One Miramar Street Apartments

I’d have better things to say, but I really want to warn people about the mail (lots of people talking about it here). It’s a UCSD campus address, which adds 1 – 2 days to your shipping time. It also means you have to go to a mail room in person to get anything. BUT the big problem I had was OMS refusing to forward my mail. I lived with my non-​student partner and, since you provide your forwarding address in UCSD’s Tritonlink, he was SOL. (The Post Office won’t accept forwarding requests for OMS) But even though I provided an address for me, they just didn’t forward it. I emailed once. Waited. Emailed again. Waited. Eventually I got a response that said they had forwarded to an address that wasn’t really an address and, since the mandatory 60 forwarding period was over, it «didn’t matter.» Well, it mattered to me. A lot. I don’t know where they got that address from, because it wasn’t the one in tritonlink, but I really needed mail. If this is going to be a problem for you LIVE IN MESA. They have real addresses there

This place is indeed A-​OK. The fact that OMS is part of grad housing already set my expectations a bit low, so I was actually pleasantly surprised when I moved in.
One Miramar St is definitely not a place of excess (except for how big the bathrooms are), but makes for efficient living. The grills area is great for social gatherings, ‘café’ vita is there for when you want to study, the laundry machines are ample, and there are shortcuts everywhere. I personally love the dirt path shortcut to campus, and the extremely short walk to Thornton Hospital for clinic. Waking up at 6:30, showering, and arriving to clinic by 7:05 is certainly a gift for which I will forever be thankful!
All in all, these apartments certainly get the job done. As long as you’re ok with a cozy living room and kitchen, I’d recommend living here.

The good:
Rent is incomparably cheaper (by $ 600-​$ 800) than non-​UCSD housing, especially with the price hike these past years. That’s always a bonus for grad students living off of TA stipends or those making negative money.
Shuttle service is convenient but gets kinda full in the morning. You can also walk to campus. Yay for not having to buy an expensive parking permit
New-​ish and walls between neighbors are pretty soundproof. Not sure if you can hear upstairs neighbors since I’m on the fourth floor.
Maintenance is pretty good. Washer and dryer work.
The bad:
The architect who designed these units did a good job of wasting space. The toilet room and the shower room are EACH the size of the kitchen. I like spacious bathrooms and all, but not in a teeny apartment. There’s no place for a dining table that seats more than 2 people. Don’t be fooled by the measurements on their website. A lot of the living room space is not usable. Again, poor allotment of space.
No storage space. None. No pantry. Where do I put my food??? Where do I put extra stuff? I had to go buy extra shelving units to put in the little space I have already. There are these skinny storage areas next to the sink which is pretty much useless. I think they designed the apartment with the thought of taking away as much storage space as possible. This is probably my biggest complaint.
Pretty loud if you’re facing the freeway.
Really hot if you’re on the fourth floor. There’s no real AC… just something blowing recycled air around.
Who thought it’d be a good idea to use PO Boxes? I like receiving some ads at least! And I have to go to the office/​mail room if I ever need to pick up a package. They won’t email you unless you’re the primary name on the unit. I tried adding my name. No luck.
Parking is annoying if you live farthest from the parking structure. Good luck competing for the coveted spots around building 2.
Elevators and stairs are not convenient simply because some of the buildings are so large. Elevators are slow. It’s really hard to carry all your laundry up four flights of stairs or walk 50 yards for a slow elevator and then carry it 50 yards down the hall. I don’t know which one is worse sometimes.
People do not register their pets! I moved into a flea infested apartment and it took a month to clear. Their spray did nothing. I had to move out for a week because I’m a flea magnet and was traumatized from being bitten in the apartment. If you want to have a pet, you should be responsible and pay the pet deposit or move out! Rent is cheap enough, and it’s a refundable deposit.
Conclusion: If you’re a grad student with limited income and can’t get into Mesa, OMS would be your best option. Otherwise there are way better apartments out there.

I have lived here for two years but I will not be staying for a third. First, I moved from the east coast from an area that is considered upper class, but unless you lived in a house, apartments were never anything to get excited about so basically anywhere in CA is way better than anything where I was from apartment-​wise. That being said…
Pros:
–Conveniently located very near UCSD and right next to interstate 5.
–Nice lawns and BBQ area.
–Convenient and spacious parking.
–Low price.
–Courtyard designs with lots of trees are a nice touch and nice to walk through.
–Tennis Courts/​B-​Ball.
Cons:
–Guest parking spots are a joke.
–Laundry system is a joke, especially after they replaced the washers with a new brand.
–No central air, which normally isn’t a problem but even the long-​time residents of La Jolla or San Diego talk about how hot it’s been lately and that «It should cool off soon.» Or «It’s not usually like this.» Well guess what, unless you buy a window A/​C, you’re going to be roasting quite a bit, especially because of the lack of airflow in the apartment. Not even a window fan works that well unless you have your front door open (and there’s a breeze outside) which can be inconvenient when you want your privacy. Personally, I don’t see how grad students can focus on their studies in this kind of heat.
–You’re going to meet a lot of people that hate dogs and if you have one, trust me it will annoy you. Thanks to a doctor’s note, I am allowed to have a dog. I can take my dog where I please especially because I happen to be a responsible owner who has trained the dog well. It does what I say when I say it and does not run after people so if I want to take my dog to ease the tedious task of laundry and tuck it away in the corner AWAY from everything else, I will. And when someone walks in and freezes upon site of the dog, no I will not move it. There is no reason to. It is well out of your way. Get over your phobia.
–I agree with previous reviewer about maintenance personnel. Not only do they (you guessed it) hate dogs, they seem incapable of listening when I reassure them that the dog is ok and will not even go near them. Also, they love to blame anything that needs fixing on you despite the fact that it isn’t my problem that they chose shitty quality appliances. Be careful how you shut that lower drawer in your fridge because it will crack. Don’t put «too many» things in the door shelves because they’ll crack. Oh and from normal usage, your fridge door handle will crack but that’s my fault too right? There’s one older guy named Victor who is happy to help with maintenance tasks and doesn’t automatically assume it’s your fault but beware of the older guy with the heavy Filipino accent. No matter what he fixes for whatever reason, he’ll be sweet enough to remind you that «It’s free this time, but next time we’ll charge you.» That’s nice of him.
–Cars are regularly broken in to although it hasn’t happened recently for a few months. The robbers seem to target older cars that don’t have factory alarms so if you have a car less than 10 years old you should be fine.
–Seems spacious at first, but because of the two half bathrooms, there’s lots of wasted space. Spaces were clearly designed for room mates who don’t know each other, hence the two half bathrooms and very small bedrooms.
–The damn fire alarms go off for any reason.
–Bikes do get stolen a lot.
The problem with One Miramar is that you really want to like it, but everything has to come with a caveat. Apartments look great on outside, not so great on inside. Laundry accepts cards, but the card readers don’t always work and when they do, the machine you chose will probably be malfunctioning. Parking situation is great, but thanks to many Japanese cars having wide turning circles because of their design, drivers of lower skill will have a hard time navigating and not slowing others down. In addition, many people don’t understand the concept of staying on the inside of the turn going up the garage and on the outside going down so as a result you’ll have quite a few close calls with other cars. Internet from Time Warner is now free, but it’s from Time Warner and between the intermittent connection issues due to the shitty routers they use and slow speed, it’s worth it to go with AT&T U-​Verse. (Not the best but generally more reliable and much faster since it’s fiber optic internet, although it’s only fiber optic to the node, not the premises). While the rent is cheap, there’s so much better you can get in the area for not that much more, especially if you have someone who will room with you. $ 1,300-$ 1,500 is the sweet spot. Overall, I would say this is great (very) temporary housing especially if you don’t have a lot of belongings for the new people moving in to the state who can’t find somewhere else in time or would like something nicer, but not long term housing.

Pros:
–Can’t beat the price for this area
–It’s been quiet
–Never have trouble finding parking (but it’s summer)
–Mail room people are helpful and it’s not hard to arrange to pick up your package after hours.
Cons:
–Bathroom and kitchen floors are an ugly yellow color
–Carpet is durable but uncomfortable
–Doors are heavy and seem out of place for an apartment
–Bathrooms are handicapped accessible and a lot of space is wasted
–Some first-​floor apartments could get very noisy due to proximity to barbecues and walkways
–Seems to be a lot of bike theft
–No air conditioning
–Can’t get packages after 4:30 without contacting a community assistant
–Short walk from the parking garage to some apartments (not a big deal to us)
–Electric stove
–Can only get Time Warner high speed internet
Overall, all the negative comments prepared us for a bad experience. We’ve been pleasantly surprised. We would’ve preferred Coast or Mesa, but paying more for independent housing would’ve been a mistake.

I’ve lived here for two years and if given the choice between One Miramar and Mesa, I would’ve gone with Mesa.
Pros to living here:
–great parking and easy commute to campus via shuttle/​bike
–study rooms
–community events
–very cheap for students
–updated/​new BBQ
–no worries about finding roommates
Cons to living here:
–not very safe, bikes get stolen all the time and cars are broken into. Get a security system for your car if you plan to live here.
–no storage space
–lots of loud/​drunk people on weekends
–parking spots are tight, people aren’t too aware so lots of dings on your car and the speed bump is really high in parking structure.
–lots of miscommunication among the office staff, and most of them are not friendly or accommodating even when they make mistakes.
–appliances are cheap and break a lot. I’ve had to call maintenance on several occasions.

Graduate university housing is subsidized so you are getting a great deal here! I’ve lived at Costa Verde Apartments and OMS is a HUGE improvement in both price and quality.
PROS:
— nice grassy areas
— great price!
— basketball and tennis court nearby
— plentiful parking in parking structure
— lots of space in the apartment
— contrary to some people’s complaints, restaurants such as Regents Pizzeria and Nozomi’s are actually within walking distance
— fairly quiet; no obnoxiously loud undergrads here!
— cats :) and dogs
— very short biking distance to UCSD campus
CONS:
— thin walls and floor means you can hear your neighbors jump-​roping, etc.
— parking structure is a little far from most apartments … but this is better than no parking!
— the size of the bathroom (the one with the toilet) is puzzling. Lots of space unnecessarily wasted.
— it would be nice if Café Vita had actual staff selling actual baked goods, coffee etc. instead of just vending machines
— the illegal footpath to La Jolla Village should be made legal
— Mesa shuttle does not come often enough. They should make the bus smaller and come more often.
Overall a great deal for grad students.

After living here for 1.5 years, I have realized that although rent is cheap it comes with some serious pitfalls.
1) Security is a major issue! 2 of my bikes have been stolen and housing will not address the fact that security needs to be vamped. I have had multiple friends with stolen vehicles and break-​ins. Furthermore, apparently there was an issue with a homeless man this past year sneaking on to balconies when residents were away and entering apartments. It’s appalling that UCSD does not put safety as a number one priority.
2) Mail: I completely agree with previous reviewers that the mail issue at One Miramar is a joke. I have had lost packages and mail due to the lack of organization of the staff. Furthermore, on call residents are impossible to get a hold of during off hours and weekends to retrieve mail.
3) Transportation: Yes there is a shuttle but good luck during peak hours in the morning trying to claim a spot.

Super cheap for this area! We pay $ 1050 a month for 2 bedrooms where we previously paid the same amount for a 1 bedroom in this area. The bathroom setup is a little weird…1 bathroom with a toilet & sink and 1 with a shower & sink, both extremely large to accommodate students with disabilities. The living room is a bit small but it’s cheap so I really don’t mind.
There is no pool or community BBQ’s but you can get your own BBQ & keep it in the community BBQ area. They also have community rooms you can reserve for studying or to have friends over.
Big plus, the UCSD shuttle stops right outside so you don’t have to pay for a ridiculously expensive UCSD parking permit. I’ve never had a problem finding parking in the parking structure here & plenty of guest parking on the top level.
Can be a bit noisy sometimes late at night. Luckily the windows block out much of the noise.
All-​in-​all, I’m pretty happy with this place and I will be a little sad when we have to move out & pay more elsewhere.

Listen, it’s Grad housing. You will never get this kind of pricing for this kind of space anywhere else this close to La Jolla and UCSD. Come on people, it’s literally subsidized housing. Expecting 5 star treatment while paying $ 525/​month for your own bedroom in La Jolla is just unrealistic.
1. Pretty much everyone that lives here is a student, so you’re bound to get late-​night parties and loud noises now and again, it’s just part of being young and energetic, enjoy it while you still can. Noise reduction is actually much better than the flimsy apartments off campus, I hardly hear any of my neighbors.
2. Mailing is what it is. Package pick-​up has inconvenient hours but RA’s will accommodate for after hour pick-​ups. Neither I nor any of the 10+ people I know that lived here had problems with mails returned. AND it’s close by and doesn’t require you to walk 15min to like it was in undergrad dorms.
3. Parking is what you’d expect for grad housing — free for all. But did you really expect to be having your own designated spot for paying half of market price for rent?! Be glad that UCSD is not charging $ 1000/​year for parking like they do for the on-​campus apartments, and One Miramar is close enough to campus to walk to, not to mention the designated shuttle services, all FREE of charge!
4. Staff service is the same here as anywhere on campus, they do their job, and they do it well most of the time, but don’t expect anything beyond that. Again, it’s a public school, you are getting subsidized housing. These people don’t get paid all that much either, so don’t expect luxury hotel treatment.
5. As for apartment layout, I really can’t complain much. The large bathrooms are a blessing for us cat-​owners. Especially love that the toilet is detached from the shower room, which is more hygienic, and large enough to fit our cats’ litter box. Living room space is nothing to boast about, since there really is no dinning space, but as poor, sleep-​deprived, busy grad students, who actually sits down at a table to eat anyways? My only wish was that there could be more storage and kitchen space, but again, for what I’m paying, there’s really nothing I can complain about.
6. Internet service is the same as anywhere. Time Warner is not the best provider but it sure as hell beats AT&T (the only other alternative in the area) 100 fold and then some. Just thinking about the issues I had with AT&T UVerse off campus gives me hypertension. Yes, you only have 1 option, and it’s the better of the 2 choices. Consider yourself lucky.
7. RENT RENT RENT!!! This is the BEST thing about grad housing! $ 1050/​month for a 2 bedroom apartment! You can’t event get a 1 bed/​1 bath for that price around any of the properties in the area! And I’ve lived in enough of them while in undergrad to know how much of a saving this gives me. I am sad that they limit grad housing to only 2 years, leaving us to pay exorbitant rent prices the remainder of the time I’m in school. Also, what people fail to mention is that most off-​campus apartments asks for 1 month rent’s worth of deposit. Here? $ 100. Most off-​campus apartments also charge extra per month for pets. Here, just a flat $ 250 deposit. Most off campus apartments also ask you to pay for water and trash, here it’s included.
8. People… and by that, really just grad students. Yes, we are technically adults, but undoubtedly there are few who are slower to grow out of their undergrad immaturity and still leave their trash in public places. But, being in health care and dealt with all sort of people, at least I can say the students here generally appear educated and rational, which is more than I can say for the general public.
9. Regents Pizzaria! That alone is a plus. Right across the street on Regents, a 15min walk and you are at the best pizza place in La Jolla. Reasonably priced and incredible pizza, salad, and pasta. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t like pizza, give this place a try and you’ll be convinced otherwise.
As we are nearing the end of our 2 year contract, we cringe at the fact that if we want to remain close to UCSD and accessible shuttle routes we are looking at possibly doubling the rent! That’s not just a few hundred dollars, that’s upwards of $ 1000 more per month. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to the fortunate few with money but for a poor student like me with piling student loans, that is a significant cost increase. We are talking about possibly $ 5000/​year/​person extra + 6.8%/year interest rate… 5 Stars simply for the price/​quality ratio.
So, for those of you that complains about this place and wants to give up your 2 year subsidized housing PRIVILEGES, please give them to me, I’d be more than glad to take it off of your hands so you can pay that $ 10k extra per year to live elsewhere.

Moved the «lil lady» in 2 weekends ago and was simply amazed that this is where she’ll call home for the next 2 yrs while finishing up her degree. The place is large (compared to when I went to college) with 2 decent sized bedrooms, a living room, a balcony large enough for 2 chairs and her 9′ surfboard. Typical durable carpet, a separate toilet from the showers (akin to Euro-​style des toilettes et salle de bain). Suprisingly no storage room/​closet though.
Not sure how this place gets reviews less than 3 – 4 stars? Staff was super friendly, prompt, and courteous. Only thing missing us pool/​spa. Otherwise solid 4.5 stars.

1. Noise level. People play guitar and party at 2 AM and this happens very often.
2. Mailing. Even your name (s) got listed on the residence list, UCSD mailing office will still refuse to deliver your packages and return them to the sender without notifying you. I complained and they gave you canned response with no assistance and keep doing it any way. Mesa housing mail is delivered directly by UPS/​USPS, why UCSD has to make One Miramar Street Apat. to be controlled by UCSD mailing office? If they can do their job it will be fine. But they DON’T.
3. Parking. Parking structure is far away from the apartments and good luck with moving in or out. Everywhere there is a no parking at any time sign and UCSD gives you a $ 60 tickets whenever they want to, even you put your emergency lights on during the moving weeks.
1÷3÷13: BTW, my car got hit and run while parked in OMS parking structure and not even a sorry note left. And of course no security camera or videos available. What nice neighbors I have.
4. Staff. They’re totally doing things by the book and don’t offer any helpful tips or human friendly assistance at all. They remind me the state prison officers I met when I was volunteering at Donovan state prison. No flexibility what so ever. Good luck to get help from them.
5. Apartment layout. Huge bathrooms, 2 half-​bathrooms and tiny bedrooms, living room, and windows. No dishwasher, no microwave and noisy fridge.
Bad air circulation for my layout, and kitchen trash sticks in the summer if you leaves the balcony window closed. So I usually leave the trash can on the balcony when it is hot.
6. Internet. There is only one service provider: Time Warner. And since almost everyone here has a wireless router, I got kicked off my own internet quite often because of neighbor’s routers’ interference.
7. Rent. Yes, it is a bit cheaper than other apartments around this area, but not a lot cheaper, if you consider your frustration of living here and the negative experience. Quality of life and happiness worth a few hundreds more.
Relatively cheaper student housing should be offered by UCSD and it’s their responsibility to do so. And this doesn’t mean that people who live here should be treated like shit, because of the fewer money we pay. If this is completely free, I can understand and accept that their service sucks, but it’s not. And it’s not like the staff are paid nothing to work here. Part of their paycheck is from grants and tax payers’ money which are paid by you and me! So why can’t we demand a better service?
8. 1÷3÷13 Neighbors:
#1: my car got hit and run in the parking structure and it definitely implies what kind of ppl live here
#2: ppl leave kitchen trash in the little trash cans by the café shop and in the courtyard. This bothers me the most. ’cause during weekends no staff come to take trash away, and you see dirty and sticky kitchen trash liquid on the ground all the time. Staff has put note and lined up the trash cans to warn ppl not to do it. But the residence here still do it any way.
#3: ppl talk very loud while walking down the courtyard in late night and play loud music and have loud parties till very late. Once it lasts till 4 am.
This place just sucks and I have no idea why I said yes to my husband to move in here. Gosh, I regret this decision since the 2^nd day. I’m already planning to move out. So if you plan to move in, please think twice. This place is just ridiculous.
update on 1÷6÷13.

I was living in Mesa when OMS first opened, then I moved out, and I recently moved back in to OMS. It was a mistake. I remembered that there were lots of complaints about OMS when it first opened, but I thought things had improved. They have adjusted the rent, but as far as I can tell, everything else is pretty much the same.
— Layout/​design: It is still true that there is a shortage of storage space, and limited flexibility in use of the space. The doors are large, the towel bars are low, and the carpet edge cuts across otherwise open space.
— Mail: The mailing address is a university address, and not a USPS address (like Mesa is), yet it is not formatted like other university addresses either, leading to much confusion whenever you are trying to give someone your address. And your mailing address uses a box number rather than your apartment number. Because it is a university address, all your mail must be addressed to your legal name as found in official university records. If it is not, it will probably be returned to sender without any notification to you. And yes, picking up packages is not very convenient, but I’ve had worse experiences dealing directly with mail carriers.
— Food: There are a few more options than there used to be at Regents Park Row, and the footpath out the back to La Jolla Village is more established, but you can still plan on driving a lot or walking pretty far pretty regularly.
— Noise: It is not as loud as my undergrad dorm, and the walls and floors have much better sound-​proofing than Mesa does, but if your windows face another building, you will probably hear people talking or playing ukelele at 1 a.m. regularly.
— Parking: Most of the parking is a fair walk from most apartments, at a distance that isn’t bad if you’re just carrying a backpack, but pretty far if you are trying to carry anything more than that. And I suspect the architects really like stairs as a design element.

Enjoyed living here, great location, great apartments.
You get for what you pay for so I cannot complain.
The staff are great and generous.
Close to freeways, which makes it convenient.
The other individuals that ranted have way to high of standards… This is campus living, what did you expect? Luxury living? I’m here to work and get out.
The only downside like most of the other apartments is the laundry, you need to walk out to clean your clothes.

I HATED living here. I lived here my 2^nd year of grad school. The apartments are sooooooooo small! The rooms are tiny and the living room is tiny and strangely the bathrooms are huge (waste of space). The carpets are the rough kind. The hallways are very unfriendly and echoey. The parking garage is huge and far away from the apartments so you have to lug your groceries super far. Have fun locking yourself out of your apartment accidentally at night and having to call the local police to let you in (because the police are the only ones with the keys after hours). There is no food within walking distance. Blah… so many bad things about this place.
Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to get outta there! Now I’m at Mirada, which I love.

This is a tough one. On the one hand, I love living here because its so much cheaper than anything else around the UCSD area, and the shuttles are convenient (let’s be honest, I’m too poor of a grad student to afford to live anywhere else on the shuttle route) but on the other hand, it SUCKS!
As other reviews have stated, the staff (minus one or two special people) are horrible. Extremely rude, and wrong about almost everything. One person tells you something, and then the next person tells you the opposite. Then repeat. Very aggravating, because somehow no one seems to know what the right answer is, or what to do. About anything.
I do agree that the mail room is open during crappy times of day, but I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as other reviewers, because there are 2 community assistants who can open the mail room anytime between 4−9pm. So the hours have never been a huge problem for me.
It feels like a dorm, which sucks, but at least it’s quiet, because other nerdy grad students live here too :)
The design of the apartments are a nightmare! Yes, it’s great that the apartments are wheelchair accessible, but WHY must all of them be designed for a wheelchair!!! Why can’t there be a block of them designated for those who need them, and have the other apartments be designed normally?!? There are 2 bathrooms, both of which are huge, and a giant hallway. So useless! The Mesa apts are less square footage, yet feel SO MUCH BIGGER!!! it’s just sad.
And no, there’s not a single ounce of storage space. UGH!
Yes, miramar is newer than Mesa, and has newer appliances, but for me it’s not really a worthwhile trade-​off.

something worth clarifying from previous reviews:
Miramar is cheap as hell for the location. the prices have been adjusted such that Miramar & Mesa are comparable (central and north Mesa are a little cheaper, but it’s about a $ 100 difference per month. actual prices can be found here:
and
— south and west Mesa rent is actually more expensive than Miramar now)
I am really curious about where these Miramar-​haters moved from that they believe this place is so bad. It is by far the cleanest, newest place I’ve ever lived in my adult life (coming from Berkeley). Is it just that bay area housing is exceptionally dirty and expensive, thus clouding my perception? perhaps. a fellow nor-​cal transplant arrived and announced «this place is a palace». I concur. We’re in grad school, people. This is some seriously nice student housing!
positives:
— it’s new, very clean, and very convenient
— walking-​distance destinations include: main campus (10−20min), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (45min), starbucks (15min), trader joe’s/ralphs/movie theater/​marshalls/​best buy/​petsmart/​whole foods/​cvs pharmacy/peet’s coffee/​assorted banks/​assorted (crappy chain) restaurants&stores (15−20min), UTC mall (25min)
— there are no pests (unlike the rat & ant situations at Mesa)
— by bike, there is no place on campus you can’t reach in 15min (including SIO)
— the Mesa shuttle comes every 15min and is far more convenient than the city bus (line 30)
— you can pick up packages through 9pm — you just call the student residential assistant (apparently previous reviewers are unfamiliar with this process as they complain that the mail room is never open, which it isn’t, but who cares? you don’t have to go during mail room hours)
neutrals:
— Yes, the elevators are slow, but we have stairs people (I live 4 floors up and know it’s not that challenging to use them).
— Yes, you have to walk into the parking lot to take out your trash/​recycling — how is this a big deal? Sometimes there are idiots who feel this is too much effort, and they resort to piling large amounts of trash into the small bins lining the inside of the complex. These people are idiots and they occur everywhere. I do not see this as being a reflection of the complex itself.
— laundry rooms are conveniently located, usually clean, and only once in 1.5yrs have I found that every machine was taken. they do lack change machines though.
— the parking garage is kind of far from certain apartments, but you are guaranteed a parking spot
— yes, the administrative and mail folks make occasional errors (one day about 2 months after we moved in, they randomly changed our mailbox code leaving us to think we’d lost our minds when we could no longer access our box. however, the situation was resolved as soon as we spoke to someone about it, and nothing like that has happened since.)
negatives:
— there is no storage (you get a closet in each bedroom and that’s it)
— the toilet and shower are not in the same room, which is a waste of space (hello, the toilet room could have been storage)
— if you’re facing La Jolla Village or the I-​5, traffic is noisy. on the upside, it’s nice to face away from the complex
— no dogs :(except, somehow I see people with dogs…
— no culture/​soul/​social scene whatsoever in La Jolla. this is not a problem if your intent is to focus on grad school and venture to Hillcrest or downtown SD when you want to have fun, but if you’re looking for a happening scene, this is not your home (nor is anywhere in La Jolla)
my experience with the «shoddy construction»:
— on our move-​in day, the shower head literally exploded off the nozzle, dousing the entire bathroom with pressurized water. maintenance showed up within a few hours and told us «yea, that nozzle sucks. this one will work better». and so it has. we haven’t had another problem in a year and a half. also, i have never EVER had a landlord fix something so fast. i was impressed.
— our stove/​oven spontaneously fried itself. one minute it worked, the next I had a melted power cord and half-​cooked pasta for dinner. the next day, maintenance showed up and discovered the problem would require extra parts to fix. we had a working stove within 48 hours of the incident
— sometimes things pop off their desired location — a towel rack here, strip of counter-​covering there (purely cosmetic)… but these things get fixed pretty quickly after contacting maintenance.
While the administrative folks are usually less than awesome, the maintenance folks are great. they’re responsive, knowledgeable, and nice. Overall, when problems arise with the apartment, the One Miramar folks are far easier to deal with than any landlord I’ve ever had. Compared to the dark, dirty old Mesa apartments I’ve seen, I think clean, bright new Miramar is the way to go.

Where do I begin? I’ve been living here since One Miramar opened.
Let’s start with the good.
1. Location is convenient (close to school, UTC mall, groceries, freeways)
2. Double paned windows — this is a necessity given the proximity to the freeway.
Now for the bad.
1. The overall layout of the structures was not well thought out. For example, none of the trash bins are on the way to… anything. For a long time, people kept throwing their trash in the small cans near the parking lot. It was disgusting, but I don’t blame them. Also, trips back from the grocery store are a real pain because you have to carry everything from the parking structure to your room.
2. The elevators are really slow. And smell funny. And they were broken on move in day for me…
3. Fleas. From dogs and such, which are not allowed.
4. There are only two laundry rooms, with 24 washers and driers. For 800 students. They only take quarters, and there are no change machines. And many of them break down for weeks at a time.
5. Smokers. You wouldn’t believe how many grad students smoke on their balconies/​open areas. The shape of the structure is such that you will smell the smoke if you live above floor 1.
6. Shoddy construction. Things break. Easily, just with the passage of time.
The ugly… the staff
The staff is the most incompetent group of individuals I’ve ever encountered-​and I’ve gone to big, bureaucratic universities (UC) my entire adult life.
–for some reason, they are constantly taking the best parking spots (whether it be in the parking structure, or out right next to the units) and converting them into 20 minute visitor parking. THERE AREN’T THAT MANY VISITORS!!!
–most of the staff is really rude/​lazy/​stupid. the helpful ones keep disappearing after a while.
–they don’t enforce any of the rules… dogs, bbq grills, etc… I guess this could be good if you like pets and fire hazards.
And finally, the unbearable…
When I first moved in, I was given a mailbox number and combination to check my mail. This was right before getting married, and so we gave out that address (the address has the box number) to everyone we knew, and filled out all our bills/​etc. with this address. About a month later, I stopped getting mail. For about three weeks. (Since I normally don’t get much mail, at first I thought it was a dry spell.). But after three weeks, I went up to the staff to ask what was going on. I was told (very matter of factly and rudely) that I had the wrong box address. How could this be? To this day I have no explanation. I had to wriggle and yell my way to get the combination to my «correct» box, which was filled with late bills, etc. Then I had to change all of my contact information, as if somehow it was my fault, and none of the staff’s problem. Of course, none of them could explain why this change occurred, much less why I had the combination to the «wrong» box.
A few months ago someone with the same last name as me moved out of the complex. They filled out a mail-​forwarding and checked «family». I have a fairly common last name. Turns out everyone in our unit with this last name started getting our mail forwarded to this guy. The USPS wasn’t supposed to process the mail as the zip code for one miramar is «special area». I had to sort the mess out with the student mail services. Then, last month, one of the staff who is in charge of the newsletter advises everyone in the building who is moving out TO DO THE SAME THING that this person did, which is exactly what you’re not supposed to do.
I emailed him, and he promptly told me he knew nothing about being a special zip code, and that I should do as I know best… and he went ahead and posted the newsletter with the wrong information everywhere in the complex. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’m warning you, and instead of checking it up with somebody, you ignore my warning? I went as far as to tell student mail services about the impending trouble, and they said they were going to have a stern talking to with the staff… that was a week ago– no retraction yet!
I’m moving out of this place at the end of the month – and no, I’m not graduating. I can’t wait. Sure, this place is cheaper than surrounding UTC apartments – but you pay in other ways, continually, until you just can’t take it anymore.
If you get the right unit (first floor, close to the parking structure), and you don’t use mail/​fedex/​ups that often… ok, maybe this place is ok. I would only recommend this place to people who I want to torment, though.

Sean’s Review has gotten most of the points, so I will just add-​on.
The good:
1. Convenient for out-​of-​towners who are new to UCSD, like my husband and I were when we first moved in, less than 2 years ago.
2. Maintenance requests actually get responded REALLY quickly — within a few hours usually. It’s unheard of anywhere else.
The shrug /​annoyance:
1. Café Vita — now that it’s reopened after closing for several months — who knows what it really is now. It’s never open when I need a cup of coffee or an afternoon tea. So what do I care?
2. Laundry facility — nice and clean on Mondays, thanks to the custodian staff. On weekends, get in line if you want to use it. And it ends up being covered in lint and mess thanks to your fellow grad students.
3. Elevator — OMS proudly presents the world’s slowest elevators! Hoot!
4. Internet — You must sign up with Time-​Warner, or else… Ugh! It’s an entire community of grad students. Did they not think that EVERYONE will need internet access?
5. The colors — the pretty colors they showed on the photos are the only pretty colors you may see. The doors to and inside the apartments are the color of «diarrhea» in my husband’s words. The buildings are ugly, too.
The bad:
1. Construction/​design: What’s with the industrial doors? Not homey at all. The apartments are horribly designed as far as the use of space. Whoever designed 2 big but HALF BATHROOMS was an idiot. Yes it may be good for the shower-​hogging roommate to leave the «toilet room» open for use. (So it’s designed more for 2 roommates than for a couple) But given how big the bathrooms are, it’s a huge waste of space. Yes, there’s a balcony/​patio, on which we’re not allowed to store anything. Yes the kitchen has built-​in cabinets, but some of them are soooo poorly designed you can’t really store anything in them.
2. The office staff are, yes, dumb, or rude, or both. How many OMS staff does it take to get one thing straight on your paperwork? Good luck with that! I ran up the stairs to get to the office one minute before closing. The witch who was locking up smiled at me and locked the door in my face. If you try to complain about something, forget it. No one cares.
3. Mailing system sucks! (a) Mail room hours are for people who have nothing better to do during the day, and will vary on occasions without advanced notice. (b) The 2 Community Assistants are supposed to be available, but one of them had left my husband waiting around for half an hour at one point that my husband refused to call them anymore. © Whatever they claim, I know there have been times it’s taken an extra 3 – 5 business days for me to receive my mail. It’s ridiculous!
4. Fire alarms — you’d never thunk it! It’s actually a problem because of its faulty design. If someone accidentally bumps into the stupid 8 inch rod that hangs down from the ceiling right in front of each elevator, the fire alarms will send the entire building to evacuation for 10+ minutes until some maintenance worker runs up to disable it. And believe me, this has happened way too many times.
5. Lights — so, I’m all for the whole energy-​saving thing. But the energy light bulb that they use are so dim. We’ve requested them to be changed a few times, but it doesn’t take long before it’s all dim again & I can’t tell if my lights are on or not. And we’re «not allowed» to change those bulbs ourselves. Sigh.

This has been my place of residence for the past year, and looks like it will be my home for another one.
The good:
1. It is convenient in multiple ways. For starters, it is a 10-​minute shuttle ride to the UCSD campus. You can also bike to campus in that amount of time. And if you’re a high-​roller, you can drive to campus in 5 – 10 minutes and have the pleasure of paying a lot of money for the privilege of parking. It is such a privilege that UCSD is jacking up the cost this summer. Awesome.
It is also really close to I-​5 and I-​805, so pretty easy to get anywhere in the SD area pretty quickly.
Lastly, grocery stores and the UTC mall are a short distance away, so one need not worry about using up gas to shop. Given the price of gas these days, that’s certainly a good thing.
2. If you happen to be a grad student in a professional school here (IR/​PS, rady, medicine, and Pharmacy), odds are you will be living with a bunch of your classmates. It’s like freshman year of college all over again! Except with slightly bigger rooms. If you tend to study in groups, living here certainly makes that easier. It also simplifies social gathering planning.
3. Café Vita. Reasonably priced coffee and food.
4. Parking. The massive, ugly ass parking garage might be hard on the eyes and sticks out like a sore thumb, but at least one never has to worry about finding a parking spot.
The bad:
1. Shoddy construction. I’ve already had my kitchen sink replaced. One apartment across the way from me was empty for months because workers had to re-​do the interior.
2. The staff. A number of them are dumb asses. I’ll just leave it at that. After reading the reviews of Costa Verde apartments, I’m starting to think that one has to be a dumb ass in order to work in property management.
3. The mail service SUCKS. For one, you only get your mail Mon-​Friday. You’re probably thinking, «uh who gives a shit?» Well I’m a dork who likes to read the economist over the weekend. When does it arrive? Friday or SATURDAY. Plus I’m a netflix member, and it sucks having to get a movie into netflix by Wednesday so I can get a new one for the weekend.
Secondly, you can only pick up packages between 11 and 4 I believe. Yep, in the middle of the day, so sweet of them. Apparently us grad students aren’t supposed to be busy in those hours like the rest of the world is. At least you can call up a Community Assistant and set a time with them to pick up your stuff.
4. The lack of storage space. Basically, there is no place to store anything. Sure, you have a closet, but that’s it. Want to put stuff out on the balcony? Besides being tacky, you will be written up for it. Instead, you have two large half-​bathrooms. Why they didn’t put the two bathrooms together to form one WHOLE bathroom is beyond me. That would have left at least a little area for storing things.
5. The Laundry machines require you to use quarters but there are no change machines in the laundry room. Great.
Although the «bad» list is longer than the «good» list, One Miramar isn’t a bad place to live for grad students. The rent is fairly reasonable (although not a bargain like nearby Mesa), and it is nice to just hop on a shuttle to campus. There are certainly worse spots to live.
BTW, the «location» given on the Unilocal map is totally wrong. That’s another «special» thing about One Miramar: google maps and the like can’t find it. It really is next to the Mesa Apartments off Regents Road in the UTC area.