Students explored housing options for Fall 2015 on Wednesday on the second floor of the Kent State Student Center.

The Commuter and Off-Campus Student Organization, or COSO, organized the event that gave different apartment complexes and realtors the ability to reach out to those students looking for a place to live in the 2015-2016 school year.

Kent’s Best Apartments, The Province, Pebblebrook Apartments and University Edge were a few of the different properties represented at the fair. Most offered students swag for just getting a little more information, including free T-shirts, umbrellas, pens and tumbler cups.

Katie Borton, assistant director of COSO, said this is the first year the organization decided to hold the fair in the fall semester to help students realize the importance of searching early.

“It will probably go a lot better and there’s going to be much more interest,” Borton said. “We are trying to advertise a little more to get more students to realize that they should be looking into apartments now because they go so fast.”

Tony Ramos, leasing and marketing manager of The Province, said he believes convenient location makes The Province the best place for students to sign a lease.

“The Province certainly has the best location out of all the student housing properties in Kent,” Ramos said. “Any student signing a lease at our property has a five to ten minute walk any place on campus. We have exceptional amenities; over 12 different styles of apartments to choose from, all fully furnished.”

Kent’s Best Apartments offer three different living locations — Whitehall Terrace, Summit Hill and Hickory Mills. Representative for Kent’s Best Apartments Jackie Gerber said square footage makes Kent’s Best stand out above the rest.

“We absolutely have a lot of square footage,” Gerber said. “They are more like apartment homes rather than typical apartments.”

The fair offered freshmen students a chance to explore their options as many will soon make the transition from living in the residence halls to off-campus housing.

Candice Harris, a freshman criminology and justice studies major, said that the housing fair was very helpful in letting her see all the different properties that Kent has to offer.

“I liked seeing the different options that they had, different locations, whether it’s furnished or not, swimming pools, movie theaters,” Harris said. “It’s a much better option than staying on campus.”

Ramos said he thought the fair was a success.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming to our table,” Ramos said. “Hopefully they get a sense of the variety of student housing in Kent but hopefully they also get the impression that The Province is where they should sign a lease.”

Lauren Malthaner, director of Commuter and Off-Campus Concerns, said she hopes the fair will make the process easier for most students.

“We hope that they feel more at ease picking out an apartment for next year,” she said. “Hopefully they feel that they know their choices for price range, location, different amenities and what they can get for their dollar.”

Contact Kianna Bugglin at [email protected].