I lived here for a little over a year and I had a wonderful experience. I love the feel of my apartment, the people in the office and housing services are always quick and very helpful and friendly (in a building of like 400 units or so, the people in the office actually remembered me event though I barely see them), and it is cheap and a very convenient location.
I've had plenty of friends who live here and love to complain about it because of the fact that there is bare concrete everywhere and feels too cold and sterile to be a 'home'. But for me, what sold me on this place are all the little details that make living here enjoyable. Ventilation is very well designed and simple, every room in my apartment is very light and airy, there are really good study areas inside the building, vending machines, bbq area, it comes pre-furnished with very comfy beds (the couch in the living room ain't so comfy, but it does the job), and the administration tries to sponsor social events every now and then (I've never gone, but I appreciate the effort).
Everything about this apartment is about efficiency, while retaining a good level of comfort. It is LEED certified, but you don't really notice any detriment to quality of life as a result. Mainly, I think the building is just plain beautiful, especially at night.
a few gripes:
Any sound made in the living room or kitchen will propagate quite unimpeded to the bedroom, so if you are like me, then you may want to invest in earplugs. My other complaint is parking: there once was an amazingly large parking lot right next to Rita, but for whatever reason, UCSD decided to prohibit overnight parking there, so if you drive, your only option was to park off-campus or elsewhere in campus. This problem has been eliminated by UCSD tearing down most of that parking lot to construct a new building, so even if we wanted it, there is no convenient on campus parking nearby. (this of course is not Rita's fault, but that of UCSD as a whole, so no hard feelings.) My apartment never had this problem, but some friends of mine have had sort of crappy units, either due to location in the building or an unfortunate floor-plan and they can feel a little stuffy or cramped. Regardless, once you remember that you are paying $460'ish plus $5 utilities per month for a single these complaints should vanish.
Overall, I'd say this is a wonderful apartment building, by far the best I've lived in. If you an incoming graduate student, I suggest you apply for on campus housing here. If it weren't for the 2-year max on campus housing rule that UCSD has, I'd want to live here for my entire Ph.D. read more