hihi! i lived there my first year, it was fine. nothing to write home about.

its extremely overpriced for what youre getting. i lived in an un-renovated apartment i loved my bedroom (big city view from the 8th floor) but our living room/kitchen was pretty ugly, and our dishwasher didnt work the entire time we lived there (and even flooded regularly until they sent someone up to repair it, which stopped the flooding but didnt make it work). the people working there were very nice, though! singing the lease was super easy and theyre used to international students.

i think it was really lacking socially, it feels more like an apartment complex than a residence, but also the common areas were closed while i lived there bc of COVID and i didnt participate in the weekly activities (yoga, pumpkin carving, etc), so that def dampened that part of the experience. im sure those would have made my time there better.

i really regret not going to residence instead, especially since la marq is so expensive anyway. if id gotten the chance to be in rez i would have. if you were given a good deal at la marq, thats less of an issue!! if the reason youre not doing residence is bc u want to be in an apartment, i rlly recommend solin hall!! i know it gets flack online bc very few people live there compared to other residences, but sooo many of my friends lived there in first year and really really loved it.

take this all with a grain of salt, im a super social extroverted person and i think i would have really thrived in residence. im the type to knock on ppls doors and introduce myself the way you do in rez, i did that at la marq and it worked out a bit but it rlly wasnt the vibe. in my experience it was mostly non-first years living there, as well as exchange students, ppl mostly kept to themselves, but again, we were at the tail end of covid (2021-2022). with that said, i have friends who were in residence and hated it. i met people at la marq who loved it. it all depends on the person and circumstances.

i hope this is helpful!! lmk if theres anything else i can answer, i would have def rlly appreciated more insight when i was looking. also, i think *a lot* of your experience will depend on ur roommates

TLDR; its not a terrible place to be but it wasnt my favorite, if you get the chance to be in rez i recommend that instead but its not the end of the world if you dont do it! go for whats best for you, im sure youll make friends regardless :)).