Once you get away from campus, Columbia has hundreds of cheap, shoddy apartments -- you could definitely do worse than Gatehouse. As with any apartment, you have to know what you're getting yourself into in advance: When my friend and I toured the place, we were shown a nice display unit with new fixtures, nice drywall, and clean carpets. They proceeded to move us in to a wood-paneled place with ancient carpet and fridge that REEKED of cat urine. Management resisted, but we were able to complain our way into a much nicer unit.

For what you pay, you get a fairly spacious place. There is a ton of noise coming through the walls/floor/ceilings, but in my experience, there were very few parties. The place is stocked with working people and families more than students. It's a safe area of town, but during the time we were there, one neighbor beat up another neighbor in the parking lot, and had the cops called. Another neighbor dealt drugs out of his place. One guy had his tires slashed. Just general mischief, but no break-ins, no thefts.

Gatehouse was built on the cheap, and everything they install is cheap. You get what you pay for, right' When we were there, the guys working maintenance were stoned idiots who probably couldn't wipe their own you know whats, but they tried to fix things, God bless'em. The laundry facilities were ancient, but that was 4 years ago: please tell me they've replaced them by now!

PRO: Friendly staff, decent management (if you push them), heavy on the families and light on the party types, good location near the mall, grocery stores, restaurants.

CON: The parking situation is pretty stupid, like the maintenance guys, everything is cheap.

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