Great place to live as a grad student. I liked that could easily walk to my lab, the gym, and all my classes from the apartment. Other residents are respectful of noise and you can control your heat/air conditioning in your unit. There are now post boxes on the property so you dont have to pay for a PO box.

I locked myself out of my apartment, and I tried to call after hours phone so many times, but no answer. How do you expect people to get back in? I am so disappointed!

Ponderosa Graduate Student Apartments are a bit of mixed bag as far as apartments go, however I think any negative criticisms as well my three star rating need to be taken with a grain of salt as this is the Universitys first year managing the property, beforehand the management company that ran and built them were quite cut rate. So I will break down both the good and bad. If you just want my quick advice, if being close to campus and having a sure unit is important too you I would apply. However if you are in Reno and you dont mind driving to campus or taking a bus then I would look for other options, though the market is pretty tight and not the most affordable.Good-Units are decent size - If you are a single occupant, or sharing the apartment with a roommate, the rooms can accommodate a queen size bed, Desk, Bookcase and small chest of drawers, additionally the closets should have more than enough space for clothes and a few other items.- Individual Bathrooms - Perhaps one of the best elements of this unit is that each bedroom has its own private bath, great for flatmates and great for married couples who want to have designated guest bathroom.-In unit washer and Dryer... Need I say more!-Access to campus Wifi - You can utilize the campus internet.BadStorage Space - Outside of your bedroom closet there is very little place to store things like Christmas decor, or seasonal items.Small kitchens, Kitchen space is quite limited and there isnt a lot of cupboard space, for single occupancy or married couples this shouldnt be too much of an issue but if you have roommates you will run out of space really fast.Limited office hours and service - There are apparently only two student office attends on staff and they are only in the office from 12 - 6 pm M-F and some limited hours on Sunday, also getting service or things replaced can take some time.Package delivery difficulties - USPS package deliveries are too big to fit in the small package boxes by the mailboxes, have to be picked up at the post office just North of Town, given the pandemic a lot more people are having packages delivered so this is huge oversight, and they havent though to simply have large packages delivered to the club house and picked up by students there, or at least to have them sent to the closer campus post office.Pets - Now this is just my personal opinion but the dog policy here is quite liberal, there are no weight or breed restrictions, so I can here my upstairs neighbors dog bark and run wild every time a car or truck goes by its quite annoying.Parking- Parking is NOT included in your rent you will need to buy a parking pass you can either buy a pass for the lot next to the apartments or for the larger parking lot just up the hill. In any case you would think they would create some sort of a residents pass that allowed access to the lower lot and the first row of upper lot parking. Also there are no loading and unloading zones for move in days, or even if you just have groceries and want to unload your car before parking up the hill, you either need to chance a parking ticket or trek everything down the hill from the upper lot, this leads to another problem.Access to campus - The only access to a paved sidewalk is to take the sidewalk on the east side of campus, if you want to go up the hill to campus you have to use one of a few makeshift foot trails. I hope the university has a plan to install some sort of stairs that would allow residents easier access to campus.Prohibited items - Some of the prohibited items form the apartments read like they were take out of the dorm rooms, except for alcohol, technically you are not allowed to have items such as hatchets, knives or camping stoves, things that any basic backpacking enthusiast would own, additionally despite an active archery club, bows are banned as well. Finally while it shouldnt surprise anyone, guns are banned from the complex, even if you have a locked case or safe, So if you are a hunter be aware of that.

This place is awesome. Staff is wonderful and accommodating. Only downfall is that there is no mailboxes on property and you have to pay for parking.

Over priced. Rent has gone up every lease renewal so far. Parking is not managed by Ponderosa. Instead, you have to purchase a $480 yearly (semester is available) pass from UNR to park close. The rent does not include gym use, pool use, or guest parking. These are newer apartments, so its fairly clean and comes with appliances not including a microwave. The contractors that built the place seemed to have been rushing because all the drawers, counters, and baseboards are crooked. Im planning to move out next summer because I cant afford to live here with my husband and 3 year old anymore.

Ponderosa is a great place if you want to be close to campus. Overall the facilities are new since it just opened a few years ago. However, it still feels like you are living in the freshman dorms and lacks that home feeling. The inside landscaping is all rocks and concrete, lacking grass or swimming pool. There are no mailboxes on site, you have to pay for a PO box. You can use the school internet which is great because it is free. But just a heads up, there is NO way to hook up an apple TV or smart TV or xbox 360 or amazon echo. I have tried countless times. The only hard wire ethernet is in the bedroom and it can only handle one device at a time. This suprised me since it was built a few years ago and should have been build with modern internet needs in mind. The parking is not included in a year lease, and is an added $300-400. If you choose the upper lot, there is no concrete path down to the apartments. Meaning if it rains or snows you are getting completely muddy. Its also worth noting they raise the rent each year. $30 our first year, and $60 after our second lease. Above the rate of inflation. If anything, I hope to bring these issues to the attention of future renters and grab the attention of management to address these issues.