Truly awful place to live. Firstly, do not trust high ratings you see on Yelp or Google. Sierra pays students to leave 5 star reviews. Some other 5 star reviews I've seen are from employees working there, but not living there. Just a heads up to those looking. They take advantage of young college students who don't know any better, and lie and pressure desperate students into signing a lease. I was fooled into living here--don't be too. These apartments are nice when there are tours, but disgusting the rest of the time. Expect to find bodily excrements inside and outside the area (I've seen feces, pee, vomit, both human and pet), in addition to trash and cigarettes everywhere. It doesn't take an imagination to imagine how this place smells sometimes.
Management is highly unprofessional. They never take accountability for anything and instead blame students. For instance, the "free and high-speed" wifi has been out several times this year, sometimes for WEEKS at a time, and when this has happened management says this because too many residents were using the wifi at once. Another time a friend's car was towed by Sierra's mistake (despite paying $60/month for parking, which is also ridiculously expensive parking for the area), and Sierra admitted the mistake but refused to pay for the car to be released from the tow company. I have dozens of more examples I could discuss, but if you don't trust my judgement, just ask several OSU students at random about how they feel about Sierra and you'll hear more horror stories.
Also expect your stuff to be stolen and Sierra to do nothing about it. I've had several packages delivered only to have another person run off with them, as well as a car break in right outside Sierra's office in the morning. I went in several times (~10 separate times in total) to the office because they have cameras everywhere and promised me they would check the cameras for these incidents, but each time the manager Mark was "too busy" to help. Sierra did finally hire a 24/7 security company to be on location, but they are not much help either. Imagine how bad an apartment complex crime has to be for a company to finally cough up the money to hire external service, and it's STILL horrible here even with security.
Also beware of some pets around here. Sierra does not regulate pets whatsoever because it's extra $ for them and allows all dogs to run around the property without leashes. Normally I don't have a problem with dogs running around without leashes (even though I have cats), but the training level & nature of some dogs here have caused so many problems. Both of my neighbors have been attacked/bitten by aggressive dogs here. My friend's dog (who was leashed) was also attacked by another aggressive, unleashed dog here and was at the vet for days after the attack and almost didn't make it. (Sierra technically has a rule dogs can't be unleashed but do not enforce it ever.)
Rent is high for the area, and on top of that there are several forced hidden fees sprinkled in (for instance, a $40 fee to pay with a card, a ~$90 fee to use a certain app they force you to use to pay bills, etc. Besides these, there are many more fees they are not honest about in the description and lease. Unless you are wealthy and/or have mom/dad paying for everything, be careful here. Some residents have to move out due to these fees but it is next to impossible to get someone to sublease (especially during the summer) because everyone local knows to avoid Sierra.
The facilities are alright besides being overpriced. The building is relatively new and the apartments are acceptable, and it is a 10-20 minute walk to all parts of campus, which is nice. However, half the time facilities are closed or broken. The main elevator has been broken for at least a year now. Wifi rarely works on my floor. Recycling and trash room almost always too full to take out trash. Pool and gym are known to close (though this has gotten better, I will admit.) My dishwasher and washer broke months ago and despite several maintenance requests, have not been properly fixed.
One last thing--the lease period is VERY odd so it is difficult to move out of this property into a new one without paying double rent for 1-3 months. And as I said before, people do not want to sublease into this complex. To conclude, I wouldn't move into the Sierra unless you are truly desperate. Do your due diligence and research, and if you are truly stuck with housing (as I was), do not expect a good experience here. read more
