Ohio State University-Main Campus Top Questions

My favorite place to be productive is Thompson Library. It's a quiet atmosphere, I can be there alone or with a study group, there's a cafe on the ground floor and I'm away from my roommate!

The 18th Avenue Library is a good place because it's not the big library (Thompson Library) that everyone goes to so it's more quiet. If you want a more lively place to do work then the Ohio Union has a lot of chairs and couches that you could sit for hours.

Freshman year I did most of my work in my dorm because I lived in a learning community with a lot of other business students (I highly recommend LCs for incoming freshman, its not nerdy I promise). But when things got serious and I needed to focus for extended periods of time I love all the libraries. The SEL is a favorite for desparate times. Its very quiet and there are a lot of tables. Thompson Library is always busy but its a beautiful building so it makes studying a little more enjoyable. My best recommendation is to find a unique spot of your own. I don't want to give away my secret spot but the campus is so huge and there are so many beautiful places its nice to have a place that you can call your own.

It depends largely on what you prefer. If you prefer silence and a quite atmosphere, the library (Thompson or SEL) is a good place. For my, I would get distracted if it was very quiet, so I study at the Ohio Union where there's music in the back and people moving and talking that keeps me awake and focused. You might find it better to study on a university computer than your own laptop, that's the case with me. Because my laptop is personalized and I have all my games and fun stuff on it, it's easier to get distracted while a university computer puts me in the work mode and makes me feel that my work is important and official.

I have never been one to do homework anywhere besides my own house, because I get too easily distracted. However, from talking with my friends, I know that the libraries are popular places to go to do homework and to study for exams. The two most popular are Thompson Library, which is the main library and which was recently renovated (it is awesome!), and the Science and Engineering Library, or SEL. Another popular place where students go to get work done is the Ohio Union, which is the recently renovated student union.