Collegetown Terrace

CTT does the job especially for someone who isnt home too often. It has good amenities for the price (study rooms, gym, mailroom, shuttle to campus and wegmans). Parking is very convenient (100/month). The walls are very thin and the vent is shared across the entire apartment so sound carries.

Expensive but great property

Good Location, but overpriced

Feels like a fancy dorm but it's cheap and has overall nice facilities. Not technologically advanced with metal access keys and no online payment portal

This is the best location in my opinion. You will be near the Cornell Campus and Downtown. They provide a free shuttle to campus (and to Wegmans) which is very convenient, specially on winter. Rents are definitely expensive when compared to similar options, but they stopped requiring a security deposit (at least for 2021-2022). The units are cheaply furnished, but everything works and they provide support if something breaks down. Expect to hear your neighbors (up and to the sides), elevator, people walking in the corridors, etc. Walls are paper thin. I would recommend picking a unit that is far from the elevators and to the sides, where foot traffic is reduced. When the internet works, its fast, but expect it to be going off and on throughout the day. They blame the service provider (spectrum) and I don't really know what's going on, but internet issues have been persistent over the year and a half i've been here. Management is very rude (with some exceptions) and expect to be treated as if you owe them a favor for letting you live there. They are zero flexible. Common areas are well maintained and the gym has a good variety of machines.

CTT is the definition of ~fine~. It's location is solidly between campus, downtown, small grocers - but not super close to any of them. All furniture and most utilities (minus electric) are taken care of for you, so that's easy. Repairs are fast, but not infrequent. Internet issues abound after 7pm. The walls are thin, and in 2bds you can hear right into your roommate's room. As an MBA, you'll know people in each of the buildings, but it's not the central location to be because other people have nicer places. Rent for a 2bed is as expected (for 1 bed is horrendous). The mail room had months of pile ups. There's a shuttle specifically for CTT to campus but it's bad. You will walk into your apartment and say "wow, this looks like student housing". The room desks and storage are massive though, that's cool. Unless you're really desperate to get pre-furnished and utilities taken care of - you can do better.

Spacious, clean, good floor plan

Hey look I'm all good for people having a great time but when someone throws up in the hallway, spills a case of whiteclaws, or smears cat poop in the elevators, the management company should review the tapes, bill the culprit and clean the shared space so we don't all have to suffer. The internet has been better I'll give that to them.

Decent amenities, with workout facilities in every building, mail room in every building, ample study nooks, etc. Appliances are cheap, and next to no storage space at all. Maintenance is fairly responsive, though the lines of communication to different people on management staff are extremely unclear (there's just one phone number and one email address to use).

The bus system is pretty horrendous though - they advertise a shuttle bus, but they use a school bus akin to a prison bus. The driver blasts country music at 7:30 AM and doesn't follow a consistent schedule or route. It's a bit of a crapshoot when the bus will come, so you've got to leave 30 plus minutes before class just in case.

Parking is also stupidly expensive for Ithaca. And you pay double to be in the garage - even though half of the spots are empty in most garages.

My CTT apartment is basically a dorm room. It's a single bedroom + bath and I share a kitchen with the rest of the floor. It's got nothing fancy but it works. There are laundry facilities on site, although they are pay to use and not very cheap. The kitchen is kept decently clean by management. I locked myself out of my room once around midnight and they had somebody on call to come let me in. Haven't had any problems with management so far. There is a restaurant on site of 115 which leads to some noise, but it's usually not terrible. It's close to campus by foot and bus, and CTT runs its own campus shuttle, as well as a shuttle to Wegman's on Sundays for grocery shopping. There's a pretty decent view of the gorge nearby from this side of the building. There's a small gym in the building.