Portland State University Top Questions

There are a lot of University Housing around the campus but they aren't enough. The nicest dorm right now is called "Boardway Building." It is new and the most expensive, but the others are old and cheaper. People in the dorm are nice and it has a good safety.

The dorms at Portland State vary quite a bit. We have dorms that were built a really long time ago and you can only take a bath in, and we have very new and modern dorms. As a freshman you will most likely get placed in either Broadway or Ondine, which are right next to each other. I was one of the lucky ones and got placed in "the cool building," Broadway, which is the newer of the two. It was really nice that each room had a kitchenette in it, which means a kitchen minus the oven basically. Then there were to beds, to two dressers, and two desks with chairs. There was one closet you shared with your roommate. But if you are inventive like me and my roommate were, we converted the entrance area into another place to hang clothes with a simple tension rod. On each floor there was a common area, it was kind of lame though, just a couch and a chair...people on my floor didn't really use it that much, but it was nice to have when you really needed to get away from your roommate and it was pouring down rain outside. Some students would leave their doors open, especially at the beginning of the year to get to know people, but you had to be creative with a hanger or get a doorstop to get your door to stay open. The floor I lived on didn't seem to be the most social group and it took a little while to feel at home there, but it's really more about you being able to put yourself out there, and just strike up a conversation in the laundry room with someone.