Her first night in America, Khazar Gorji spread her family’s winter coats on the living room floor and curled up on them with her 5-year-old daughter in her arms.
Gorji’s husband, Reza Saeed Kandezy, was so exhausted he’d fallen asleep on the couch. Their new apartment was empty besides a couch, a table and two beds with bare mattresses. Gorji didn’t trust that the beds were clean.
“I was more sure of our coats,” Gorji said. “I don't know, I felt more comfortable doing it like that.”
Gorji and her family moved to Norman from Karaj, Iran, a suburb of Tehran, in 2021. The family had landed in Dallas earlier that day, where Kandezy was taken to customs for questioning. The nearly two-hour process meant the family had to run through the airport to catch their flight to Oklahoma City.
After arriving at their new home at OU’s Kraettli Apartments, many challenges remained for Gorji and her family. OU has over 1,700 undergraduate and graduate international students, and difficulties with housing, transportation, finances and life in a new country are common.
‘We don’t know where we’re gonna live’
In November, OU Housing and Residence Life announced Traditions East will become first-year only housing in fall 2026 to accommodate students as the university continues to welcome record-breaking freshman classes. Traditions West and Kraettli Apartments will continue to house upperclassmen.
According to a statement from OU Marketing and Communications, the university prioritizes on-campus housing for first-years, and a limited number of rooms will be set aside for upperclassmen in Traditions West and Kraettli Apartments.
Delia Benitez is an economics and international studies junior from Asunción, Paraguay, and she plans to attend law school after earning her bachelor’s degree. Benitez currently lives in Traditions East and said barring upperclassmen from living there primarily impacts international students.
“The hardest thing that we have to deal with that is we don't know where we're gonna live,” Benitez said.
When Benitez spoke to OU Daily on Feb. 9, the waitlist for the Traditions Square Apartments was 908 applications long. Applicants were be notifiedif they got a spot in late February.
A spokesperson for OU Housing wrote in an email to the Daily on Feb. 4 that Traditions East and West combine for a capacity of 1,125 residents this academic year, with about 562 beds in each location.
OU Housing will offer housing contracts based on availability and projected student enrollment, the statement read. The statement refers students who have questions to the university’s Student Legal Services, and suggests they use OU’s off-campus housing website.
Benitez and her roommates are pursuing off-campus housing options, but she said the requirements of a lease can be a barrier for international students. For example, most can’t provide a credit score because they don’t have credit cards, Benitez said.
Benitez relies on public transportation because she doesn’t have a car, but she said finding a place close enough to campus is difficult — and the closest housing is generally the most expensive. Callaway Apartments are some of the closest to campus, with monthly rent ranging from $969 to $1,700 per person.
Adwaiy Perumana, a junior from Kerala, India, studying aerospace engineering, also lives in Traditions East and hopes to secure a spot in Traditions West. Perumana’s scholarship covers on-campus housing, so he said it isn’t “feasible” for him to live off-campus.
“If I don't get a position (in Traditions West), then … (I’m) not sure how to proceed,” Perumana said.
On Feb. 18, Perumana confirmed to the Daily in a text message that he did not receive an offer for housing in Traditions West but was waitlisted.
Finding housing off-campus is harder for international students, Perumana said, and this year the flood of people who don’t get a spot in Traditions West looking for other housing will only make it more difficult.
The other on-campus housing option for non-first-year students is Kraettli Apartments, which serves upperclassmen, faculty, staff and their families. Kraettli opened in 1964 and is OU’s second oldest on-campus housing option, behind David L. Boren Hall.
Gorji is pursuing her master’s and doctorate in learning experience design and technology. Her husband, Kandezy, completed an OU doctorate and now works as faculty in the electrical engineering department.
Gorji said she and Kandezy researched housing options whenever their internet was working while still in Iran, and international students at OU recommended Kraettli as a safe option for families. It can be difficult to secure a spot at Kraettli, but since Gorji and her family arrived in the summer, there was less competition.
Student Khazar Gorji in the OU Graduate College on Feb. 17.
‘Not what we expected’
When they arrived in 2021, Gorji and her family quickly realized a fully furnished apartment in America meant much less than they were accustomed to in Iran. Gorji thought it would include basic cookware, bedsheets and clothes, like in Iran, but the apartment was bare.
“That was a little bit of a shock,” Gorji said.
The family now lives in a house, but Gorji said living at Kraettli was far cheaper than any two-bedroom apartment in Norman, especially with the added benefit of not having to pay any bills.
However, Gorji expected American life to be a bit nicer than it is in reality, which she said caused culture shock.
“I blame Hollywood for this, to be honest, because when they show you how you live in America, they show you something that’s very far away from everyday life,” Gorji said. “(At) first, we were a little bit surprised because the stuff in the house, they're not what we expected them to be.”
Jessica Reynolds, director of instructional and language services for the OU Graduate College, said her job revolves around international graduate students. Many of Reynolds’ students live at Kraettli, so she visits the complex often.
“Honestly, they need to be torn down,” Reynolds said. “They're just disgusting. ... They are probably the oldest and least updated units on campus.”
Reynolds said there aren’t enough affordable apartments for international students, who need to live close to campus since most walk or rely on the bus system for transportation. Kraettli has a long waitlist and it’s difficult to get a contract, she said, so other students are forced to live off campus and make long commutes.
OU’s First-Year Housing Master Plan prioritizes accommodating all first-years on campus and updating first-year housing. One of the oldest dorms, Adams Center, was torn down in 2023 and replaced with McCasland Hall, which its website describes as “enhanced on-campus living.” Adams Center was built the same year as Kraettli.
“By guaranteeing on‑campus housing for first‑year students, we ensure that new students enter a built-in community from day one,” a spokesperson for OU Housing wrote to the Daily on Feb. 11.
‘On-campus travel problems’
Reynolds said transportation is a barrier for international students, and most graduate students with families are eventually forced to get a car.
Benitez and Perumana both use the campus shuttle bus, which Benitez said is very convenient for Traditions East. They’ve also both utilized Norman On-Demand and SafeRide.
“(International students) need to be living as close to campus as possible,” Benitez said. “That's usually the most expensive housing that we have around Norman, and that's definitely a challenge.”
Perumana said getting a car would be difficult, and he doesn’t have time to get his driver’s license, which creates what he called “on-campus travel problems.” He often uses his scooter, but said getting around Norman without a car is difficult.
Gorji said the campus shuttle bus runs efficiently and feels safe, but the city bus doesn’t come often enough; taking the bus to get groceries would take half a day, she said. Inefficient travel times coupled with negative encounters with other bus riders led Gorji and her husband to purchase a car, she said.
“I was like, ‘Look, I don't care, just go and just grab a car,’” Gorji said. “‘As long as it has four wheels and it works (for) five minutes, I don't care if it's good condition or not.’”
‘Everybody’s pretty stretched financially’
Gorji said finances can be hard to manage, but there are plenty of community resources. While managing their car payments, they used the OU Food Pantry. Gorji would buy fresh fruit for her daughter, while she and her husband ate canned food from the food pantry to save money.
“It’s student living,” Gorji said. “You have to choose between a lot of things.”
Gorji said many international students are afraid to ask what benefits they can use and become paralyzed by fear of doing the wrong thing. She also said they don’t know their financial rights, for example, that they can dispute if their credit card company accidentally overcharges them.
Reynolds said most international graduate students are on SNAP benefits or use food pantries and other resources. The university stipend that graduate teaching assistants receive, which is about $1,700 per month, isn’t sustainable, she said.
“Whatever they get from the university is not enough to cover all of their living expenses. And so with rents increasing, that's a major pain point,” Reynolds said. “And then food prices increasing, all of these things make it to where most graduate students that I interact with are having financial difficulties.”
Reynolds said that if the student has children, which many graduate students do, the financial situation becomes even more strained. She said some graduate students have a spouse who works in their home country and sends them money.
“Everybody’s pretty stretched financially,” Reynolds said.
‘You’re never going to feel alone’
Coming to OU marked a turning point in Benitez’s life, she said, because it’s where she stepped out of her comfort zone and defined her goal of law school. She said she loves how there are many opportunities to be involved on campus and that the vibrant international community supports one another.
“It was just the place I wanted to be while I was understanding what my dreams, my ambitions were,” Benitez said. “I think I made the right choice.”
Benitez serves as a representative for Student Government Association’s Undergraduate Student Congress. She is also vice president of the International Advisory Committee, an organization that oversees smaller international organizations and hosts international events, including the International Royalty Pageant and Eve of Nations.
Benitez said it’s crucial to recognize that no international student will have the same experience as another.
“When people look at international students, they believe that all internationals will be thinking the same and living exactly the same experiences,” Benitez said. “Sometimes point of view and perspective within the community are even more different (than) between Americans and international students.
“That’s a really common misunderstanding.”
Gorji said she and her husband were surprised at how warm and helpful people were to them when they arrived. Americans are very accepting, she said, and people often worked to pronounce her name correctly — Gorji said it’s kind, but they don’t need to be so nervous.
Much of life and systems in America were challenging for Gorji and her husband to learn, like the process of getting a driver’s license or understanding what their health insurance covered.
“When you come here, it feels like you regress back to being 2 years old and not knowing what’s what a lot,” Gorji said. “It would be nice to prepare yourself to ask a lot of stupid questions.”
Perumana said that while his university experience could be improved by better housing and transportation options, OU has many benefits, including international student resources and a large international community.
“You're never going to feel alone as an international student,” Perumana said.
Reynolds said international students are courageous for leaving their families and starting new lives in America. She said seeing their bravery motivates her to support them.
“A new environment, new expectations, new rules, new everything, …” Reynolds said. “They’re really courageous people that have a determination to better themselves and better the world.”
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Natalie Armour and Macey Thaxton. Kylie Caldwell, Lauren Brogdon and Tori Pham copy edited this story.
