Bringing a car freshman year

<p>I am wondering if I should bring my car to school for freshman year. I will be about 6 hours away from home and having my car seems like a good option. Opinions?? </p>

<p>If you can afford the parking permit easily, I would personally. You don’t need it in IV or on campus, it would just be unwieldy, but it is nice to have if you want to go to LA for a weekend, or home, or whatever. If the money is tight, having one isn’t necessary, though. If you have one, you will be ‘the guy with a car’ a lot, though. This has ups and downs.</p>

<p>I have to update this because if I were bringing a car Santa Catalina would be the most attractive for that reason alone (I had a car when I lived there back when it was FT and parking was ‘right there’ and super easy.) However, UCSB is apparently starting construction in the parking lot at Santa Catalina in fall 2014 to put in more student apartments and housing. They will use excess space at an existing parking structure (not sure where it is) and will ultimately build a new structure just for the communities in that area. However, if you were picking SC (FT) just for the car parking, it might change fall 2014, and you might want to ask about where you would park, living there. Generally you only use your car on weekends (or I did), but mileage may vary. If you HAVE a car you will use it more, to go stores you can bike to, etc.</p>

<p>How much do the parking permits go for?</p>

<p>depending on how far away you park, it depends on where you live. If you live in an on campus resident hall apparently it is from $338 to 675 per ten month school year. <a href=“http://www.tps.ucsb.edu/permStuMainCampus.aspx#pay”>http://www.tps.ucsb.edu/permStuMainCampus.aspx#pay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;