two people. Neilwood Gables is open to any upperclassmen, but people of Junior standing and higher are more likely to get a room here.

Off-Campus
Off-Campus living is much cheaper than living in a dorm (in most cases), but can also cause quite a bit of trouble. It's certainly less safe to live off campus, and many services that are given for free to students living in the dorms are not offered to off-campus students. There's bills and rent to pay, groceries to buy and roommates and neighbors to deal with.

Going Greek
Living in your frat or sorority house is only slightly less expensive than living in the dorms as it can run you upwards of $800 a month. According to OSU statistics, however, many people choose to live this way. It provides a closer link to your Greek family, and, unsurprisingly, puts you in the midst of all the biggest parties. Greek Houses are located east of campus, generally running along Indianola Avenue, although there are many spread out in different areas, as well.

Apartments
As a general rule, the closer you live to Campus, or the farther North you live, the more expensive your apartment is going to be. You can find apartments pretty much all over the place and there are even specific areas set aside for students to live--some with their families, if they're married with children, for instance. Apartments can be studio apartments in a large complex; two, three or four bedroom and two bath complexes are also very popular. It seems the most popular, though, are the house-like buildings with four to six bedrooms for people to live in with large groups of friends.

Pets: Many people own dogs or cats, but owning animals usually means a fee of one hundred dollars or more per month, so it can get pretty expensive to keep Fluffy around.
Transportation: People living west of campus usually take the COTA buses 7 or 84. People living East of campus take the CABs East Residential bus. People living North of Lane Avenue usually end up taking the COTA 2 to campus, which runs down High Street.

University Village
University Village is a special apartment complex set up like a small neighborhood. It has a bus system that runs through campus to pick up and drop students off. Only students with special University Village passes may ride this bus. Apartments there are like normal apartments on campus.

Commuting from Home
Many Columbus Natives simply live at home and travel to school every morning. This is obviously the cheapest and easiest method, but not everyone is from Columbus, so it's not possible for everyone. Despite free food, room and board, living at home can have some downsides, including being detached from goings on at campus, putting up with parents and having to pay a hefty sum for a parking pass.