My wife and I lived in the Ridge for our last couple of years at UT and had a great experience. I'll try to be totally honest in this review and say what you should/shouldn't expect at the Ridge.

Apartments: to be completely honest, the Ridge apartments aren't luxurious. The buildings are not brand new (the front of the complex is older, the back half is newer) and the units aren t terribly flashy. That said, the apartments are well laid out, well maintained, look "nice" and are very reasonably priced. Look around Austin in the same price range and you will find some real dumps. We always lived in the newer buildings at the back half of the complex and really loved our apartments. They do a great job cleaning and replacing anything in need before you move in.

Grounds/Amenities: these are about on par with the the apartments themselves. They do a good job of keeping things looking nice. You're not going to find fancy landscaping, but they don't let things fall apart either. The dog park is a nice touch, though:). The workout room, laundry room, and pools are very standard, but they re generally kept clean & in working order.

Parking: in a year and a half at the complex, I only remember having to park far from my apartment one time. Seriously, this is not a problem. The only real downside is that parking is not gated, which can be an issue in Austin. I never had a problem, but I have a car alarm. You should have this if you have a new-ish car anywhere in Austin. Gated complexes have break-ins, too. Parking area is well-lit.

Neighborhood: The Far West neighborhood is fantastic for certain college students. If you're looking for the loud, party lifestyle - go to west/north campus. If you want to leave in a quiet, safe neighborhood and visit the party at your own leisure - live in Far West:). The Ridge is the first stop on the UT shuttle (always seats available), a GREAT HEB, restaurants, and shops all in walking distance. It's a little far from downtown/campus (the shuttle ride is realistically 15-25 minutes depending on traffic...use it as study time, it pays off) but you get the trade off of price and safety.

Maintenance: maintenance is definitely one of the strong points of the Ridge. Curtis and Larry were always extremely responsive to requests, and fixed things within a reasonable time. More than that, they're both really friendly. They're very polite when they have to enter your apartment and always made an appropriate amount over conversation (not intrusive). Maintenance at the Ridge is handled in a surprisingly professional way for such inexpensive apartments.

Office Staff: the day we moved out we said that we hope the next apartments we move to have an office staff as great as the Ridge. We dealt with Stephanie on nearly everything while we lived there and were 100% happy. That's certainly not a knock on the rest of the office staff, who did help us when she wasn't around and were always very helpful. This is the kind of apartment office where they follow through on what they say they'll do. If they say they'll look into something and call you, they ACTUALLY DO IT. If you e-mail them, you can actually expect a reply in the next day. I know these sound like minor things, but we've lived in plenty before where they re not the case. We had a very negative experience with this at our previous apartments and it took a while before we started to learn that you can take things the management at the Ridge tell you at face value. It's a great feeling.

This is the kind of review that, were I to read it, I might assume was written by management b/c it is so positive. All I can tell you is that this is an honest account of the time we spent there. I'm amazed that the Ridge is only 50% recommended. Maybe some people have higher expectations than we do, but we always thought the place was a steal for the price you pay. Life was comfortable and enjoyable there.

If you're a student looking for a place to live in Austin (I came to this site when I was moving to town) - check out Far West and The Ridge. We made a mistake with another complex for 1 year before we even looked at The Ridge - I wish I could have that year back.

Josh H.
UT Class of 2007

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