Mercer Court — Local services in Seattle

Lived here for over 1 year. Greatly regretted my decision many times. Don't make the same mistake.

Although the buildings are newer, unfortunately like many things at UW, the administration is rather inept. We had gunshots one night near the dorm, but HFS provided minimal explanation of what happened and of what they planned to do to increase safety. You will routinely receive UW police messages about violent crimes occurring in the areas surrounding the neighborhood. Inflexible 12 month leases keep you locked in to rents until August, even if you graduate in June. There are rules in place meant to promote a pleasant community, like no-smoking zones, but good luck getting HFS to enforce any of them.

For 4 and 6 person units, you'll be sharing 1 refrigerator/freezer with all of them. If you have any terrible roommates, even if they break the housing agreement, there is absolutely nothing HFS can or will do to help you, besides scheduling a useless "talk"/conflict resolution session. What an utter waste of time. I am convinced that even if a bad roommate does illegal activities, routinely breaks the housing agreement, or assaults you, HFS will in no way provide any meaningful assistance. It's needless stress.

If you're the last one to vacate the dorm, you'll be required to make sure everything in the dorm is clean, even areas that you did not use. What this means is, if your former roommates left a mess and the previous move-out inspections failed to catch it, you're suddenly responsible for cleaning everyone's mess. It makes absolutely no sense.

In the summer, due to terrible room design and lack of air conditioning, expect rooms to routinely be 10-15 degrees hotter than the outside, even at 3am... its unbearable when its 85/90F in the room. The rooms only have 1 small window which barely permits any ventilation, and are of a type that doesn't allow for portable AC installation. On weekend nights, you can expect plenty of drunken undergrads to be rowdy in the area until late at night.

If you have a car, the cramped and ineptly designed parking garage is designed to practically guarantee your car will hit a wall or run over the median several times a year. Due to the location of the parking garage, getting out to Pacific Street can be a huge hassle, as there is only 1 way in, and sometimes the road is closed or there is construction.

Don't waste...

Waking up at 6:00AM to the Coca-Cola truck that parks right outside my window (the shutters on the doors are very loud and the beeping doesn't help either) and when I contact HFS, I get a reply essentially saying- Not it problem, deal with it.

Apartments are set up horribly. Not only is little thought given to what overlooks your window, building based on acoustics is something perhaps conjured up witchcraft to the designers. You can hear every single word spoken even in a normal tone in your cramped up common areas, only to be amplified by the actual dining areas being in the corridor to your living space.

This is literally the worst apartment you can live in. Aside from drunk teens yelling from the parking garages, loud music from parked vehicles, and the early morning beeping from garbage and utility trucks, probably the best reason I can give you not to live here is the administration.

They're cold, unsympathetic, downplay all your issues and blaming all of these problems of living in the chaos of a city. I come from the much more chaotic Mumbai and this is not normal, and their attitude towards student problems associated with living on campus isn't either.

My honest opinion- Please don't live here. I'm living in something that can only be described as a nightmare; there are severe living issues that are ignored my administration, only to be ridiculed and ignored when bought up by residents. Go live elsewhere, hopefully one which is better designed and managed by people with some sense of responsibility towards...

Of the housing options at UW, Mercer is definitely among the best. Assuming you get lucky and are given good roommates (which I did) you'll have the convenience of campus housing paired with actual privacy and a usable kitchen you can't find in the dorms. The issue is the price. UW prices their housing not as it should, as tax-subsidized affordable student housing, but as above-market-rate shared apartments. If you were to share a modest apartment with a roommate elsewhere in udistrict, you would likely be paying nearly half what you can expect at UW. Of course there are caveats in that it's far easier to get an university apartment, but if money is an issue I'd advise...