Renting an apartment!

I graduated from the University of Texas two years back with a Masters in Business Management. I had a really difficult time finding an apartment near the University. I had to spend several days looking at the various options and preparing a preference list based on the different credentials of the various apartments which were available. I drove to about five different avenues around the University where most students rented apartments. I finally had only two of them in my preference list since others were places with high crime rate or had some other major problems like small parking lots. I was looking for a place which had a perfect residential environment and will allow me to study peacefully. But studying was not the only concern; I wanted to have a strong student presence in these places since it would be fun if we can play basket ball in weekends. I was also looking for various facilities like swimming pool, fitness area and tennis courts. One more option I had was on-campus housing. But since my university had a large proportion of foreign students, on-campus housing was really difficult to obtain since we had to compete with foreign students who apply for housing very early in the year. And moreover on-campus housing is too costly when compared to apartments outside the campus. The floor area of these apartments are also considerably lesser than those available outside. So I was more inclined towards renting an apartment outside the campus transportation would not be a problem since I had a car. I used the internet to find apartments for rent and very few websites gave updated information while others had old apartments still listed in their availability lists. The next hurdle after finding your apartment, is finding roommates. I had leased a two bedroom apartment and was looking for a roommate who would have no problems sharing the apartment with me. After a long hunt I found a nice guy who has been a great friend of mine even after I graduated and moved to California.