The Village At Torrey Pines

Review is for 15 at the Village, not the apartments themselves — though those seemed nice from when I visited friends. Meeting rooms and catering for 15 (on the fifteenth floor, of course) are excellent. Wonderful views of Torrey Pines and the water from the balcony as well.

Since the number of students have been increasing drastically over the past couple of years, it’s been harder to find a room. I have been lucky enough to get a single here. Also, the village isn’t consistent with the room sizes, i.e. some doubles are larger than other doubles, even in the same apartment. The only great thing about this place is The Bistro and The Market. There’s not a lot of parking right in front of the village.

This is UCSD’s transfer housing for students. Everything is really nice here, almost feels like you are living in a top notch hotel. We even have room service once every week. The only thing I dislike about this place is the drinking and smoking vibe it gives off. It doesn’t have a good studying environment. Reconsider living here if you are a transfer student.

As a college student, I love living here at The Village (or as some call it, the Villagio — har har). It is my second year living here (as a second year transfer) and I’m so glad this is where I spent my brief 2 years living. Last year I lived on the first floor in building 5 on the west side and this year I’m on the 2^nd floor of building 4 on the east side. There are pros and cons of each, but overall, I would recommend the Village to any transfers.
Personally I believe the west has bigger kitchens, which I like because I cook, but if you’re not a big cook, then check out the east. If you’ve never been here I would advise taking a virtual tour on the website.
FYI Not all apartments are 2 floors like the website used to advertise!
The Village is the newest addition to campus so the furnishing is the best here. We are also the only area on campus that has a restaurant where you can use dining dollars as opposed to Triton Cash.
The one downfall is the overcrowding that this year brought. Many of the double rooms turned into triples which crams all of the living space. Another downfall is that even though there is overcrowding, juniors and seniors from other parts of campus can live here too. I guess there are pros about that as well, but this is transfer housing and I personally like it like that because everyone has a commonality.
I didn’t know we could rent out the area to alumni like a previous post stated. I would only recommend staying here if you’re a student on campus.

So living at the Village is probably one of the best on-​campus housing at UCSD. Both sides of the Village (East and West) are pretty new. The East side is probably a couple years newer. But everything here is new and clean. When you live in the towers, you can even get a beautiful view of the ocean. There’s also a restaurant, the Bistro, where you can use your dining dollars to eat at and the Market to buy groceries. However, both places are way overpriced… but it is on-​campus after all. One thing that really irritates me in living on the first floor. Living on the first floor means bugs… especially in the summer or when it’s hot. Last year when we lived in the tower, we never had any bug situation, well, except when they flew in from the window (the windows didn’t have screens…). But, this year we’re living on the first floor and there’s sooooo many bugs!!! There’s like spiders on the window screens, and so many flies fly in when the door’s even open just for a little bit. And we don’t get any breeze here either so it’s always stuffy and hot! I mean, it’s okay in the winter, but pretty unbearable in the summer. So if you don’t want bugs or a stuffy house, don’t live on the first floor! I think the best place to live is in one of the towers.

For those UCSD alumni who are considering spending a vacation at The Village at Torrey Pines, you may want to reconsider. UCSD is trying to market this to alumni as an attractive, family friendly, economical hotel alternative. While the buildings are new and the décor/​architecture fairly attractive, our stay here was anything but enjoyable. We have utilized UCSD’s alumni guest accommodations for about a decade, and in the past it was a good fit for our family. That was before they built this new transfer student housing, and someone in conference services came up with the brilliant scheme of placing their «guests» there. This was the most frustrating, exhausting vacation we’ve ever had.
I will start off with the good. Since the apartments were brand new (they even still smelled like paint and carpet glue) they were immaculate. I think we were the first ones to even stay in our apartment. Ours was a spacious, split floor plan, had two bathrooms, and 4 bedrooms. I will say, we had an awesome ocean view, and since the apartments have lots of windows, you’ll enjoy it from just about any room. The laundry facilities were nice, and the market — though pricey — was convenient. The apartments don’t come with cooking supplies, so you need to either bring your own or rent them from the center — I think it ran $ 25 a week (we brought our own supplies).
Now for the bad. If you’re a «guest» rather than a student, they will place you on the upper floors (4^th or higher). Why does it matter, you’re wondering? The Village is surrounded by major streets that get an enormous amount of traffic. And being up on those top floors, the sound carries straight up. Motorcycles. Ambulances. Commercial trucks. The garbage man. Do not underestimate how loud the traffic — or any other noise, for that matter — will be in your apartment. Construction around there will begin at 5 a. m, and the garbage truck comes barreling through the vicinity every morning (vroom, bang bang bang, beep, beep, beep). Summer soccer season will be in full swing, and they practice and hold tournaments all hours of the day and night at the soccer field that is adjacent to the Village. You will hear every whistle, shout, and cheer. When they aren’t having soccer tournaments, there will be other events — one night Sara Barielles and Sugarland held a concert, and while there was some novelty in getting to watch/​listen to it from my living room, it went on late (11:30 pm) making it impossible to get my kids to sleep. But the worst part was when they finished the concert, they broke down immediately after. Think loud construction noise (vroom, bang bang bang, beep, beep, beep) until 4 am. The walls on these units are paper thin — you will hear everything that happens inside and outside of the building. We actually could not wait for the vacation to end, if for no other reason that none of us slept for the 4 (yes, four) weeks we were there. We desperately tried to get moved to a different part of campus, but they refused.
To illustrate just how cheaply these things are constructed: One night, my hubby and I were laying in bed talking, when we heard the person in the apartment above us get up out of bed. Walk into the bathroom. Shut the door. Lift up the toilet seat. Urinate (!!!). Flush the toilet. Walk back to their room and hop into their bed.
It can get pretty toasty in the apartments, with all of those enormous windows, but the only way to cool them is by opening the windows and get the air moving through. Which is fine — unless you have 2 and 4 year old boys who can scale a wall like Spider-​Man. There are no barriers, not even flimsy screens, on any of the windows, and you can be sure that if your child falls out of one of them, they probably won’t survive. We begged to be placed on the first floor for this reason alone, but again, they refused.
Then, there is the parking. The closest parking is about a ¼ mile away, so carting your kids/​groceries/​beach gear back and forth is a major pain. They will tell you that there are 20 minute parking spots for quick loading/​unloading, but these are almost always taken up, and still aren’t particularly close. If you try to use the bay out front (which I understand is for the student shuttle, but c’mon — how often does the shuttle run in the summer??) for dropping off your kids or your elderly parents, they will ticket you. In addition, you can only park in certain spots in the parking structure, and these will be on the lower levels — fine, unless you have your Thule attached to the top of your SUV, in which case your car won’t fit into the lower levels. We tried to get an exception, but — nope again.
If I were 19, single, and on a budget, this might seem like an attractive option. But I’m not, and that’s not who they are marketing this to. So buyer, beware.

UCSD’s Transfer Housing. I love it here. The social vibe and community brings everyone together. It’s fantastic. People are fantastic and it’s like it’s own community of sorts.
Hint: Live on the East side.

UCSD’s premier transfer housing located on the north side of campus.
Great view of the ocean from the 8^th floor and up.
Can rent out the 15^th floor for meetings, conferences, etc…