Before I moved into University Village, I talked to the office staff multiple times and went on several tours. University Village honestly knows how to sell themselves. There are a lot of parking spaces, its a great location (AJ's and Chubbys are a walk away as well as CVS, shell gas station, and multiple other great locations for your convenience), the office staff is helpful and nice, the grounds are clean and fairly attractive, they have a fairly nice pool, a computer room with a printer, and a very attractive model apartment. Unfortunately, upon signing a lease the gravity of all these "benefits" does not set in. However, you will find out quickly that University Village is certainly not "where it's at."

Here's why some of these "selling points" aren't so good:

1. Great location: Unfortunately, due to the "great location" parking gets mobbed by the entirety of Tallahassee.

2. Computer Room: Yes, there are three computers, and yes they are fairly nice with a nice printer in the room as well, but there are some serious issues here. The first and foremost point, and this goes with your apartment as well, is that the internet is GROSSLY slow. It will take you a good 5 minutes on most days to finally access blackboard and click the webmail link... and then another 5 minutes for that to load before you can print using the nice printer within the room... wait is that printer really that nice' No. The printer is out of ink a majority of the time and when its clogged it seems like no one cares enough to fix it... except for me.

So, you've signed your lease and its finally move in day... you get your keys and head to your apartment. The first thing that you notice as soon as you step into your apartment is just how different the apartment your standing in is from the model apartments. The furniture is all worn down, the carpets are in disgusting shape, the rooms are small, and the appliances are awful.

To elaborate:

1. Furniture situation: My couches, their cushions are so worn down that they sink... it looks strange, and it is awkward to sit on the couches when the cushion next to you is a good 6 inches raised compared to the one you're sitting on. One of the couches I have in my apartment is completely destroyed as well, the cushions seek into the innards of the couch due to the destruction caused to the furniture.

2. Carpet Situation: apparently, according to my roommates (I was randomly matched with them) maintenance had PROMISED new carpets prior to move in date, but after a year we still have a disgusting rug that has absorbed unknown amounts of filth over the years... the worst part about this is that EVERYONE can tell because the personal rooms have new carpets and the color comparison is disturbingly noticeable.

3. Room Situation: As has been noted by several other reviews, the rooms seem even smaller than they did with the model room. I don't know if it's aesthetic optimization that tricks everyone or if the model apartment is really bigger, but as soon as you walk into your room you'll quickly realize how tiny your living quarters really are. The furniture included fits in the room and its just fine, but there's really not much in the way of living space. Your room is really just a desk and a bed... Then, there's the living room and kitchen... Well, the interesting thing about this area is that an average height guy like me feels like a giant inside of the area. The ceilings are very low and due to the furniture's nature it looks like the couches are at half scale because they seem so close to the ground.

4. Appliance Situation: I have not used the microwave as it was immediately replaced by my roommates who have been living in this apartment. However, with a little critical thinking its hard not to think that its garbage considering each of my roommates had a microwave that was NOT property of University Village, and the old microwave has been in the closet for a very long time. Furthermore, the dishwasher has been fixed several times and continues to break down, but its not like our dishwasher ACTUALLY cleans our dishes anyway. Finally, our refrigerator has been dripping loads of water for what seems like forever.

After taking the final look over your apartment during move-in day and realizing that you signed a lease for THIS for way too much money you finally realize that you've been gipped. However, that's not the worst of it... it will get worse.

To understand the living conditions, I'm going to describe the situation for each of the seven parameters that are rated on apartmentratings.com

1. Parking: So, this is probably THE WORST part about University Village. I leased in early summer of 08 and moved in late august 08. I believe that I leased fairly early as many people are seen signing leases happily for months after the date that I signed. This is interesting because according to University Village there were not enough parking decals to go around for everyone so I had to park.... well... wherever' Visitor' Wait, you mean to tell me I can't even park where I live' So, after my early summer lease was signed and I was told that I could not get a parking permit.. I figured that at least during the year I could finally get one. I was wrong. The entire time I lived here I saw the resident parking lot full of empty spaces where I could park.. of course... I would get towed because I don't have a decal for what reason again' Oh, that's right... because too many people have decals and there's not enough parking because of that! Makes a lot of sense when you see 10 open spaces ALL DAY LONG. So, I lived with the situation as it was irreversible (my roommate was also denied a parking permit) and had to park in the tiny visitor parking area in front of the leasing office. Yes, during the day you can find a spot 99% of the time, but as soon as 9 p.m. or so rolls around the university village visitor parking gets mobbed by the mass of people trolling chubbys and AJs. Literally every night that I came home during the fall/spring semester I had to SEARCH for a parking spot to get to MY APARTMENT, THE PLACE I LIVE IN because I am a "visitor." About the only good thing that can be said for parking is that they do tow so the people lucky enough to get a permit can watch professional parking scoop out chubby's and aj's customer's cars so they can park and be on their merry way to their apartment. Note: due to University Village not supplying me with one of their parking permits not only countless hours of my time were wasted walking from far parking spots and searching for parking spots in general, but also I was fined 200 dollars in towing fees due to the ridiculous nature of visitor parking in the area as well.

2. Noise. The Noise situation is actually not that bad. I can blast my speakers at full volume and with the doors and windows closed very little to no sound escapes the apartment. Furthermore, I rarely hear any noise from the apartments next to me or above me. Occasionally I hear the thumping of bass through the walls, but its really not an issue and can be ignored fairly easily.. its really the only thing I hear from my neighbors. Finally, the reason I don't rate UV with a 5 star noise rating is that Chubbys and AJ's are really loud and very close. Unfortunately, when the club is poppin' you're probably going to know, but honestly its barely noticable with all the doors and windows closed.

3. Grounds. The grounds are fairly lush in certain areas, but in other areas its really nothing special.

4. Safety. Let's just say that if the cops that patrol UV weren't here every night I would have probably been robbed at gunpoint, BUT the cops DO patrol EVERY NIGHT so I've never had a problem and I don't know anyone who has had a problem. Although, a couple sketchy things have happened, but this is Tallahassee... One issue with the cop situation though is that every party or get together seems to get busted here. As soon as your door opens and sound leaks out the cops are right there to get you, but that's the price for safety... or is that the price to live at UV'

5. Construction. Let's just say that I keep my air at 78 and we pay 300 dollars for electricity each month. That's EXTREMELY POOR insulation. The doors are crappy and flimsy, the bars in the bathroom for hanging the towels snap in half with the slightest force, my bathroom door swings open when its not fully closed, the blinds don't block anyone from seeing in the main room, etc. (it's just not quality).

6. Maintenance. Maintenance is really spotty... sometimes stuff gets fixed and it stays fixed... other times it doesn't stay fixed or DOESN'T GET FIXED AT ALL. For example, My roommate has made several requests for his fan to be fixed (it stays on medium speed AT ALL TIMES and cannot be turned off, turned down, or turned up) and it has never been fixed and has only been looked at once for about 2 minutes. Maintenance also has the TERRIBLE habit of entering the apartment at what seems like completely random times. I mean honestly, I understand that in the lease it says that its okay to enter at pretty much any time, but why not give some fair warning' Its really not cool to roll out of bed half naked and see some random dudes fixing stuff in your apartment... many times. Its a complete invasion of privacy.

6. Staff. They hire nice, attractive people! From what I've seen they're willing to help you with anything you need and all of them seem to have favorable dispositions at all times. Maybe I should get her number before I move out of here.... haha you get the point'

Overall, not a great place to live. Its expensive and not all that nice. However, if a convenient location is what you desire... UV has it, but why would you want it'

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