Student Housing - Fresno, California

CandiMarie A.

Do yourself and your kid a favor, do not reside on campus at Fresno State. The experience will be terrible for both parent and student. The buildings are outdated, their maintenance and upkeep is subpar, the meal plan is far overpriced and not at all optional. So expect to pay $500-600 per month for cafeteria food. To top it all off, the accounting is horrible. I have never seen such a bad tenant ledger and have made multiple requests for review and corrections. I understand the process completely- I am an account manager for a property management company. I deal with tenant accounts and accounts receivables and payables every day, so it is hard to understand why the same issues come up. It adds unnecessary added stress to me and my kid. There are many off-site options for less rent and ultimately, more value in what is received for what is paid. It takes some time, effort and research but in the end- it is worth it.

Robert R.

My personal experience at Fresno State’s student housing is nothing short from worth it. Even with choosing the cheapest for room type and meal plan, I still have an overall positive experience living here on campus. Not only are the buildings close to campus, we have the luxury of many convenient places walking distance from campus, like 7/11’s, Walmart, Grocery stores, and more. The Atrium also offers us vending machines, bathroom, ice machine, water refill, and service desk all day and night, everyday. During normal class hours, the on campus dining options like Taco Bell, Subway, Juice it up, The Bucket, and Panda Express are only a short walk away. The $150 in flex cash we receive with our meal plan comes in handy when money is tight, and the close proximity to those dining options are great. The university dining hall is amazing, in my opinion. They offer a variety of food options everyday, along with a section for food that’s there everyday, incase you don’t like the options available that day. I personally love the breakfast, and the large selections of drinks available. All dishes are taken care of for you, all you have to do is come and serve yourself a plate, eat, put dishes on a counter, and leave with an ice cream cone. I have loved the experience I’ve had at student housing, and the close proximity to food options, classes, and of course, sports games. I recommend student housing to anyone who wants to have the traditional college experience, and doesn’t mind being social with roommates.

Lizbeth S.

Best decision I made was to live on campus, I’ve meet so many incredible people and felt more connected to our campus. Living on campus is also great if you have early classes in the morning you don’t have to worry about finding parking.

gabriela S.

Im not one to do reviews and im not sure if this will do anything but at this point its my last option. I applied to fsu last year and decided to also do housing however after being wailisted I decided to cancel my application for housing via mail. I was still in time to get a refund. However as months passed by no refunds was made instead i got email saying i owe the 100 dollars when they are the ones that owe me my refund i have made several calls and emails and the time they do answer because they rarely do or they don't even have a voicemail option they said the recived my application and cancellation form and that I should get a refund but thats not my worryes my issue is yhat now they keep sending letters about sending me to collections if I don't pay 100 dollars i had to leave school because I couldn't pay for it anymore my bills take my whole paycheck but i called again probably my 20th attemp they said we will talk to a supervisor 3 weeks later another letter im not paying 100 when i did everything on my end to ensure proper communication was completed in order to get a refund i need an asnwer on how this will be resolved asap

Collin P.

It is what you make of it. End of story. Yes it's expensive, but if you can afford it and make the best of it, you'll come out with fond and positive memories of Fresno State Student Housing (a.k.a. University Courtyard when I lived there)

A lot of the poorer reviews of Fresno State's student housing are made by freshmen or transfer students who have never lived outside the four walls they share with their family, and aren't exactly apt to dealing with roommates. Albeit, to that point, the roommate pairing is awful. Of the four semesters I lived here, I only had a roommate I could tolerate for one (the very last semester before I graduated...!)

Facilities:
Yes, these are older facilities. But the fact is they are maintained in a good state: the air conditioning and heaters work, I had never seen any of the buildings leaking during rain, and the amenities are pretty nice. There's a certain amount of peace of mind living on campus because, although it isn't gated, there's generally a campus police officer patrolling/parked in the area of the dorms. The gym equipment is older but in good, working order. They recently renovated the pool and patio areas which now look AMAZING. The volleyball and horseshoe pit area, along with the grassy areas throughout the facility, make it very welcoming to students who enjoy being outside.

The suites are nice for extremely social people, and have better A/C and heater controls, but in my opinion were the lesser of the two facilities. You're far more likely to be kept up all night by parties and your upstairs neighbors making insane noise, but hey- it's up to you. Just don't blame campus housing for your poor grades and never sleeping because you chose to live in a louder, more community based environment.

The community style is nice in my opinion, BUT- and pay attention to this- it really depends on the kind of person you are. I didn't live in community style until I was a senior. These are your traditional 2-to-a-room dorms with community bathrooms. A few of these rooms can be rented out for yourself alone. I knew what my study habits were, and I knew what my peeves were with people, so I elected to put in a preference for Homan Hall (the only 'quiet' building for community style). The result were very keep-to-yourself people which meant less noise, cleaner community bathrooms and a better experience for the studious person who enjoys a full night's sleep. If you pick Graves Hall, you're likely to have a bit more noise, and the possibility of sharing your room with an exchange student. Neat experience if you're into it, but it wasn't really something I wanted to try. Baker Hall... oh Baker Hall... if you like loud, trashy music, frat boys stumbling in drunk at all hours of the night, and stoners, this hall is for you!

Parking is fine, never had an issue and campus PD is pretty quick to pick up anyone snooping around in that parking lot. You still have to pay regular parking fees and fight for spots; there's no designated parking for dorm students (at least while I lived there).

Food:
Yes it's expensive, but just buckle down and buy the platinum meal plan. It's really nice to be able to go and get however much or little food you want whenever you get the whim while the dining hall is open. Generally the food quality falls between mediocre and good. The made to order omelet station, however, is to die for. Plus, the dining hall does really neat cultural/holiday food events (i.e. Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner, Cinco de Mayo, etc.). It's the dining hall at a California State University campus, most of the people here complaining about it are for some reason thinking they're going to get food from one of UCLA's premier dorm food courts. No. You're going to get enough decent quality food and a fair amount of options to keep you happy. If you want fine dining, quit whining and fork out the money to go eat at Cheesecake Factory down the street.

5 stars overall, subtract one star for my iffy experience when I was a freshman in college.

Selena V.

I personally found the on-campus housing at Fresno State to not be worth it for me, I'd rather compute. Some but not all of the housing staff is nice when asking questions. Some of the questions I had, they had to ask multiple different people before I got an answer and other times they didn't even give me an actual answer. I didn't feel safe all the time because other students would be loud and rowdy at night - I even had an experience where they were banging on the door and even posed as maintenance and opened the door even though it shouldn't have been possible. The food at the dining hall wasn't worth the price in my opinion and sometimes made me not feel good, personally. However, what I really didn't like was that they did nothing to help when I was having problems with my roommate with her being hostile towards me and even cursing me out like when I asked her to stop slamming the door closed all the time. The RA didn't really do anything, nor did I see him around throughout the school year.

Dayle E.

Fresno State student housing is so accommodating and the staff is always available to answer questions or help you if needed! A bonus is that they are always planning fun events and games to attend in the evenings, and there's usually free snacks!

Alessandro T.

Living on campus turns very useful at the moment of reaching classes and the meal plan with it has the best variety for college students. Lots of events from them have helped many people to make new friends, also.