Students
Guide to Columbus and Ohio State
Columbus and Central Ohio: An Introduction
With more than one million people living in the metropolitan area, Columbus is Ohio’s largest city. Its major employers are the state government, the university and colleges, retail (The Limited), insurance (Nationwide), and technology (Battelle and others).You’ll find music, theater, museums, parks, good bookstores, even a replica of the Santa Maria floating in the Scioto River downtown.
Columbus's climate depends to a great extent on the season. Spring and fall are mild and full of color. It can get hot and sticky in the summer, and fairly cold and icy in the winter.
Several large "metro parks" are located on the outskirts of Columbus, with picnic areas, playgrounds, walking trails, trees, fishing lakes, and streams. The Whetstone Park of Roses is not far north of Campus on High Street. Hocking Hills to the southeast of Columbus is a great place for a day-hike or a weekend in a campground or B&B.
Visit Experience Columbus for information on life in the Greater Columbus area from the Greater Columbus Convention & Visitor's Bureau, including sports, the arts, restaurants and night life, and shopping. Or check out the Columbus Arts Web site, your guide to cultural events and organizations in Central Ohio.
Return to top of page.Moving to Columbus
Rent early
It’s a good idea to visit Columbus a few months prior to your move to look for an apartment. The Graduate Program assigns each new student a volunteer graduate student Peer Mentor, and s/he can recommend neighborhoods. Peer Mentors can sometimes help in other ways; for example, they may know of someone in the department who is moving out of a good apartment.Most graduate students live near campus, in Clintonville (Northeast) Victorian Village (South), or Grandview (West). There are movie theatres, a bookstore, and restaurants in Lennox shopping center just west of campus (Kinnear and Olentangy), and many restaurants & services along High Street and Lane Ave. Most students live close enough to walk, bike, or ride the COTA # 2 bus (High Street) to campus.
Apartments are advertised in the Classifieds section of The Lantern, OSU’s weekday newspaper, and at OSU’s student housing office. Large apartment complexes off campus advertise in two free, locally-published apartment guides. Off-Campus Student Services, located in Ohio Union, can also be somewhat helpful, but networking with current students might bring better results.
Move early
Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs or more commonly, TAs) should arrive in Columbus before the pre-quarter workshop and English 781 begin on September 3rd. Fellows should arrive before autumn quarter classes begin in mid-September. You may want to leave yourself a few days or so to unpack your books and computer, obtain your student ID, activate your university e-mail account, and generally get settled.If you arrive in town before undergraduates arrive en masse, usually the week before classes begin, this allows you to avoid the bureaucratic bottlenecks that can occur on campus. If you can, take care of any bureaucratic business before the undergraduates arrive on campus.
