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College Marketplace is the student-only buy and sell app for Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Every account is verified with a @oakland.edu email address, so you're only ever trading with other Golden Grizzlies — not strangers from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

Most first-year Grizzlies land in Hamlin Hall, which holds the Business, Engineering and Computer Science, Health Sciences and Healthy Living special interest floors, or in Vandenberg Hall, with a dining hall in the building. Honors College students live in Oak View Hall, upperclass students fill the four-person suites in Hillcrest Hall, and Van Wagoner House keeps 100 private single rooms with community bathrooms. Once you have 16 cumulative earned credits the apartments open up: Ann V. Nicholson Apartments in two-, three- and four-bedroom layouts, or the townhome-style George T. Matthews Apartments. OU doesn't require first-year students to live on campus, so a lot of students commute, but if you're living here everything you need is already on campus. Oakland students post mini fridges, futons, storage bins, desk lamps, monitors, bikes, and gently used textbooks every semester, usually for a fraction of retail.

Check which bed you're getting before you buy sheets. Hamlin, Vandenberg, Hillcrest and the Oak View double rooms use extra-long twin mattresses, while Oak View's private-bedroom suites and both apartment complexes come with full-sized beds. A standard room includes the mattress, dresser drawers, a shelf unit, a desk and a desk chair; bedding and pillows are on you. Beds loft everywhere except the Oak View private suites, and the materials come from your community service desk at move-in — homemade lofts aren't permitted. Air conditioning is the real divider: only Oak View, Hillcrest and the two apartment complexes have it, and personal AC units are prohibited, which is why fans move fast in September. Refrigerators are capped at 4 cubic feet and microwaves at 900 watts, and Oak View and Hillcrest already provide both, so those get resold constantly. Space heaters, candles, deep fryers and halogen lamps are all banned.

When you meet up, stay where campus is busy. The Oakland Center is the default, with the Pioneer Food Court and the Gear Shop inside it. Kresge Library works for anything quick between classes, the Recreation and Athletics Center and Elliott Tower are both impossible to miss, and Vandenberg Dining Hall is convenient if you live on that end. No shipping labels, no delivery fees, no meeting someone off campus.

Popular categories at Oakland: textbooks and course materials · dorm and apartment furniture · mini fridges and microwaves · bikes and scooters · Oakland University apparel and game day gear · electronics and monitors · event tickets · lofting kits and bed risers · storage bins and organizers