If yes, applying for housing should be on your list of things to do! Once a student has been admitted they can begin the process of applying for housing here: http://oregonstate.edu/uhds/apply-now .

Applying not only reserves your spot to live on campus but it also allows you to rank your preferred Residence Halls. It also allows you to create a Roommate Matching Network profile. The Roommate Matching Network is a neat tool students can use to find a roommate. Its kind of like eHarmony meets Facebook, it allows the student to create a profile and answer a few questions about themselves and then determine how compatible they are with a potential roommate.

We also give students the opportunity to choose exactly which room you will be living in.

So, if you haven’t already, apply for housing!

Important dates:

• May 20, 2013: New OSU students in academic groups (University Honors College, Engineering, and the Austin Entrepreneurship Program) may select rooms
• May 28 – June 2, 2013: New OSU students who completed a housing app before February 1, 2013 may select rooms
• June 5 – June 17, 2013 at 5 PM: New OSU students with completed housing applications may select rooms
• July 1, 2013: Assignment notifications available on MyUHDS for new students (dependent on space availability and application date)

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University will revise its First Year Experience program for new students over the next several years in an effort to help students succeed academically and improve retention.

A task force of OSU faculty, staff and students has been working on ways to help students thrive academically and personally during the first year. It concurs with what many national studies have found: The best way to ensure that students return for their sophomore year is to help them “connect” to campus in a meaningful way, said Susie Brubaker-Cole, associate provost for academic success at OSU and co-chair of the task force.

“What we’re seeking is a ‘high-touch’ experience for students during that first year when it becomes critical for them to interact in meaningful ways with other students, with faculty and with campus programs,” Brubaker-Cole said. “A lot of this happens in the classroom, but much of it is an extension of classroom learning that reaches into life on campus and the experiences you have as a member of campus communities.”

As an integral part of OSU’s initiative, first-year students will be required to live on campus for their first academic year beginning fall term of 2013. (my emphasis)

“If you look at top universities in the country in terms of academic success and student retention, almost all of them require students to live on campus their first year,” Brubaker-Cole said. “The learning and community-building that occur in campus residences are focal points of the first-year experience.”

OSU has done well with retention over the past few years, hovering around 82% of students returning for their sophomore year. While that is ahead of peer institutions, there is room for improvement that can be realized by tying together efforts of many parts of the student experience into a cohesive one. Concerns about ample housing offerings and exceptions for some students are addressed:

Tom Scheuermann, director of University Housing and Dining Services at OSU, says his office has assessed its overall on-campus housing capacity and will have adequate space for the live-on-campus requirement. In addition to the International Living-Learning Center that opened last year and houses 320 students, OSU’s on-campus capacity will get a boost from a new residence hall that is in design with a planned opening of fall 2014.

Scheuermann said on-campus capacity this fall (2012) should be about 4,300 spaces, which will grow by another 300 in 2014 with the new hall. And some floors in Finley Hall that will be off-line in the coming academic year, or used for office space, will reopen in fall of 2013.

In recent years, about 80 percent of the new-to-OSU freshmen have lived on campus.

There will be some exceptions granted to the new requirement, OSU officials say, though specifics have yet to be determined.

Jump to the full press release here.
-bv

It’s time for OSU students to choose their 2011-12 living options. We suggest applying for housing as soon as possible. Students wanting to live off campus are finding a tight rental market with a vacancy rate of about 1%. However, there are still many great options available for on-campus housing, including Halsell Hall, designed for upper-division students, and the new International Living Learning Center (ILLC) which opens in September, 2011.

Halsell hall is a great opportunity for returning students, as it is home to the Upper-division Experience (20 years-old and up) and Gender Inclusive Living programs, in an apartment-style living environment. This means students can choose to live in a room with any other student they wish including any gender identification.
Students and their suitemates have increased privacy and amenities with a shared living room/common area, private bathrooms, and a kitchenette. In Halsell students can connect with other residents of similar interests and values while enjoying the convenience of on-campus living.
An exciting new living option is the new ILLC opening on the southside of campus this fall. Domestic and international residents can have an international experience without ever leaving Corvallis. The ILLC will be a global village on campus, with about 50% of the residents representing many countries in Southeast Asia and beyond. In addition to program offering, there will be opportunities to pair up with language partners, cook meals together and engage with people different from yourself.
Each domestic student will be paired with an international roommate, and each room will share a bathroom with another room. Students can select to share a suite with a domestic friend and share the experience of living with international roommates.
Apply for on-campus housing today! Visit us online at oregonstate.edu/uhds or call 541-737-4771.

TOUR and UHDS are hiring for the best college job according to US News and World Report

The Office of Admissions and University Housing and Dining Services (UHDS) are looking for candidates to fill positions as TOUR and/or UHDS Ambassadors for the 2011-12 school year. U.S. News and World Report listed on-campus tour guide as the best college job to boost your resume.

Ideal Candidates:

* have a wide range of OSU experiences
* enjoy working with people
* have public speaking skills
* are outgoing
* are self-motivated

Benefits of Being a TOUR or UHDS Ambassador:

* excellent work experience in a professional setting
* positively impact future OSU students and families
* work within a dynamic team environment
* competitive pay
* leadership credit and a resume-building experience

Electronically submit the completed application by
11:59 p.m., Friday, Feb 4, 2011.

-bv

Regarding all of those next steps there are some important items to take care of before graduation and summer!

1. Pay your ATD
2. Apply for Financial Aid
3. Apply or continue to apply for scholarship opportunities
4. Apply for on campus housing
5. Check out our Facebook Group
6. Immunization Record
7. Visit Campus
8. Starting May 3rd sign up for and attend an OSU START Summer Advising and Registration Program
9. Attend CONNECT (Orientation the week before classes begin)
10. Attend Classes

For a full list and description of next steps follow our next steps link: OSU Next Steps

Yay for the Beaver Nation Migration!

-Mike O.

Office of Admissions staff members Dante Holloway, Alicia Ortega, Lizbeth Campos, Lindsay Mitchell, Megan Beresford and I were in attendance. We each sampled a little bit of everything (…ok, a lot of everything) on the menu and we all had nothing but rave reviews. They had music, entertainment, and even featured impromptu aisle dancing performances by UHDS representatives Jennifer Viña and Victor Santana-Melgoza. Great job to all those involved!

Thanks to President Jennifer for the photos!

–mko