Aspire College Station - Student housing center in College Station - 711 University Dr, USA

Very nice community, with great environment. Staffs are friendly, caring, and responsive. I like them all. I feel safe and home here. Various events here are really cool that make this complex even more interesting. The price could be a little bit cheaper but maybe there are good reasons behind it. Overall, Aspire is a great place to live specifically for undergrad students and freshmen.

I lived at the Aspire for all four years at A&M. Location is unbeatable as an engineering student. All classes and a ton of restaurants are within walking distance. The rooms and amenities are really nice, and the maintenance team always had issues resolved within 24 hours. Prices did increase yearly, and renewal felt a little early, being 1-2 months after moving in, but this is the case for every student living apartment. Guest parking could use some work as there are only a few visitor spots, but there are more spots after work hours as long as you’re gone by the time they open the following day. Overall, compared to the other high end apartments, the value is good. Would recommend.

I love living at Aspire in College Station, Texas, and I cannot praise it enough. The location is unbeatable, with easy access to Texas A&M University and a range of shopping and dining options. The front desk staff, especially Gracie and Cliona, as well as the management and maintenance teams are incredibly responsive and always ready to assist with any issues. The amenities are top-notch, from the sparkling pool to the modern fitness center. The community atmosphere is welcoming, making it a perfect place for students and young professionals. I can't recommend this apartment complex enough; it truly exceeded all my expectations!

This is my second year living at Aspire, and I’ve had a really great experience! While rent may be pricy, with the amenities, monthly community events, and close proximity to campus and Northgate, I would say it’s very worth it. Not to mention, the front staff is always super friendly and helpful, and the maintenance crew will fix any apartment concerns extremely fast (in my experience, usually within a few hours to a few days). The only thing I would like to see is better visitor parking, more routine maintenance of the coffee machine in the lounge, and better elevators. All in all, great apartment — I would recommend Aspire for anyone who wants a comfortable living experience close to campus!

This apartment has very fast maintenance who are incredibly friendly. The 6th floor is really nice to hang out and study in. The elevators stop working occasionally but there’s always at least one running and they try to fix it as soon as possible

Observations from my past few months of living in this area: 1. Rising Prices: I've noticed a significant increase in housing prices over the last few years. In 2019, a 5-bedroom unit was priced around $580 per month. However, I'm currently residing in a 6-bedroom apartment, and my monthly costs have skyrocketed to nearly $960. It seems like these prices are on an upward trend, and I anticipate a monthly growth of $20-50 for a 6-bedroom unit next year. 2. Amenities and Location: While the amenities here are quite nice, it's worth noting that other apartments in the area offer similar features at a more affordable price range. However, this apartment by far has the best pool, you can't beat that gorgeous concert TV screen anywhere else. 3. Wi-Fi and Connectivity: Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi here leaves much to be desired. I'm not sure why places like Standard and Aspire provide such subpar internet connections for young college students that have been living off the internet for such a long time. The latency is problematic, and I often find my phone swapping to 5G over the apartment's internet. This issue extends to LAN connections as well, with mid-speed and high latency. It's far from ideal for gaming or even video calls. 4. Friendly Staff: The staff are consistently friendly and helpful. Most if not all of the front desk and management staff are women. I guess its empowering for women to be represented more in management roles. 5. Ideal Location for Engineering Students: Aspire's biggest selling point is its proximity to many engineering buildings on the A&M campus. For engineering students, this location is hard to beat. 6. Rumors: In my first year at Aspire, I've taken the time to research and speak with roommates who have lived here before. I've heard rumblings about staff occasionally entering apartments to find issues and subsequently impose undisclosed charges on students. I assume that any potential lost revenue from those charges may now be factored into the increased rent prices. It certainly seems like there could be a connection between the reported fines imposed on students in previous years and the current efforts to raise monthly rent prices by a similar amount. This pattern raises questions about whether these fines were being used to generate additional revenue, and now that they may have curtailed such fines (based on my experience), the increased rent might be a way to compensate for that loss in revenue. I've given a 2-star rating because I believe Aspire's current 4.4-star rating doesn't accurately reflect my the experiences, especially the internet, of what i've had to deal with for the past few months , especially the internet, and many of the 5-star reviews seem to come from parents who only visit briefly to drop off their college-bound children.

UPDATED JUNE 2020 Only got to live here during the fall semester due to other circumstances. The subletting process is a complete joke because they make you pay $350 up front and then whomever sublets the room has to also pay that amount. That $350 supposedly went to “trying” to find someone to fill that room. I personally have posted in all the TAMU roommate groups on Facebook to get someone to sublet. During the pandemic the emails stated that you weren’t allowed to go outside to use any of the amenities which is understandable. I personally wouldn’t live here again due to the high rent for an average unit. October 2019 So I have been living here for the last 2 months and I would say it’s not luxury living at all it’s more like average at best. I live on the 6th floor so the ceilings are 10ft so I have to use a ladder (I’m 5’5 and can barely grab anything) to reach anything in the upper cabinets that don’t really have that much space to begin with. The pool was green for a week since they don’t how to balance a ph correctly after it has rained. The elevators will stop working without notice so get ready to take the stairs. Most of the time there is puddles and weird smells coming from said stairs. Today coming back from class I saw resident’s trash still piled up next to people’s door for the 2nd Day in a row. Thanks Valet living. I also saw puke or dog pop on the carpet it smelled so bad that I didn’t even want to go near it to see what it actually was. The gate to get into the garage sometimes is left open so that anyone can get in. I haven’t had any problems of people parking in my spot since I park on the 4th floor but I could see it be a problem on the 2nd. The visitor parking is a chaotic mess trying to explain it to your guests on where to park and where not to is a tricky thing I think explaining rocket science would be easier. Don’t even get me started on the roommate matching. Just save your money and live away from Northgate and campus which I will be doing after my lease is up.

Lived here for three years, here’s the gist of the experience: Pros: Close to campus Utilities included Fast response to maintenance requests Helped in resolving roommate issue Cons: Everything else. To elaborate more, my first year living here was fine, except that they pressure you to renew starting in September. By that point I’d only lived here one month, but was forced to renew under the pressure of drastically raised rent. Then COVID happened and they refused to break that early signed lease, even under those conditions and knowing that their tenants are college students that really couldn’t afford that situation. But even if we ignore all of that, my experience really took a dive the final year. That final year, they paired me, a senior, to live with three freshman the exact opposite lifestyle of me. Those roommates caused me to attend two important interviews with 3 hours of sleep because they kept me up nearly all night by having their friends over. Thankfully, the housing manager was sympathetic and had me moved into another unit very soon after, to which I was very grateful for. However, they did charge me a transfer fee, which they claimed was for cleaning, but then they moved me into a dirty unit. When I asked why it hadn’t been cleaned, they said it was because my new roommate had already moved in. Over the course of the year, the elevator broke down numerous times, and at one point there was even a time where none of them were working at all. The apartment managers even used their keys to enter our unit without our consent or prior warning at one point, and flat denied it when I asked them about it despite it being very clear by the state of my room. My final straw was when I found a subletter for the summer months. They attempted to charge me a ridiculous sublet fee that was close to an entire month’s rent when I was only subletting for two months as is - they claimed it was a cleaning fee (though I don’t know any cleaning services that charge 700-800 for one apartment). My subletter thankfully agreed to sign a waiver to take the apartment as is after I had cleaned it, and I’ve never been more thankful as I was moving out. This isn’t the worst apartment in college station, but they are very prone to up charging and taking advantage of college students so be warned. Edits to address owner reply: If Aspire doesn't base roommate matching on lifestyle, what do they base it on? It wasn't based on year - I as a senior was placed with three freshmen, when there were plenty of other graduate students housing at Aspire as well. I was placed with three people who stayed up much later hours than I did, and with very different ideas on cleanliness than I had. If all of these are things we need to fill out on the roommate matching form but none are considered in the roommate matching process, I have to wonder what the point of matching even is. As for my dirty unit, the thing is, my new roommate had literally just moved in as well, and hadn't even been living there since she moved in - she had just moved her things in and left back to her hometown, with the intention of moving in later. The place was just as dirty when she moved in, so it seems like it hadn't been cleaned prior to either of our move-ins. Additionally, the summer before when I was transferring units, I had planned on taking a very important all-day exam needed to apply to the graduate school of my choice. I emailed Aspire specifically to clarify that my transfer/moving day wouldn't be on my exam date many months in advance, and they responded to me that it wouldn't be an issue at all and that they would make sure that the days were different. A couple of weeks before I'm scheduled to take the exam, past the day I could reschedule, they let me know that my move in day would be the day of my exam. They further informed me, after I asked how this happened when they assured me it wouldn't be a problem, that I would be fined for every single day that I didn't move my things if I couldn't move my stuff that very day.