Ranking the Dorms at Oregon State University

Bloss Hall has some good, but is mostly bad and ugly.

Located near the opposite side of campus for almost every single important course building, you're bound to have a nice 15 minute walk in the morning unless you have a bike or car. Due to the geographic location as well, you're effectively socially isolated unless you're a talkative person by nature. That is to say, aside from the two other dorms located adjacent to Bloss, Finley and the ILLC, you're hard pressed to find students to talk with, doubly so if you're like myself who transferred one year into college and don't share any courses with the majority freshman located in either building. I've found the best split of my time is spent on the main campus for most the day, and going to the dorms when I want to sleep.

There are some upsides to living in Bloss, or the other two dorms nearby. Like most dorms, you have a dining hall located right beside you, although in our case, we have arguably the best or second best dining hall. We are also a convenient 3 minute walk from Dixon, the recreational building/on-campus gym. The last benefit is our proximity to the sport centers, both Gill and Reser, you'll for sure be the first people to the games... aside from every mom, dad and cousin who likes to tailgate outside our building.

The rooms are alright in Bloss, arguably the only positive thing about the building. The key benefit most people agree about Bloss, is the Suite style rooms. Every room has an attached bathroom with your neighbor, which is either amazing... or terrible. I personally haven't particularly had an issue. As long as you both are able to communicate it shouldn't be an issue. The room is a standard small barracks with space for 2 beds, and 2 desks (for the most common 2 person room), the downside is that for that added luxury of... taking a private shower... you have to pay an extra 2k a year.

The inside of the building is probably the least used place on campus for me tbh. There's a single kitchen on the first floor shared among 600 other students, and one microwave on each floor. The lounges are there, but I've yet to find a reason to use them, unless I'm avoiding going into my room. The outside of the building rarely matters, but as a Bloss resident you'll have the honor to say you've time traveled from the 1980's in the Soviet Union. The grey and square concrete structure honestly looks depressing on the best day, especially when compared to the beautiful ILLC next door to it.

Overall, Bloss is a last resort for most, and maybe a first choice for others. If you're socially anxious and don't plan on changing that soon, and also enjoy having a private bathroom, you'll love Bloss, it's perfect for someone wanting some personal space/distance from campus. if you're more social, and enjoy being near the city life (whatever of that there might be in a small town like Corvallis) then you'd be better off somewhere else. Hope this helped lol, thanks for reading this all! - 2 years ago

it’s in a really good location in my opinion because it’s close to the gym, the tennis courts and only a 10 minute walk to all my unerring classes. it’s a business dorm so buy ear plugs, but it’ll be fun - 2 months ago

Incredible location, mediocre bathroom, very akin to a public restroom, natural light isn't horrible but we have a window facing in to a courtyard so its definitely not too bad. Lighting built into room is not very good. Right next to West dining hall, very close to Student union and several other convenient buildings, and close to the gym. No bugs or anything like that, cleaning staff is very nice god bless their hearts. Teeming with engineering majors, not the most social dorm but some people hang out in the lounges. Overall, its not great but definitely not bad. Pretty stereotypical college dorm. - 2 years ago

Pretty good dorm, conveniently located considering a lot of freshman classes happen in the LINC. Honors students only, however. The dining hall and mailroom aren't technically "in-house" but the building they're in is literally 20 steps away from the actual dorm and is named after the hall, so close enough. This dorm has five stories and an elevator. - 4 years ago

Good location if you are a sports fan. Kinda far from classes, but most dorms on campus are far from classes. - 4 years ago

This dorm is suite-style where there are three double rooms with a bathroom (toilet/shower), two sinks, and a fridge/microwave. The community bathrooms are also single-person, which is nice. it is up to you to keep the bathroom within your suite clean, and thankfully I got suite mates where we were able to come up with a weekly schedule. I think it is one of the furthest from the main part of campus, so it might take a little longer to walk from the dorm to your class, depending where it is. It is pretty expensive compared to some of the other dorms but I think I would consider it worth it. - 1 month ago

This is the nicest dorm on campus. If anyone tells you otherwise, they haven't lived here. I have friends in all of the other dorms and nothing comes close.

Pros:
- Grocery Store + Coffee Shop
- Lounge areas are really nice
- Rooms are the nicest you'll find

Cons:
- On the South Side of the campus (meaning not near a lot of things)
- Heating sucks (they're just cheap and smell like it's burning so you just don't use them)
- Kitchens can get kinda gross (again still better than others)
- It's not that social of a dorm.


The next nicest is Tebeau Hall - 1 year ago

The room was bigger than most other dorm rooms at OSU (I worked in the residence halls and saw them all regularly). The layout was amazing--most OSU dorm rooms were just one long, skinny room shared by two people and their beds, dressers, desks, etc. But most of the Sackett rooms had a square (pretty open) main room for the desks, a shared walk in closet for the dressers and extra stuff, and a separate sleeping porch for a bunk bed. Not everyone likes bunk beds, but it means that you can have a completely different schedule from your roommate and just close the door without bothering them too much. Each wing had their own kitchen, so you're only sharing that kitchen with 8 or 10 other doubles. In many of the residence halls at OSU, there was only one kitchen for the entire building. - 4 years ago