Fisher Commons

I was one of the first renters of these apartments, back in ’07. There were minor construction issues (dented doors, questionable outlet wiring and placement) but I enjoyed the quiet atmosphere and safety the location provided. The managers were PhD students and always very responsive/​accommodating to whatever concerns I brought to them. Rent was pretty reasonable, given the amenities. I rarely used the lounge, but I was so busy with work and school, I didn’t miss anything. It was such a relief to have this option for housing, as I was moving back to Columbus from overseas and didn’t have much time/​resources to explore other rentals.

First and foremost, can we just acknowledge, for like 3 seconds that this is categorized as a retirement home?!? When in fact, their website describes it as: «Introducing the MBA living-​learning community… Now you can live, study and socialize with fellow students in graduate housing.»
This leads me to believe that either getting my MBA will immediately make me fantastically wealthy almost immediately. OR, that getting an MBA makes you feel very very old very fast. I can confirm that the former is totally untrue. The latter may or may not be true.
(Please note, I’m not changing it. Nor should you. It’s an error too awesome to fix.)
But let us break down this visionary living/​learning community for the old/​retired:
«you can live»: Yup, you can live here. They are apartments. However, lets reflect on some quality of life issues: The apartments are (verging on excessively) expensive, faux-​nice, and seemingly have some construction/​insulation issues. But, its your life. You live how you wanna live, don’t let anybody hold you down (oh no).
«you can study»: If you’re deaf you can probably study here with ease. However, if you’re not, you should know: the walls are thin, the space is small and your neighbors are most likely drinking away a finance exam result. Its an environment almost totally conducive to learning and furthering your academic career.
«you can socialize with fellow students»: This is absolutely true. MANY Fisher graduate students live here. Most of them failed to consider that while Melrose Place seemed SO swanky on TV, actually living in the Columbus version of Melrose Place is less swanky. A heated discussion of implementing strategy change at a fortune 500 company on a Monday just isn’t quite the same when everybody in the whole school saw the winner you brought home from the bar Saturday night leaving in the morning with only one shoe on and puking in the parking lot.
«in graduate housing»: Its true. Graduate students live here. And doing so makes most of them want to graduate into real housing. That isn’t by a train. Or a funny smell.