<p>I’m all for squalor! That’s why I’d be pumped to go to Cal. And how could you hate on latrinalia? :P</p>
<p>Haha well some of the things are pretty funny to read…I’ll admit that.</p>
<p>It really depends on the person I guess =]</p>
<p>@uchappy: Right on! My boyfriend goes to school up there already, so I’ve been lucky enough to venture up there a few different times and spend a week or so at a time…So awesome! I plan on going for spring break too! Although, mine isn’t until April 1st, so…yeah. haha. How cool would it be if you ran into somebody you talked to on CC up at UCSC? lol</p>
<p>@allfields: Yeah, those nasty bunches are sea weed. Uchappy is right. I used to play in those things all day long when I went to Newport every Summer. The cool thing about them though is, if you look hard enough, sometimes you can find a tangled up starfish in them! haha. I’m such a dork. :)</p>
<p>Just to add to AllFieldsReq’s comments, I live about 20 minutes away from SB in Ventura after moving here from LA last year. I used to work in Santa Barbara and many of my friends live there. The social scene is much more outgoing, so I go there usually every weekend. Here are some of the more negative things that I’ve noticed:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The campus and surrounding areas are nice, but not altogether incredibly gorgeous. The surrounding area of IV is not what I’d call picturesque, but downtown Santa Barbara is beautiful and State Street is an awesome place to be. AllFieldsReq is pretty accurate in his or her description of IV, especially in regards to characters like “the Pirate”.</p></li>
<li><p>The party scene is just as described, if not worse. An entire street (Del Playa) gets overrun with literally hundreds of drunk college idiots on the weekends and I have yet to visit without witnessing a NorCal-SoCal fight emerge between groups of bros. Not that this isn’t an exciting experience and at times incredibly fun, but I would off myself if I had to take 4 years of that kind of party lifestyle. </p></li>
<li><p>While there are some great people to meet, Santa Barbara is also overrun with obnoxious, aggressive guys and incredibly shallow, airheaded women. If you like watching scantily clad college girls doubled over on the sidewalk from alcohol intoxication and one too many plates of Free Birds nachos, this is the place for you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>With that being said, I’ve also had some incredible times in SB and am not a full-time student, so take these opinions with a grain of salt. I’d say that 75 percent of my experiences there have been enjoyable, but I think everyone has expounded on the positives on the UCSB page, so I thought I’d give my two cents about why I’m seriously considering UCSC over UCSB even if I get accepted to both. I feel like it’s a more laid-back environment and that sounds appealing to me after my incredibly out-of-control experiences at UCSB.</p>
<p>^ Yeah I agree</p>
<p>I forgot to mention State Street. lawlking should go there if they decide to go to UCSB. It’s not a far drive at all and I always thought of it as a classier Hollywood walk. The Habit is a delicious burger place comparable to In n Out.</p>
<p>@kingdomsroa48
Now I am torn. I want to see a starfish but I do not want to touch the nasty seaweed. But there is a touch tank on campus that people can visit for free on Saturdays. I would like to think they have star fish. I keep forgetting to do this. It is on my UCSB bucket list.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.lotsafunmaps.com/view.php?id=3647[/url]”>http://www.lotsafunmaps.com/view.php?id=3647</a></p>
<p>@kingdomsroa haha that would be so random!! i’m a dork too hence my user name lol. and just because you said that I am determined to find a star fish… I’ve found crabs at newport but ive never found a starfish that just sounds cool. I wonder if UCSC has a lot of sea shells? I’ve only found one perfect sand dollar in my life and that was at Santa Monica really early in the morning on a school day, so the beach was empty.</p>
<p>Ew, washed up seaweed. That happens at one part of the main beach here in Santa Cruz. Avoid walking near that area like the plague on a hot, bright day. The smell is absolutely revolting when it starts rotting in the sun.</p>
<p>I only said UCSB if the criteria was closer beach :). Quality of beach is a whole other discussion… Main beach here is usually clean, but it is a tourist spot. UCSC is super isolated from the rest of the city so getting anywhere does take effort. But our fees pay for us to ride the county buses around for “free” (free as in we pay no cost boarding the bus, but the school is charged and fees we paid go to cover that). Bus 19 is the one that goes to the beach, but one can walk to the beach from downtown too (adds about 15-20 minutes to your trip after taking a bus to get to downtown).</p>
<p>You will likely not find seashells at UCSC, uchappytrain. We are in a forest quite a distance from the beach ;). Any shells here would probably be very old or placed here by someone who brought them back. Not likely to find any at main beach either since it is the most populated due to the Boardwalk. Doesn’t mean one won’t find one wash up from time to time, but I’ve yet to find one myself. You’d need to go to one of the beaches that does not get as many tourists.</p>
<p>@kender how long does it take to get to the beach if youre riding the bus? that sucks about the sea shells but i’m determined to find one lol.</p>
<p>uchappytrain: About 40 minutes according to Google Maps (NOTE: this is starting from Porter). That’s taking the 19 directly to the beach or grabbing one of the other buses to go to the Metro Center downtown and walk to the beach (Google maps claims it’s an 18 minute walk). Driving… I’d say about 15 minutes, give or take a few? That doesn’t include parking time and walking from where you manage to find a spot. Parking is quite expensive near the Boardwalk particularly if it happens to be a full operation day.</p>
<p>And there’s some other beaches you can go check out that might have a higher chance of finding something :). I just haven’t been. There are some incredibly interesting places to explore out in the forest, though. Can find a decent number of them listed in the Unnatural History book about UCSC.</p>