If you live anywhere in the United States, or turn on ESPN occasionally, then you know about the Ohio State Buckeyes. This school, the third largest university in the US, holds in high esteem their incredible marching band and extremely talented football team (you can tell I’m a little biased). But, as with everything in life, a few flaws stand out among the university. Whether it be finding parking, navigating the website or sh*t dorms, students list off a few flaws we should address.
Keep reading to discover the top 10 complaints about Ohio State University.
1. How is That Building Not Done Yet?
To accommodate its’ massive student body, Ohio State constantly undergoes construction, but I swear on-campus construction seems nearly 24/7. “I know that they are trying to upgrade our campus and make it better for us, but it’s just really inconvenient when we are trying to walk to class and you can’t go certain ways,” said junior Colleen Bradley. As if getting out of bed to go to classes wasn’t difficult enough, now students have to make detours due to construction? Come on, Buckeyes.
2. Dining Hall Issues
Ohio State first and second years know that their main source of food comes from the dining halls and when the dining halls close before you even finish homework, we have an issue. You can dine at Scott Traditions, the giant dining hall with multiple cuisines, or, if you feel brave, you can make the dangerous trek over to Morrill Tower dining hall. Either way, you want your food and you want it now. “Dining halls need to be open longer and have better hours,” said Marianne Brown, a junior at Ohio State. After studying until 3 AM, you might crave some fries or ice cream, but alas, the dining hall closes at 10 PM.
3. How Old Are You? and Other Dorm Awkwardness
Your dorm practically determines your social life on this ginormous campus. If you live on West campus, you hang out with people who live on West campus. Otherwise, get ready for a mile walk to North or South campus. Ohio State puts freshmen and sophomores on the same floor, which can get confusing and somewhat intimating. “Freshman year, they split up the freshmen when you first got there and freshman year, where you live is a big part of how you meet your friends,” said junior Sara Konicoff. If Ohio State placed freshman and sophomores on separate floors, freshman could feel comfort and encouragement from their floor mates being in their awkward first year too.
4. How The Heck Do I Work Schedule Planner?
Everything can be done online now: Online shopping, online classes, online class scheduling. The list goes on. For freshman scheduling their classes or people just trying to find an assignment online, Ohio State’s websites lack organization and clarity. “They are set up so poorly and are so hard to navigate. It stressed me out so much, especially when I was first applying, because it seemed like nothing was where it should have been and I couldn’t figure out how to find the simplest pages,” said junior Cam Garcia. Now that students have to verify their identity, logging onto buckeyelink may be the world’s most time consuming and frustrating task. And once you finally get on, the text looks too tiny and an abundance of options appear on a single page. There must be an easier way.
5. Everywhere is a Tow Zone
Parking remains a burden on any college campus, but every time I have someone park their car while visiting me, they get a ticket. Sometimes, students have to Uber to get to their parking spot because the only open spot was located 14 blocks away. “I hate CampusParc and it sucks that there are limited parking options for students,” Garcia said. We should be able to make a trip to the grocery without having to decode the complicated COTA bus loop.
6. Equality (And AC) for All!
Sometimes, you get screwed by housing. Morrill Tower, a prison (I mean dorm), does not compare in quality to somewhere like Park Stradley, which serves as a clean, nice and central dorm. Where you get placed depends on multiple factors, but it seems unfair to force students to pay the same price for two completely different experiences. “You can get stuck in an awful dorm and it can completely change your college experience,” said junior Mal Trombetta. Without AC for all, we have no justice.
7. This Place is Huge
If you have ever been on Ohio State’s campus, you know it more so resembles a small city rather than a college campus. Taking up about 3 miles, the size of this university serves as an advantage for classroom space, but for students, the size proves troubling at times—specifically during the winter. Walks to class sometimes last 25 minutes. When the temperature outside dips into negative degrees, no coat exists to keep you warm enough. At least we can skip cardio at the gym because you already hit 10,000 steps just trying to get to class.
8. Can I Get a Doctor?
Feeling sick? Ohio State offers a student health center, but it often lets us down in a few ways. Firstly, getting an appointment proves nearly impossible because of the abundance of ill students at all times. Then their treatments turn out subpar because they want you in and out quick. “I came in with a sickness that I have had multiple times before, yet they refused to prescribe me medicine for it,” junior Mikaela Kilbane said. “After becoming more and more sick, I went in again to see another doctor who finally prescribed me with medication that I needed all along.” I guess just hope you see the right doctor? If you can even get an appointment.
9. Accepting Failure
Every college class I’ve taken has proven somewhat challenging, but some of the classes at OSU seem downright impossible to pass. In particular, the sciences classes at Ohio State make students want to drop dead. “My entire experience taking chemistry. Just chem, everything else is fine. It’s so fun, you go to every single class and do all the work and get good grades and then when it comes to the test, you don’t do well because the questions are dumb,” said Brown. I guess class should be hard, but come on OSU, give us a break.
10. Delayed Bathroom Break
As college students, we all have claimed the library as our second home. Located in the center of campus, the largest, most well-known library at OSU, Thompson, has never not been packed. You should anticipate walking around awkwardly for a few minutes in order to find a decent seat. Unfortunately, this crowd transfers to the bathrooms. “There are never any stalls open in Thompson. If you are studying all day, you are going to have to use the bathroom at least once,” said senior Alex Badinghaus. With everyone drinking coffee while studying, we need quick bathroom breaks. Having bathrooms only on the first few floors of a 10-story library does not cut
