Occidental College Parents & Families Guide

A small campus on a big city's edge

Occidental sits on a hillside at 1600 Campus Road, tucked between the Eagle Rock and Highland Park neighborhoods of northeast Los Angeles. Oxy requires students to live on campus for their first three years, so your student's world will mostly be the residence halls around Anderson Field, the Marketplace dining hall, and the Johnson Student Center, where the mailroom and the ID card office both live.

Getting here from far away

Two airports matter. Hollywood Burbank (BUR) is about 15 miles from campus, and the admission office says the drive typically takes 25 to 40 minutes. LAX is roughly 25 miles out, and the college warns that traffic can stretch that trip anywhere from 45 to 75 minutes. It is worth pricing flights into both. Most of the hotels the college lists, several with Oxy discount codes, are in Glendale and Pasadena, a short drive away.

How the year runs

Oxy uses two semesters. For 2026 to 27, new students move in Monday, Aug. 17, and fall classes start Tuesday, Aug. 25. Fall finals wrap up Thursday, Dec. 10, and the halls close the next day. Spring classes begin Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2027, spring break is March 8 to 12, and Commencement is Sunday, May 16, 2027. Fall break is short, just Thursday and Friday, Oct. 15 and 16.

Oxy folds Family Weekend into Homecoming. In 2026, Homecoming & Family Weekend ran Oct. 2 to 3, with registration handled through the alumni site.

Where first years live

First year students are placed in halls such as Bell Young, Chilcott, Stewart Cleland (known as Stewie), Braun and Pauley, plus Berkus House. Residential Education & Housing Services, known on campus as REHS, works out of Berkus Hall and can be reached at (323) 259-2531.

Your office on campus

The Office of Parent Engagement is the college's point of contact for families: (323) 259-2601 or parents@oxy.edu. Its pages link to Homecoming & Family Weekend and to commencement details for families. Keep in mind that Oxy can only share many student records with you after your student signs a FERPA waiver in their online gateway.

What is in this hub

The pages that follow pull together the 2026 to 27 dates, airport and hotel details, move in and move out rules from REHS, and the health, safety and mail contacts that parents end up needing at odd hours. Each fact links back to the Oxy page it came from, so you can double check before you book anything.