Yes, every school has their picture ID card proclaiming that you are, in fact, a student there. Sure, many retailers etc. offer discounts to students bearing these cards, but I assure you, no school’s ID card has as many uses as the artificially intelligent BuckID. Really. It blows my mind every day.

1. Most importantly, identification as a student of THE Ohio State University. It doesn’t get much better than that. Jk, it gets much better. Keep reading.
2. Entrance into buildings. Students living on campus are granted access to their dorms 24 hours a day and to all other dorms until 11PM. It knows where you live! Also, buildings that are open 24/7, such as my fav. Science and Engineering Library, require BuckID to enter after certain hours. Feel privileged.
3. Eating. Pretty essential. The BuckID is the carrier of the all-important Meal Plan! With plans ranging from 19 swipes a week to a whopping 250 swipes per quarter, and over 19 locations to dine, you can’t go wrong. Make sure to get your swipes worth though, that meal plan is not exactly cheap.
4. Money. The BuckID acts as a debit card and is accepted in seriously about a billion local businesses/ restaurants/ stores/ other locations both on and off campus. It’s even better than cash too, because many places offer discounts when paying with BuckID. You (or your parents) can add money online. There are also several deposit stations through out campus to add cash.
5. Clocking in and out of work. Student employees of the university literally swipe their BuckID to keep track of their hours worked. No obnoxious card-punching machines necessary.
6. Photocopying/ scanning. A BuckID is necessary when using the photocopiers at the library. It is 10 cents per copy. However, a neat feature that a lot of people may not take advantage of is that you can scan whatever you wanted to copy and have it sent from the copier for free to your OSU email address using your BuckID.
7. Transportation. Simply presenting BuckID when riding COTA gets you on and off and where you need to be with no hassle.
8. Showing off to your friends at other schools with less clever names for their student ID’s (I-Card, Hokie Passport, Wildcard) how witty/ awesome your student ID is.

It really is witty and awesome. Just make sure you don’t lose it. It’s not free to replace, it’s a pain in the butt, and you pretty much can’t do anything without it, especially if you are living on campus. If only it were accepted in Evanston, IL...

GO BUCKS!