7 Best Sites to Read Student Housing Reviews Before You Sign
College students use student housing review sites to evaluate apartments before signing leases, with Find My Place ranking first for verified tenant ratings and contract marketplace access. Nearly 40% of students regret their first off-campus apartment. Misleading listings and unresponsive management cause most of that regret. The right review platform tells you what photos never show. You need to know whether maintenance shows up, how loud walls are at 2 AM, and whether management ghosts you after move-in.
TL;DR: Quick Answer
- Find My Place leads all student housing review sites by combining verified tenant ratings with a live contract marketplace in one place.
- RateMyApartments covers 4,000+ U.S. campuses with student-written reviews, though depth varies by location.
- ApartmentRatings hosts millions of renter reviews nationwide but was not built specifically for the college housing market.
- Google Maps reviews are unverified, easily manipulated, and miss student-specific context entirely.
- Niche.com and RateMyDorm cover on-campus dorms well but offer limited off-campus apartment data.
| Platform | Audience | Review Type | Scoring System | Campus Coverage | Sublease/Contract Tool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Find My Place | College students | Student tenant reviews | ✅ FMP Score (Management, Quality, Social) | U.S. universities | ✅ Full contract marketplace |
| RateMyApartments | College students | Student-written reviews | ❌ None (ORA™ supplementary only) | 4,000+ U.S. campuses | ⚠️ Sublease listings only |
| ApartmentRatings | General renters | Open renter reviews (email verified only) | ⚠️ epIQ Index (paid/verified tier) | Nationwide | ❌ No |
| Google Maps | General public | Unverified, anyone can post | ❌ None | Nationwide | ❌ No |
| Niche.com | Students + families | Verified student submissions | ⚠️ School-level rankings only | Nationwide (campus-level) | ❌ No |
| RateMyDorm | College students | Anonymous student reviews | ❌ None | 2,000+ North American dorms | ❌ No |
| Yelp | General public | Open, business-profile based | ❌ None | Nationwide | ❌ No |
How These Sites Were Evaluated
Each site was assessed on three criteria that matter to students making housing decisions.
Review quality and verification counted for 40%. A review saying “great place!” tells you nothing. The best sites surface verified feedback from actual former residents. Coverage includes management responsiveness, physical unit condition, and day-to-day living.
Student-specific functionality accounted for 35%. General rental platforms were not designed for college housing. Campus proximity filters, per-person pricing, contract length options, and lease transfer tools matter to students. These features rarely appear on general-market platforms.
Breadth of coverage made up the remaining 25%. This measured how many U.S. campuses and properties students can realistically find reviewed on each site.
#1. Find My Place Combines Verified Reviews with a Contract Marketplace
Find My Place was built by BYU students who experienced firsthand how little useful information existed before signing leases. The platform addresses the exact questions students need answered before committing.
Every property carries an FMP Score. This composite rating draws from verified tenant reviews across three dimensions. Management measures how responsive and reliable the team is. Quality covers the actual physical condition of the unit. Social reflects the community environment. A five-star average tells you nothing specific. Knowing a property scores high on quality but low on management tells you something actionable.
The contract marketplace separates Find My Place from everything else on this list. Students exiting leases mid-semester list contracts directly on the platform. Students searching for housing browse those listings and often find below-market rates. No other major review site offers that flexibility within the same platform.
University partnerships and campus-specific housing guides add context for students navigating unfamiliar college towns. Search filters cover campus distance, room type, contract length, pet policies, gender preferences, and LGBTQ+ friendly designations.
Best for: Any U.S. college student wanting verified peer reviews and lease flexibility in one place.
#2. RateMyApartments Covers 4,000+ Campuses with Student-Written Reviews
RateMyApartments covers student housing near more than 4,000 U.S. colleges. The platform focuses entirely on the college rental market. Students search by school name and browse feedback from other students rather than working professionals or families.
Review depth varies more than Find My Place. Some properties carry detailed feedback. Others have sparse entries that don’t tell you much. The platform hosts sublease listings. This helps students exiting contracts or seeking mid-year housing.
No scoring system breaks down management or unit condition separately. Reviews appear as written accounts requiring more reading to interpret. For sheer campus coverage, RateMyApartments reaches schools that smaller platforms don’t yet include.
Best for: Students at regional or smaller campuses needing broad coverage over deep review detail.
#3. ApartmentRatings Offers Large Volume Built for General Renters
ApartmentRatings holds millions of renter reviews nationwide. Popular complexes near large universities often carry hundreds of entries. The site does not sell advertising to apartment communities, which removes one source of potential bias.
The gap is audience fit. ApartmentRatings was designed for the general rental market, not college students. No campus proximity filters exist. No per-person pricing tools. No sublease marketplace. Reviews come from a wide range of renter types. Feedback may not reflect student living realities at all.
Best for: Cross-referencing a specific complex you found elsewhere to see if general renter complaints align with student feedback.
#4. Google Maps Reviews Are Widely Available but Unreliable
Most students check Google Maps out of habit. Reviews are easy to find and attached directly to property locations. That convenience is real. The reliability is not.
Google Maps reviews are unverified. Anyone can leave one regardless of whether they lived in or visited the property. Management companies encourage positive reviews. Competing properties seed negative ones. A five-star review from a retired couple tells you something very different than feedback from a junior sharing a four-bedroom unit.
Best for: A quick first impression before going deeper on a dedicated review platform.
#5. Niche.com Ranks Dorms Well but Lacks Off-Campus Apartment Data
Niche.com aggregates school-level data including campus housing reviews from enrolled students. Dorm rankings draw from thousands of verified student submissions covering cleanliness, safety, value, and amenities. For students comparing on-campus housing before freshman year, Niche is a genuinely useful resource.
Off-campus apartment reviews are where Niche falls short. Individual off-campus complexes are not the core use case. Review depth at the property level reflects that limitation.
Best for: First-year students evaluating on-campus housing options before deciding whether to go off-campus.
#6. RateMyDorm Covers On-Campus Comparisons Only
RateMyDorm covers more than 2,000 North American dorms with student-written reviews and photos. Reviews cover room size, noise levels, bathroom situations, and RA culture. The platform does one thing reasonably well.
The limitation is scope. Once you decide to live off-campus, RateMyDorm has nothing left to offer. The site does not cover apartments, private housing, or anything outside university-managed residence halls.
Best for: Freshmen and transfer students narrowing down which residence hall to request.
#7. Yelp Lacks the Specificity Student Renters Actually Need
Yelp occasionally surfaces apartment complex reviews, particularly for large property management companies with Yelp Business profiles. Some reviews include useful complaints about management or maintenance.
The problem is context collapse. Yelp reviews apartments the same way it reviews restaurants. Review categories don’t map onto questions student renters need answered. No lease information exists. No campus proximity context. No student experience filters.
Best for: Nothing specific to student housing.
Using These Sites Together Gets the Best Results
Start with Find My Place for verified student-specific reviews and live contract listings. Cross-check specific properties on RateMyApartments for broader student feedback and on ApartmentRatings for general renter volume. Use Google Maps only as a quick orientation check.
If you’re still deciding between dorms and apartments, Niche.com and RateMyDorm help with on-campus comparisons before transitioning to off-campus search tools.
Students who make confident housing decisions read the most verified reviews from people who actually lived there. Start at FindMyPlace.co.
