<p>Hi, I finally moved out of my dorm which made me very happy 8D. Right now I'm doing summer school so I'm living at home which is 50 minutes from school. It's not that tiring probably because it's summer and I'm only taking a few classes (one class per day). But in the fall I will be taking 5 classes and my mom said I might get too tired if I lived at home and commuted everyday. I don't know whether I should try living at home and see if it works or just find a place in IV. The thing is I don't wanna deal with having roommates, but then a single room will be too expensive, plus I've had more of bad dorm/apartment experiences than good ones. So I feel so much better living at home... but it's kinda far =/.
advice please. thanks!</p>
<p>I know a person who lived an hour away and commuted for all four years, he had no problem. Its purely up to the stamina of the person and the schedule they have.</p>
<p>One of the big advantages of UCSB is that it is a residential college where almost everyone lives near or on campus. It means that friends you make are nearby. It also means that its convenient to make extra trips to campus; to see a TA or prof, attend an event, hear a speaker, etc. You’ll give this up living 50 minutes away once you’re home, you’re not going to drive 2 more hours that day just to do something for an hour or less on campus.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind the costs of driving. Let me assume 50 minutes is 50 miles, that’s 100 miles round-trip. A fuel efficient car getting 33 miles per gallon is gonna cost about $9 each trip assuming gas is $2.99 per gallon. That’s $36 a week if you have class four days a week or about $144 a month. Add in depreciation on your car plus increased maintenance costs and this will push the number much higher. That’s money that can be put into rent.</p>
<p>wow rc251 ! genius</p>
<p>yeah I know about the cost of commuting, but still it’s cheaper than renting and i get to live at home. i guess i’ll commute for the summer and just find a cheap apartment for the regular quarters and hope i get a cool roommate. it was hell for me living in the dorm last year. the roommate issues r still haunting me =(.</p>
<p>wait if you live in IV, can u still purchase meal plans?</p>
<p>lawcha. yes. dining services at ucsb do provide meal plans for students that are living off campus. but they are kinda expensive tho.
[Off</a> Campus Meal Plan Information](<a href=“http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/dining/ocmp-info.htm]Off”>http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/dining/ocmp-info.htm)</p>
<p>Nicha - what happened with your roommate? Did you make any friends you could possibly live with in the dorms or off-campus?</p>
<p>I heard living off campus in an apartment, if you share your room with like 3-4 people, ends up being cheaper than living in the dorms. So wouldn’t the costs for rent and flood balance out to be sorta the same as living in the dorms and food?</p>
<p>* I heard living off campus in an apartment, if you share your room with like 3-4 people, ends up being cheaper than living in the dorms. So wouldn’t the costs for rent and flood balance out to be sorta the same as living in the dorms and food? *</p>
<p>In practice, most people don’t get meal plans once they move off campus. Apartment living is generally cheaper, but you can save even more by making trips to Costco (2 miles away) and loading up on food that you can split with your roommates. And if you don’t feel like making food, Isla Vista has a lot of food options. I have many memories of going to Costco with my roommates and getting Dino Nuggets, the 4 pack of half gallon Tropicana Orange Juice, and a handle of Skyy Vodka. How I miss it :(</p>
<p>* yeah I know about the cost of commuting, but still it’s cheaper than renting and i get to live at home. i guess i’ll commute for the summer and just find a cheap apartment for the regular quarters and hope i get a cool roommate. it was hell for me living in the dorm last year. the roommate issues r still haunting me =(. *</p>
<p>Yeah, just find a roommate you’d like. I lived with a bad roommate in Manzanita and then incredible roommates in Isla Vista. There’s also some really cheap places in Isla Vista like Garden Court (around $375 a month to share). You can put out an ad on Craigslist or find an ad where someone matches your personality.</p>
<p>Ahh, i never really thought about that. Your going to miss it? Did you just graduate the past year?</p>
<p>I graduated last year (spring 2008). I was a transfer in 2005 but lived on campus my first two years and then IV my last year. That last year was easily the best of my life 
Soak up the experience because living in IV is a unique opportunity you’ll never have for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>thanks guys for all your help =). </p>
<p>@rc251: yeah i’ve been looking at garden court xD. actually i almost rented a single room there but i decided to stay home for the summer, plus the girl whose space was to be taken by me was trying to charge me for stupid things so she got on my nerves. but thanks for the info. i feel more relieved now =)</p>
<p>@dissonance: i had two roommates, one of them was cool enough and the other one was the kind i would never want to live with. they were best friends with the girl next door and that girl was super annoying, so i got really irritable and my roommates thought that i didn’t like them. well i only hated one of them LOL, but they were good friends with each other, which put me into an awkward situation since i wasn’t able to talk it over with them. it was partly my fault, i guess. and sometimes i had to take a sleeping pill to go to sleep because that one roommate would stay up playing her computer until 4am. i didn’t tell her anything since the other roommate seemed to be ok with it, so i thought it could be me that had a problem, although even now i still wonder how the good roommate could endure that girl snoring every night when i could still hear it through my earplugs… </p>
<p>and sadly most of my friends i made last year were either EAP students or seniors who just graduated -_-". i can’t really get along with those young kids in the dorms LOL.</p>