I lived in the Traditions my freshman year, and I think that it is perfect for a first year student. The RA's make a legitimate effort to hold social events and give everyone an opportunity to make friends and meet people. I met so many people there that I still talk to. It is so nice to have your own room, although they are small, it's better than sharing a room. There were a few things that bothered me like the food and cleaning service coming in and waking me up, but all in all I have great memories from living at the Traditions and would recommend specifically first year students.

I currently live at the Tradition, and I have to say I was disappointed by the way everything is run here. First of all, when I got here, the sink pipes had been patched by someone with pink duct tape, and were leaking. It took them a week to fix it, during which time I had to use my roommate's sink area. You would think that they would do maintenance over the summer when no one is here, but this is not the case. Furthermore, the internet here is a joke. On Sundays, when everyone is trying to do homework, my internet just freezes completely, and Google won't even load. There have also been several internet outages (for a day or two at a time). This is horribly frustrating as most of my homework is online. Upon going down to the front desk to ask them what they're doing to fix it, they simply told me that they were restarted the system. They told me this 6 or 7 times during one of these outages. Wouldn't you think that at some point they would get a professional to come out and fix it? This is just one of the many instances of management trying to save a buck, along with the fact that the walls are so paper thin that when my roommate talks on the phone in the other room, I can hear him AND whoever he is talking to. Not to mention the drunk people screaming in the courtyard at 4 in the morning, who I can clearly hear as well. Frankly, the only redeeming quality about this place is the convenience. It has been very nice to have a cafeteria in the same building, with only a short walk to campus, but I really don't know if it's worth my everyday frustration. My couch appears as if someone spilled a large amount of coffee on it at some point, the elevators are shaky and break down frequently, and the staircase behind the lobby is absolutely disgusting. For what I pay to live here, I deserve at least a decent internet connection and some sign of upkeep by the management. Do yourself a favor and find a nicer place, even if you have to sacrifice a little conveniency.

So I currently live at Tradition at Northgate for my freshman year, I am a BLINN TEAM student as well. I currently see a ton of tours coming in and out of this what I call off campus dorm, and would like to share the living conditions I live in, just to give you an honest answer of what living here is like. 1. I love the location, easy walk to TAMU campus, quick drive to Blinn too. If you take the bus be ready to wake up and leave an hour to 45 min before your class starts to get there on time. 2. the people I have met here will be my friends throughout college. I love all the friendships I have made, but with that being said you get very comfortable here and don't branch out to people besides the ones living here. So branch out, that was my mistake. so those are the ONLY pro's I have living here 3. Oh, you have homework due at midnight tonight and have 13 problems left and its already 11:15, well sucks because at random hours the wifi won't connect. So have fun failing that class. This has happened not only to me multiple times but other people as well. Be sure to do all your online homework early so if this happens you don't have to worry 4. Cafe = shit. Literally the show they put on for you when you came for aggieland saturday or a major touring date, is just that. A show. Be prepared to eat pizza a ton, or get used to trying weird things. I refuse to eat the fish or eggs. You'd understand why when you see it. 5. The study rooms on B side = shit compared to side A. Actually anything on side A is way better than side be so pray you get that side 6. Now I am a party person. So living here I thought was great, until you realize half the people on the so called quite floor have easy majors compared to engineering or BIMS, and so the quite floor isn't too quite. But hey lots of good partying so if thats a pro for you add it up top. But for me on a tuesday night trying to study chem 2 its a pain in the ass. 7. pets = nope 8. gym= shit compared to other places, oh and if you're on the fifth, fourth, or even third be prepared to here idiots drop the 20 pound weights from 4 feet in the air and slam down. You'll hear it every time. 9. You go to bed early? you better pray so do your neighbors. I am not talking about the ones beside you, but more so the people above you. You will hear them flush the toilet, every time. Take a shower, every time. And use the water, every time. 10. I got lucky with this, but my boyfriends room who is also on side b third floor, his sink, every time he uses it makes this awful popping noise that takes at least 20 minutes to go away. Unless someone above him or below him uses the water too, then it keeps going off. So easy to say the piping here SUCKS. 11. Alright my number one pet peeve about this place is the price. DO NOT LIVE HERE. Thats my advice honestly. You will be paying over $10 grand to live here. That doesn't even include parking OR a meal plan. You want unlimited might as well add another 2 grand. You want to bring you car, add another. Its ridiculous. I am already living at another place next year and I won't even been spending that much in 2 years! This place is a scam out of your money and it isn't even worth spending that amount of money to live here. Sorry if you already signed a lease. But live on campus, or at the rise or stacks. Somewhere better than this place.

Pros: It has a pool, gym, and movie theatre Cons: food is not very good, internet connection goes out fairly often or becomes so slow it's almost unusable, pool is not always clean, rooms are very "cheap", doors squeak very loudly, for some reason it stinks outside the building, near train tracks (hard to sleep when a train has to honk its horn everynight)

After living here I feel like there are many places around College Station that would have provided a significantly better experience. Also, slowest Internet connection I've seen in my entire life. Absolutely ridiculous.