The Colleges at La Rue

Location

164 La Rue Road, on campus & across the street from the ARC

Office Hours

Mon-Fri, 9:30am-12pm & 1pm-5:30pm

Contact

Trish Whitcomb, Manager

Phone: (530)754-5797

[mailto:thecolleges@tandemproperties.com]

Website

tandemproperties.com

facebook.com

Types of Units

Jr. 1br/1ba, 1br/1ba, Grad Cottage, 2br/2ba, 3br/2ba, 4br/2ba

Price Range

$875 to $2,428 as of February 2010

The Colleges at La Rue (more commonly known simply as "The Colleges") is an apartment complex on the UC Davis campus but the buildings are owned and privately managed by Tandem Properties. The Colleges are available only to undergraduates, except first-years.

Residents have commented that this is a stellar place to live for students because of it's location and because only students live here. Although there is a lot of activity going on, residents note that the units are very well insulated and that outside noise isn't a problem. It seems like a great place to stay really integrated into university life with the benefits of modern apartment living.

2010-02-16 - Thanks to all who came out last Thursday to enter our housing lottery, we had a blast! We will be holding the drawing early March and will let you know the results as soon as we can. Good luck!

Additional Notes: The Colleges use underground thermal loops for cooling. (citation needed)

Public Transportation - The Colleges are on Unitrans J bus line, C bus line and D bus line, inbound only. However, the Colleges is only a short walk to The Silo, where you can catch several other bus lines.

Bicycle - Since The Colleges is on the UC Davis campus, it is completely integrated into the Davis Bike Loop and there are bike lanes, bike paths, and bike-only connectors on all of the surrounding streets.

Pedestrian - This complex is on campus, meaning that it is in a great location for students. The Colleges sit directly across the street from the ARC, yet offers its own fitness room. The Rec Pool is immediately adjacent, and residents can easily bring just a towel and simply walk home to change out of their swimsuits. For recreational adventures, walk through campus to The UC Davis Arboretum or walk through the Experimental College Community Garden and head past The Domes to the Bike Bridge over Hw 113 and explore the site of the new West Village. During the Fall, residents only have to walk a block to watch UC Davis Football at Aggie Stadium. During the spring, Women's Lacrosse also lays down the law at Aggie Stadium.

Since this is near an older part of Davis, the closest access to The Greenbelt is at Community Park. For limited grocery, shopping, some services and dining, University Mall and Rite Aid are about 4 blocks away. Future residents at The Colleges may have very close access to Trader Joe's.

Parking - Residents have free on-campus parking at The Colleges. There are a few 20-minute visitor parking spots that people sometimes use as free parking for class (though they risk ticketing). Residents have noted that in the past, TAPS does not come by to ticket as often as they do for the campus lots, they still do so occasionally, so it's usually best to park only for short visits rather than leaving your car while you go to class.

ADA Accessibility - Some units are ADA Accessible.

To live in The Colleges, students were once required to be accepted into the Leadership Learning Community, which offered various extracurricular programs and events throughout the academic year. Today, you need only to find an open apartment, which may still be a difficult task to the competition for limited space. You must either find a current resident to move in with or enter a lottery to obtain one of the few apartments that open up each year. The lottery is completely random, with priority to current residents who are changing apartments. Your odds of getting an apartment are much better if you know someone you can move in with, either under a sublease or as a co-leaser.

As part of the Leadership Learning Community, residents were required to attend two 1.5-2 hour events (or a single longer event) a quarter. Some found the programs useful, others enjoyable, and still others treated it simply as part of "the price of living at The Colleges". Beginning Winter Quarter 2008, residents of the Colleges are no longer required to attend events. They are now strictly voluntary for those who seek their own professional development (in the case of leadership/career-oriented events such as resume workshops) or networking/enjoyment (in the case of community events such as ice cream and movie nights).

The Center for Leadership Learning is the home for several UC Davis leadership programs and is located at The Colleges.

Junior 1br/ba1br/1baGrad Cottage2br/2ba3br/2ba4br/2ba

Map of The Colleges. Click to view larger size

• To learn more about rental housing in Davis, check out our Housing Guide as well as our Apartments pages.

Older comments can be found in the comment archive.

2006-09-09 22:27:57   I got accepted into the program and was offered an apartment right away, along with the other handful of people I knew that applied. We didn't have to worry about a lottery, and it wasn't even mentioned. They do have a really neat system for finding and looking for roommates. —ChristyMarsden

2007-02-02 09:08:16   There are ways to get around the lottery; it is possible to join a friend's lease and then transfer to a new apartment. You get priority since you're technically already a resident. Only problem (or maybe not, if you're into it) is you're required to participate in the programs each quarter. Also, when I lived there (2005-2006) I don't think the lottery program was really in place; we received several emails reminding people that apartments were available if we had friends who were looking for a place to live. —ElleWeber

2007-09-28 11:09:49   I enjoyed living here. I'm not sure if my neighbors were just quiet or the walls were soundproofed, but when they had stuff going on I could barely hear them. Although the walls within the apartment were paper thing. For a 100% student complex, parties never got out of hand and the campus police were always reasonable. I also found the units to be well insulated. —JamesSchwab

2010-03-12 10:50:49   I do not know how its like to live here because I didn't get picked for the lottery. Actually, no one got picked for the lottery, because there were no apartments to give out. They had us sign up for a lottery where there weren't even any rooms available. I'm very glad me and my friends went to sign up for Tanglewood before they told us because if they hadn't then we would have been nearly screwed. Personally, I think it's incredibly rude to not only make us wait this long to sign up for rooms (rooms should come by first-come first-serve basis) but also to NOT INFORM US THAT THERE WERE NO ROOMS TO BEGIN WITH. I believe this was simply a ruse to attract customers to the apartments they were partnered with under their "Plan B" scheme. But that's just me. Btw, they have nice cupcakes. —theshonen8899