<p>I just recently was admitted to UCSB but I know nothing about the dorms! From what I have read, Santa Rosa is the closest but also one of the oldest, which has its downsides. On the other hand, Santa Catalina sounds like a cool place to live because it has the largest amount of freshman and the biggest rooms. But it also happens to be the farthest away from campus! I'm looking for a fun dorm where I can meet tons of new people, I really don't mind noise or partying. Could anyone please tell me which are considered the best dorms? Or anything you know about the dorms would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>manzanita…well, yeah :P</p>
<p>no one likes santa catalina for some reason, bad culture there i think</p>
<p>i dont live in dorms but your best bet is probably santa rosa, santa cruz, anacapa etc</p>
<p>I can tell you about FT. It’s the farthest away from the campus, yes. But due to the fact that it’s far away from campus, the people in residents in FT can really bond together (because the dorm people is really all you got when you’re so far away from the main campus). Also because it’s far, most of the time, people get away with partying and various things (wink wink nudge nudge). You even have your own bathroom shared with only three other students! Though the downside would be that it gets kinda obnoxious at times and it’s far away from the beach. (then again, you prob won’t have time for the beach anyways)</p>
<p>If you want to get some photos of the dorms, here are some: [Housing</a> SB Snapshot](<a href=“DropCatch.com”>DropCatch.com)</p>
<p>Most people will agree that regardless of which dorm you get, they are all really fun! & You most likely wont get your first choice.</p>
<p>Hey AhhDeee,</p>
<p>Have you checked out Tropicana Del Norte? I loved living at Tropicana during my freshman year! I can sometimes get really caught up in school and stress, but I found that at Tropicana it was extremely easy for me to get out to programs and meet people. That’s what I really loved about Tropicana Del Norte…that they have so many great programs and basically everyone you live with is UCSB students. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely consider this to be the best dorm. Oh, and also, they are adjacent to campus, meaning you get on your bike and within a minute you’re on the bike path on campus to class. Most of my friends chose to live at Santa Catalina and they took fifteen minutes more to bike to class.</p>
<p>Anacapa
Santa Cruz
San Nic
Santa Rosa
San Miguel
Manzanita
FT</p>
<p>put them in that order</p>
<p>Avoid San Miguel at all costs. Elevators break down frequently, and the rooms are TINY. </p>
<p>Other than that fact, dorm recommendations (such as the post above^) are purely subjective, and vary wildly.</p>
<p>^ many people would find that order pretty accurate. i live in san miguel and the elevators are actually pretty fast and they rarely break down. its lame though because floors are not coed and the rooms are pretty small. i would rather live in san miguel over manzanita or ft because of location</p>
<p>You sure about that? Almost every single person I met who lived in FT LOVED their stint at their dorm, including the current occupants. . .</p>
<hr>
<p>Here’s my subjective input: </p>
<p>Anacapa/Santa Cruz/Santa Rosa (aka “The Shorties”): Can’t go wrong with any of them. Though the nicest ones go in this order: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa. </p>
<p>San Nic: Lived there during FSSP. Good location, rooms were a bit small. Social. Very close to DLG. </p>
<p>San Miguel: Didn’t care much for them. Apparently, everybody I’ve talked to who lived there didn’t either.</p>
<p>FT: Lived there for a year. LOVED the bathroom situation/great size of the rooms, and the high sociability between its occupants. Portola, even with its oft-questionable menu, was extremely convenient. HATED the long distance between FT and campus. </p>
<p>Manzanita: The biggest & best furnished rooms. Oft populated by many a non-freshman/studious student, so social scene there was. . .dead.</p>
<p>I agree San Miguel is horrible, I couldn’t open any of the doors on the closets all the way because they would bump into my bed. If i moved my bed, my roommate couldn’t sit at his desk. It was the most annoying room ever. Also i had to listen to the guys next door sing horrible karaoke every night.</p>
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<p>In case anyone wondered. . .</p>
<p>The dorm in question provided by the link is Anacapa.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend the shorties. They are close to the beach, food, and classes. Honestly if I had lived in ft instead of anacapa I don’t think I would have ever gone to class. Plus portola is definitely questionable 85% of the time.
I absolutely love anacapa and I dot mind the bathroom situation at all. It sounds weird but you actually get to know a lot I people just by seeing them in the barhroom</p>
<p>I live in Anacapa right now and i like it. You still meet a lot of people either way, mainly because a lot of the rooms are triples, so there’s a lot more people than you would think. It’s super close to the beach, so you have the possibility of having an ocean view room. It’s within walking distance of the UCEN, if you ever get tired of dining common food, or if you need some scantrons at the last minute before a test. and at that, it’s close enough to your classes that you don’t have to worry about being late if you leave your room last minute (great for any 8am classes you might end up with)</p>
<p>I live in Santa Rosa, and I really love it. People say that out of the shorties (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa), that Anacapa is the nicest. However, these three are almost identical, with a few exceptions. Santa Rosa is the closest to the center of campus, it has bigger lounges, which are much more friendly than what I’ve seen in the others, and it’s brighter inside (light pink walls). Anacapa and Santa Cruz are also nice, and I think if you’re lucky you can get a beach front view, but only one section in each of these has this privilege. They’re both gray inside, which I don’t find very appealing, but not a huge deal. They’re basically all the same, and people are friendly.</p>
<p>Santa Catalina is far away (about a 10 minute bike ride), and it’s more like a suite (share a room with one person and a bathroom links you to two more people). The rooms are pretty nice and spacious.</p>
<p>San Nicolas and San Miguel are pretty similar. San Nicolas seems a little cleaner and more friendly to me though.
Good luck</p>
<p>Does anybody know what happens if someone you sort of know signs up to dorm with you in their housing application (they put in your perm num on their app) but you don’t want to dorm with them?</p>
<p>scambag- if you don’t put their perm number on yours, you won’t be put together.</p>