Review History for echobay

University Village Apartments


Review Author Icon

echobay

Resident 2003 - 2006

7/9/2007

Wow, I had no idea the Village would make it on to a regular apartment site. I've been craving the ability to review this place ever since I got out of it. First off, to address a previous complaint: the inspections. This is a school-owned/run property. They have to protect themselves from lawsuits. The RAs (resident advisors...or CAs, I guess, community advisors) did come in once a month. I don't think my apartment ever had any trouble with them; we certainly had more than two computers (a couple of us had one desktop and a laptop). My main problem was the attitude they had -- towards the end I was dealing with kids younger than me and they were acting like angry parents! But our apartment was usually pretty clean (and we hid the booze well) so they never bothered us. As far as I know it's more of a cursory inspection -- they are NOT supposed to riffle through your belongings, and if they do, that's an invasion of privacy. Parking is a problem. They've since added some new spots, but the place is set up so weirdly that good luck getting a spot near your apartment. Also, the entire lot is riddled with speed bumps -- BAD ones. I can see the need for bumps to prevent drag racing, but these were horribly constructed and very hard on the car no matter how slowly I took them. I once got my alignment done, then went back in three month later to get an oil change and my mechanic commented on how bad it was again! The gate is a huge issue as well. If it doesn't work, you're not allowed to park in the visitor's lot -- you need to just suck it up and wait for them to fix it. They did finally install a gate on the other side before I left, which made life a little easier. The apartments themselves are decent. They had two options when I was there: two bedroom, two bath (each room with two in it) and four bedroom two bath (singles). Kitchen, living area, closet. The singles also had a dishwasher, which was a huge thing. However, the buildings were starting to show their age and were not exactly luxurious...thin blue floor covering, crumbling paint, and failing dishwashers -- oh, we were told they wouldn't be fixed/replaced when they finally died on us, and I don't know the end of that story. Ours did last until I left. There's not enough kitchen space in the form of fridge space and shelving for the food & cooking utensils of four people. Please don't listen to the staff when they say you should coordinate with your roommates; often, you will be moving into an apartment that's already got two or more inhabitants, so you'll be adding whatever you had from your previous stash to their mess. I was in the singles from 04-06, and while my friend was one of my apartment-mates, the other two rooms sported several other girls that came and went. The walls were thin; one roomie was an exhbitionist of some sort and had frequent very loud sex, while another sounded like she was constantly trying to start a band (her TV was up against the wall, as it turned out). I had a huge problem with the neighbor directly above me for the entire last year I was there; he blasted his music frequently at odd hours of the night. They did not respond to knocks on the door, and it was hard to pin them down. Which brings me to management. OK, to be fair, I know these people are probably treated crummily by the school, the state, and residents. But maybe some of them warrant it. I tried to file a complaint about the noise and was told I'd have to talk to my CA first, since it was just me complaining. I told them I hadn't slept in three days, the kid wasn't responding to hails, and I would take this to the University President if I had to. At that point I think I looked deranged and sleep-deprived enough to scare them into believing me...not that it did much. Rather than organize a meeting between us, they facilitated a string of letters going back and forth...which did nothing...I finally caught one of the roommates leaving as I was coming back from work and said let's cut the crap, and turn the music down after ten. He complied, I had no further trouble. As a whole, management was extremely uncooperative. If you have questions you are usually passed off to several different people. Once the gate malfunctioned and cracked my car on the trunk and they laughed over it -- not fun. They also made a series of interesting landscaping choices, starting with tearing up the entire road in front of our apartment when we were in the doubles. This sent all the various insects (ants, cockroaches, et al) scurrying into our place and the building next door, whereupon we were promptly told it was our fault for leaving food out (we never had a problem before then!). Parts of the Village used to be very pretty and almost park-like, but they tore those out to create a new maintenance shed and the new gate, along with some three-story homes that more resembled upscale apartments. Now the place is very dull, almost industrial. The parking patrol exists more to issue tickets than protect your car from a break-in (this stems from the campus itself, though), and complaints/maintenance requests often went unanswered for days. We once discovered "liquid bubbles" of some sort in my friend's room and dripping down the hallway wall...when the fix-it guy finally came (THREE DAYS LATER) it was discovered that the idiots upstairs had run their AC so cold that it had frozen and leaked, or something like that. Three days after that, I heard the maint man up there again, yelling at them...kids did it a second time. As for the vandalism, well, my car was fairly nondescript so I never had any problems. With that said, I know several people had their vehicles broken into, and the motorcycle vandalism -- well, there was some controversy about that. There were several motorcycle-designated parking spots...so why did this one guy constantly park his crotch rocket in a regular space? I once came home to find the parking spot directly in front of my apartment taken up by this little metric bike while there were two spots JUST FOR IT maybe fifteen feet away. Meanwhile, my next closest parking spot was over in the next "cluster." I would never, ever deface someone else's property, but I certainly considered tipping that thing over that day. I'd guardedly recommend it to someone who can take care of themselves, but if you can afford a real apartment or a room in a house and don't mind hunting for parking at campus...go for that instead. It's a college property. I saw a kid get thrown out a bedroom window, pick himself up, dust off the glass, and go back inside. There were lots of drunken parties. A couple fights. High-speed internet and all utilities were included when I was there, dunno if that's changed. I usually walked to school unless it was raining, which meant I would take the shuttle, which was supposed to run every 15 minutes but in reality ran perpetually late. I guess it was home for a few years, but I had no great attachment to the place, and I was quite glad to get out. Still, consider what it was (cheap housing for starving college students...although when you consider tuition few grants/loans available, it really didn't even out even then) before dissing it too badly. I've since seen far worse.

    Review 1 out of 3

    Share This Review

    Check Availability

    University Village Apartments

    March 2024

    Sun
    Mon
    Tue
    Wed
    Thu
    Fri
    Sat
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    16
    17
    18
    19
    20
    21
    22
    23
    24
    25
    26
    27
    28
    29
    30
    Beds

    0

    Baths

    0

    Share This Review