You’ve hopefully settled into your classes, made a few friends and now it is time to make your advising appointment. To receive the most benefit of the advising appointments keep these tips in mind:
- Reach out to your advisor to set up a meeting. Almost all colleges and majors have unique ways of setting up appointments so make sure to follow their guides.
- Prepare a few questions. Do you want to get involved more? Do you want to know what minors could fit into your schedule? Do you want to study abroad? Maybe start applying for work? Your advisor is a great starting point in the discovering the answers to all your questions.
- Prepare your schedule. Make sure to look on MyDegrees and use the planner tab to help browse through the course work that is required for your degree. The planner tab on MyDegrees will allow you to loosely plan out your entire career here at OSU. It’s pretty neat.
- Lastly, remember to be on time to your appointment, and have an open mind. Your advisor could connect you with some amazing opportunities.
Everybody wants to avoid that dreaded freshman fifteen, here are some insider tips to help you stay healthy during your first year at OSU!
- Actually go to Dixon!!
- Don’t just tell yourself you are going to go and then skip it every day. Make it a social event and go with a friend!
- Don’t be intimidated, everybody had to learn sometime. If you don’t know how to use a machine, ask someone!! They are probably happy to show off their knowledge.
- Just force yourself to go the first couple times until it becomes a routine!
- Buy a fit pass if you like going to scheduled fitness classes like Bodypump or Spin!
- If working out at the gym isn’t your thing there are other options
- Go for a run (to places like the covered bridge at the end of Campus Way or to Bald Hill)
- Join a Club Sports team – a great option if organized sports are your thing
- Play Intramural Sports – a super fun way to stay active while making new friends!
- Don’t let the dining halls get the best of you!!
- Opt for the healthy option – you don’t always need the bacon cheeseburger and milkshake. Check out the daily menus at UHDS dining centers to find tasty, healthy options.
- Try not to skip breakfast – yes is it can be hard when you have 8am classes, but three smaller meals a day is much healthier
Now that you’re all moved in to your new home it’s time to start getting ready for classes and buy your textbooks for fall term! I know that they can get expensive, so here are some helpful tips for saving money while also making sure you have all of the books you need:
How to buy textbooks:
- Go to your MyOSU portal on the Oregon State website and click the student tab.
- Select “MyTextbooks” which should direct you to the online Beaver Store and automatically input your classes (if this doesn’t work you can visit the OSU Beaverstore website’s academic section and manually input your classes).
- You can now see what textbooks each of your professors has assigned for your courses, and you can view a price comparison between the OSU Beaver Store prices and online resources (like Amazon and Chegg).
- If you are buying from the bookstore you can pay online and pick them up later, or just buy them at the Beaver Store.
CONNECT is not only about connecting in person, but also about getting connected online. We encourage all new students to read through this Account and Technologies Guide for New Students early, so that you are prepared to start classes. This guide takes about 20 minutes to read through and gives you a ton of great information about technology services on campus, including: how to hook your computer up to the OSU secure wireless network, how to sync your mobile device with OSU email, where you can print on campus and how to access free computer help. This is a great way to get a quick overview and answers to some common questions.
Safe Ride September 19th, 2014
SafeRide is a service dedicated to assault prevention, to OSU students, Faculty and Staff. One of the most important services we offer is free transportation to and from campus for all OSU students.
Hours of Operation
- Fall Term: 7:00PM – 1:00AM
- Winter Term: 6:00PM – 1:00AM
- Spring Term: 7:00PM – 1:00AM
Policies:
- SafeRide does not drop off or pick up riders from bars, nor does SafeRide take students to parties; we do not service commercial locations.
- SafeRide provides rides to groups of “three” or less. We believe that groups in more than three are practicing great skills to prevent assault by traveling in groups of four or more.
- SafeRide will not wait more than five minutes past the given wait time. Our drivers are on a tight schedule; extensive waits will cause problems with our schedule.
Read all the policies here.
While you are working to achieve your academic goals, sometimes life can get in the way. Our highly trained, compassionate counselors are available to offer brief support in order to help you succeed academically and with personal development. All counseling at CAPS is free and confidential – your privacy is protected by law.
To Access Counseling Services:
- Free consultations are available from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday; Thursday consultations are available from 11:00 am – 4:30 pm.
- To receive your confidential consultation call 541-737-2131 or come by the CAPS office on the 5th floor of Snell Hall during the times listed above.
- A professional counselor will speak with you for about 10 – 15 minutes to listen to your needs and concerns and determine what services will be most helpful in meeting those needs.
- At the end of your consultation you will either have a 1st appointment scheduled with a counselor at CAPS or have a goal-driven plan for next steps.
- You may also speak with an After-Hours counselor any time the office is closed by calling 541-737-2131 and choosing option “1” on the main menu.
*If you or someone you know is experiencing an emergency, please call 541-737- 7000 or 911
If you aren’t from the northwest you might be wondering about the “rainy season” in Oregon. The rain here in the valley tends to be a constant mist and thunderstorms and downpours are a rarity. Pretty much from October to mi-April is when most of our rainy days happen, with the occasional brisk overcast (but no rain) days in between. We recommend a good rain coat, which may required spending a little more than usual, but keep in mind you will wear it often. Some students like to get rain boots, which does help with the puddles that form around campus on sidewalks. Umbrellas usually mean you are a guest on campus and not from around here. Make sure your backpack is durable, some backpacks are rain/water resistant, however you can also get sprays that won’t damage your fabric but can help protect it and make it water resistant.
The biggest piece of advice is rain doesn’t stop Oregonians. We hike, we bike, we play in the rain, it doesn’t slow us down at all!
Regardless of major, all OSU students have choices to make relative to the Bacc Core. We want you to make informed choices that add value to your OSU experience. By expanding the range of ideas you encounter, instructors within the Bacc Core hope to aid in your ability to understand and make meaning of the world in all its many facets. The structure and requirements of the Bacc Core may not be immediately clear to new students. To this end, we suggest you visit the new Bacc Core website to learn more about this important aspect of your OSU education. We have also put together a number of thematic Bacc Core Playlists that provide an optional way for you to shape your Baccalaureate Core experience around your interests and career goals. Take a few minutes to consider the Bacc Core Playlists ahead of your next advising appointment and then ask your advisor about how to fit those ideas in with your overall academic plans or options.
This was taken from an email from our Vice Presidents of Financial & Administration and University Marketing and Relations
This will be an exciting year of growth at OSU that includes several large construction projects underway across campus. This construction will necessitate detours, delays, road closures, and parking and pathway changes that will impact how our faculty, students, staff and visitors get around on campus.
We apologize for any inconveniences you may experience during this time. However, your safety is our number one concern.
Please be especially cautious and careful around construction areas by watching out for the safety of yourself and those around you. We recommend the following steps that each of us can take to increase safety:
- Be aware of your surroundings while on campus
- Remove headphones and avoid texting in construction areas
- Walk your bike through areas where there is a heavy concentration of pedestrians
- Stay on pathways and avoid walking or biking in streets where construction vehicles travel
- Only cross streets using designated crossings
- Don’t cross or enter a restricted construction area
- Observe all directions provided by construction flaggers
- Be aware of construction vehicles traveling on campus
- Give all construction vehicles ample space to navigate into and out of construction areas
- Immediately report any potentially unsafe situation you see to Rose DeBono at 541-737-8408
Please refer to the Construction Impact Mitigation Map, which is available at http://campusops.oregonstate.edu/construction. This map of construction activities occurring on campus will be updated on a regular basis to provide you with the most current information. It identifies the major projects underway (marked in orange) and routes being used by construction vehicles while on campus (marked in green). The map also identifies the efforts that OSU Capital Planning and Development has established to help everyone get around as safely as possible during this extensive period of construction. As you can see from the map, flaggers will be utilized in a number of locations on campus to help direct traffic. These locations are marked by flagger icons. Also, Pedestrian Access routes (marked in purple) have been established at key street crossings and intersections.
