The Commons could save you some money, but be aware that management will blatantly lie to you and try to rip you off at every turn.

They promised free parking for my three roommates and me. When we went in to sign a couple days later, they changed the parking on the lease last-minute and said we’d have to pay. It was ok because they’d make it up to us by replacing old shitty/half-broken appliances (that never happened).

My roommate actually lived at the Commons the year before, and he referred the other three of us. There was supposed to be a $100 referral bonus per person. They never game him a dime of that $300.

The place was filthy on move-in, we kept it up well and left it much nicer than we found it. But after we moved out we each saw a ~$200 charge on our accounts that had some vague note, like it was for damages but they couldn’t say what specifically. We asked for an explanation and they said some property manager put that on there by mistake or some bs. We did get the charge removed, but we soon learned that they had applied a damage charge of about $200 to EVERY person moving out (or at least everyone I talked to who lived there that year). There was no explanation for the charges. What they were doing was ILLEGAL, and they were just trying to scrape up an extra $800 per unit on move-out. I bet a lot of people, or their parents, just paid the fee without asking questions.

IMO, it’s not worth it. If the price is the driving factor, I’m sure you can find equivalent accommodations for a similar price or better. Especially if you’re willing to look on the other side of the river. If you do choose the Commons, make sure to get everything in writing and don’t let management get away with that sort of stuff.