Mesa Nueva

Not bad place to live

The main benefit is that it is close to the school and rent is below market rate. The room itself is small, but there is ample space in my bathroom/common area. I appreciate the shared grills and included gyms. Another huge convenience is the Amazon locker. The gym is better than most apartment gyms since there is actually a barbell and squat rack. Being surrounded by students is also a plus in terms of safety. Maintenance is generally fast with requests too. Downsides are cats and air conditioners are not allowed, which can get annoying.

I have a semi-spacious apartment (disability accessible) with in unit washer dryer which is a big positive. It is a good price (older rates) for a lot of connivence and ease as a graduate student. I am near the ping pong tables, so during certain times of years (Summer, end of quarters), people are very noisy until 1-2am using this space, and I like to leave my window open during the hotter months so that is a bummer. I am also close to the gym, which regularly plays very loud music around 5pm each day, I don't mind, but it can get annoying. Parking is easy and consistent for me and I am a quick scooter or ~25minute walk from my lab on campus. Very little storage for larger things in general, especially non-master room. Having big bins ( I.e decorations), is a big struggle.

Basically I have got everything that I need

Basically I have got everything that I need

The apartment is okay. The rooms are a little small and there is no storage space. The best part is being surrounded by other grad students and the proximity to campus and the trolley.

The apartment is nice, is reliable regarding water and electricity, and does not get too hot or cold. Although, an issue is that there is little air circulation (windows basically always need to be open, and that leads to a lot of dust).

I highly recommend to live in Mesa Nueva Studio. For person living alone, the space is huge. The studios are furnished. You can take shuttle, bike or walk to campus.

Great space, steep price.

I think that my apartment is great because I was lucky enough to start my PhD in 2020 when rent in graduate student housing was still relatively affordable and I have good amenities. However, less than a year after I started attending UCSD, incoming students started being charged 1.5-2x the amount of rent that I originally paid. This is both unfair and unsustainable. I do not recommend any incoming students to live at graduate housing. The UC system continues to demean and undervalue it’s academic workers by paying them below living wages while expecting them to spend more than half of their paychecks on rent. Notably, the UC’s justification for raising its rent so drastically is because the UC built a lot of graduate housing that they couldn’t afford… which is a false claim. The UC continues to spend millions of dollars making new buildings to house incoming undergraduate students, all of whom pay tuition. Furthermore, the UC pays us graduate students and we spend most of that paycheck paying them back for rent.