Living on-campus has become an expectation of many incoming college students and rooted itself into the lives of many freshmen and sophomores at Colorado Mesa University (CMU).
Without trying to be dramatic, which hall you chose to live in has a critical impact on your experience at college. And with over 12 residence halls to pick from and very little information, deciding where you will live for the majority of a year can end up being a total shot in the dark.
To address this while giving students the chance to flex and complain about their cribs, I give you, RateMyHousing. In this column, I hope to publish many different student experiences with their res halls.
See, Walnut Ridge is a fun building to begin this column with. This being my second year on campus here at CMU, I have already lived in Bunting and been in just about every other residence hall on campus.
I always found myself satisfied, if not impressed with the living conditions in every hall, and I believe CMU does a fantastic job with housing overall; yet, when I moved into Walnut Ridge Apartments this year I found myself…well, less than impressed.
Sure, I knew Walnut Ridge is one of the oldest halls when I signed up, but I knew CMU has a very strong habit of renovating and keeping its facilities up to date. What I wish I knew is that Walnut is equivalent to the middle child in terms of attention.
It was within only a couple of minutes my roommates and I began to notice the unbelievable amount of work orders we needed to put in. In the kitchen alone, our dishwasher garbage disposal and vents were all broken.
Though it’s possible the previous owners never reported any of this before they left, it’s hard to see how any of that was a small enough issue to neglect. It could have also very well only been an issue for our apartment.
In regards to the building as a whole, however, there are still many glaring issues that make Walnut the last pick. There are givens, such as the only way up to my apartment being an outdoor metal staircase.
Though it seems obvious in retrospect, I regret my choice to live here every time I hold onto the slippery staircase during the rain for dear life, or every time I must deflect an incoming volleyball from the court right outside. And PLEASE don’t get me started on my turf-war with the birds living on my swamp cooler.
Though there are many more things I could vent about, from the twice-weekly power outages to the vampire-castle lighting, it is important that I acknowledge, it is still quite habitable. If anything, I like to tell myself the building just has a lot of character.
Maintenance has always been very quick to get back to us, and we could not ask for a more welcoming and kind team of RAs. Overall, I would rate Walnut Ridge Apartments a solid 6/10.
