Carleton University: 10 Reasons to Live on Campus

Hello everyone, my name is Romesh, I'm a student from Mexico City. I'm currently in my second year of film studies and I've lived in residence for two years. Hello, my name is Emily. I work in international admissions here at Carleton. I was also a student and graduated five years ago and I lived in residence for three out of my four years and I loved it. Hey everyone, my name is Cameron. I'm a third year international student from Azerbaijan. I've been in residence for the past two years and I'm studying criminology. Hi everybody, my name is Leah Odada. I'm an international admissions and recruitment officer at Carleton University. I'm also a former Carleton international student. I came here from Kenya and I lived in residence all four years. I love my experience and I'm excited to tell you why. Carleton University's warm and welcoming residence community is located in our centralized campus. We have 11 residence buildings that house about 3,600 students. Our buildings come in two different styles, traditional or suite style. If you're a student graduating directly from high school, you are guaranteed a double traditional room in residence. Living in residence has gave me a lot of things, especially my friends, which I consider my family since I see them every day. I hang out with them 24-7 and yeah, it's really special. They are my family. Welcome to Raven's Roost. This is a space for resident students where they can hang out with their friends or play board games, video games, and do whatever they want. There's also a lot of events that take place in the Raven's Roost, such as the International Students Debut Group, the Musical Talent Night, and other events that we put together to socialize and get to know each other more. In a residence, if you have an all-access meal plan, you don't need to worry about cooking or going grocery shopping. You can just enter the cab whenever you want. This gets you healthy by just staying on rest and coming to the cafeteria. That being said, the cafeteria also respects your dietary restrictions, and they have a lot of food to share or any other thing that you might want to have. Personally, my favorite meals here at the cab are the fried eggplants, the cherry cheese sandwich, and also the pizza. When you first move into a residence, honestly, it feels like it's just a bunch of strangers on the floor. But as you start to live together, that kind of changes. Eventually, your roommates, your suite mates, your floor mates, they're the people who become like your second family. When you're sick, they're the ones who will bring you soup from the cafeteria, or they'll get you anything you need. When you have a favorite TV show or there's a big game coming up, it's going to be your floor mates watching the game together in the TV lounge. When you go out at night, or whenever you go out, they're looking out for you. They're going to make sure that you're safe. They're going to make sure that you get home safely. Because you're in a living quarters together, you kind of get to learn more about them, and that kind of makes you feel like you're connected somehow. You kind of go through this big change together, and that really bonds you guys together. And that was one of my favorite things about living in residence. I was a student. I lived in residence for three years, and then after I graduated, I got a job in residence. And fun fact, I made this infographic. So as you can see from this campus map right here, we have a self-contained campus that's enclosed, meaning that the only people on our campus are our Carleton students, staff, and faculty. It's like a mini town within the bigger city of Ottawa. And to even add some more safety features, we have an underground tunnel system that connects every single building on campus, and we have emergency assistance poles. So if you need any help at any time, you can just click on the button. Hey guys, I'm a residence fellow. As a residence fellow, I help students on my floor and encourage them in their growth process. Throughout the year, I conduct events for them, and we get to socialize, and they get to make new connections and new friends on the floor. With that being said, besides from residence fellows, there's also many other support systems on residence, such as counseling, mental health services, and many others, which you can use to get to live on residence. Thank you. Enjoy the beautiful surroundings. For example, you could have a picnic in the park, or study by the river, play volleyball at Mooney's Bay Beach, or even walk by the canal. You could also go to a lot of restaurants in Lansdowne, or even go shopping in Burrito Center downtown. As a residence student, you will be living in this area, so you will have access to lots of amenities within residence, including our residence counselor, who is available just for residence students. You will also have access to a gym. It's in the Prescott building. It's available just to students in residence. You're also very conveniently located to our health services center, which is really close to campus. And as a student, you will also have access to many other services, including the Center for Student Academic Support, which you'll find over here in our library. This is where you'll be able to take part in different workshops, such as time management workshops, how to take better notes, procrastination, and things like that. And then also, many of our faculties and programs will offer student peer support and different tutoring services, so that we can give you the most amount of help that we can, so that you can be successful. We also have our athletic facilities on campus. They're just across from the residence building, so you have access to the gym. We have an Olympic-sized pool. We have a tennis court. We have a football indoor and outdoor. Lots of activities and amenities that you can take advantage of as a student at Carleton.