Mesa Nueva

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).

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.

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.

They keep increasing rent, while reducing access to amenities.

The apartment was furnished but the room sizes were small although this was not a dealbreaker for me. The apartment is located conveniently close to UCSD and is cheaper compared to other places nearby. You have to apply for graduate housing after you accept your UCSD offer, so if you are not early you might not get a room. The rent increase is also capped at 3% per year due to UCSD rules and you get to live in a community with other graduate students.

Although there is limited space for storage, it is quite cozy and comfortable. Unfortunately, we live near the Medical center so there might be ambulance/helicopter/jet noises in the middle of the night. I live right above the pool/bar area and it's noisy until 10:30 pm. However, there is ample public transport and with a bike you should be able to reach most of San Diego/La Jolla.

Fully furnished apartments