Transferring to Ohio State in January - Any advice on these neighborhoods/apt complexes? (Columbus: apartments)

[Nemuri]

Born and raised in Upper Manhattan, lived in Cleveland for the last 6 years, finally transferring my credits to OSU so I can finish up my bachelor's.

I plan on working for one of the 4 major cell phone providers @ Easton given my work experience but did not like the area outside of the shopping center. (morse rd)

Anything with a relatively short (10-20 min) commute to campus and Easton would be ideal, obviously the closer the better.

I've been visiting aptguide.com/rent.com/craigslist/pad mapper etc for the past 3 months and it seems like Hilliard or the southwest parts of Columbus seem to have the rent I'm looking for, $600 a month being my limit, as well as washer/dryer connections and off street parking.

A few that stood out being Bayside Commons/Country View & Templeton Crossing.

Any suggestions around these areas or perhaps other areas that I may not have noticed due to my limited knowledge of the city?

From what I've heard, its best to stay away from the east side of the city. I've been raised in less than stellar areas all of my life so it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, but quite frankly I'm dead tired of it and would like to live somewhere where I won't have to worry about my car window being broken in the middle of the night.

Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

[szkoda]

I live in Hilliard.
Although Bayside Commons aren't technically in the city of Hilliard, they're in the Hilliard geographical area. I've lived here since 1996 and my best advice would be to stay away from this complex.
Country View is right next to bayside, but doesn't seem to be nearly as bad.
Templeton's crossing is not considered Hilliard and I'm not very familiar with it. However, that area doesn't seem to be too bad either.
I am a current student at Ohio State and driving from Hilliard everyday is a hassle.
Hilliard is on the complete opposite side of the city from Easton, so you'd have a long commute.
May I suggest the Olentangy area? There are some fairly decent apartments north of OSU campus that would be only about a 10 minute drive for you. It's pretty close to Easton as well, at least a lot closer than Hilliard.
The east side generally has a poor reputation, however I can't give you as much detail as I could about the west side.
I'm sure others will chime in with some good info as well.
Hope this helps!

[Nemuri]

Thanks for the response, Bayside Commons that bad huh?

[szkoda]

I suppose it depends on your definition of bad. Crime infested? Not really. When compared to Columbus, this area is laughable in terms of crime. Bayside just seems to be one of the 'hot spots' for police (again, this is technically Columbus). I suppose to ME, it's not a nice place to live compared to the rest of the area. I'll be blunt in saying that it's a majority Somali complex. I've never had any trouble with them, it's just that they seem to want to keep to themselves most of the time.

[Mplsite]

Hilliard? If you're from small-town Ohio looking for a big suburb experience it'll fit the bill, but it couldn't be more out of the way for an OSU-Easton live-work situation. If you don't like Morse Rd (eww), you won't like Hilliard, which at least does have a little downtown, albeit sports bars geared toward small town folk is really all you have.

I lived for under $400/month in Downtown Columbus near a little (and I mean little) bustling area of Olde Towne East. You can easily find an apartment in the SE corner of Downtown for around $500, I mean, the art students from CCAD seem to have no trouble doing so, so why torture yourself in Hilliard and have a horrible "Columbus" experience? Do yourself a favor and look harder at craigslist too, because padmapper kinda just sucks. There is highway construction going on there, so it might add a bit to the commute, but probably not more than living out on the western fringe of the city. Around OSU I'd look north of Lane Ave in Old North Columbus. You'll get to live in an affordable neighborhood that is full of culture (ie., the opposite of Hilliard) with lots of live music, unique local restaurants, and bars of course.

[SteelersFan09]

Not going to be easily done. There's nowhere really in-between Easton and OSU I would recommend living and the commute to either place is going to be a pain.

When people move to Columbus and plan on living inside of I-270 while asking me for my two cents, I always recommend to stay north of 670 AND west of High Street.

[bjimmy24]

Honestly, just live in Old North Columbus or SoHud. Much better neighborhoods, can't beat the convenience, lots of students around, but not as "fratty" as other, more centrally located off-campus areas are. Also shouldn't cost too much and your commute will be walking 15-20 minutes or a 5 minute bus ride. You will enjoy OSU much more in those areas, trust me.