I made the mistake of signing for a 2 year lease here and I'd have to say that this place has been more trouble than it's worth. The units are overpriced, the staff is extremely rude, and there are a number of nonsensical rules that the building enforces to a T, such as the move-in and move-out fee of $75 that they charge everyone. The staff will try to gouge you for as much money as possible if you live here. They even changed the washers to more ""environmentally friendly"" washers so that they could charge residents more money per smaller load of laundry.
However, the rule that most residents will find affecting them at one point or another are the ridiculous and arbitrary rules about moving out which entail scheduling a move-out time between very specific hours. The management WILL NOT notify you about this process, and I actually witnessed one girl be reduced to tears by an unyielding desk attendant when he threatened to fine her for not scheduling a time first. They will only book one resident per 2 hour time slot between the hours of 12 and 4, and on days such as graduation when a high number of students are hoping to move out, this kind of schedule is simply not feasible. They threaten to fine you $800 if you move out not within your scheduled time, and the building staff will harass you if they see you moving more than a single box out.
To add to the attitude that the desk attendants have, some of the permanent residents are needlessly nasty to the Hopkins students who are residents as well. I know that there is one woman who sits in the lobby a lot and literally screams at students if she sees them letting in one of their friends or family members without signing them in. Yet the desk attendants often let in people who illegally post advertisements around the building!
In addition, though the building recently had a change of management, things seem to have actually gotten worse. At least one, if not both, of the elevators were often broken or out of service. Though the building advertises being air conditioned, the air conditioner hardly worked this year, often failing to work at all on extremely hot days where temperatures went over 80 degrees. The heating will also be left blasting until the beginning of May, and there is no way for residents to turn it off in their unit entirely until the building manager decides to do so which is very frustrating, to say the least.
If you can help it, I'd strongly recommend living elsewhere and saving yourself the money and the trouble. Though a rude staff sounds like something that could be manageable, they make themselves such a presence that there is absolutely no way to avoid getting into some altercation with them over something. This place is run by absolutely unreasonable and uneducated people. I couldn't wait to move out, and I can say that living here was not worth dealing with the extremely unhelpful and money-hungry management and needlessly unfriendly residents.
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