<p>Okay, so I'm pretty sure I want to live in one of the central campus dorms (Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, San Nicholas, etc.) but I'm having trouble figuring out what the differences between them are!</p>
<p>Which ones are "the best", or what sets them apart from each other? What would make one or another a better option than the next? I know a little bit about some of them, but not too much. Any help in distinguishing them from each other would be great!!</p>
<p>san miguel are called the san m-ghetto
so they’re unlikely to be nice.
and
san nicholas has been recently renovated, so the dorms are quite nice.</p>
<p>yet, another thing to consider before choosing is that the dorms are all multiple story buildings which means that you’ll have to climb quite a bit of stairs if you’re say on the 8th floor and the elevators are broken ( happens often, apparently.)</p>
<p>Ah, thanks.</p>
<p>San Nicholas right now seems like my likely top choice based on what I’ve heard. I guess I don’t mind stairs all that much…</p>
<p>It’s just some of the other central dorms I don’t know much about.</p>
<p>do we get to choose or is in a loterry? because san nic is for sure my top choice too.</p>
<p>I think we get to rank them on a form somewhere, and depending on when the lottery gets to our name, we might get our top choice or we might get something on the bottom on our list. haha</p>
<p>So it pretty much is random, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to rank them.</p>
<p>
Well, I live in Manzanita Village right now, I lived in San Nicolas for FSSP, and I’ve attended random events in all of the Chi-5 halls (that’s what all the halls that you’re talking about are called, collectively), so I think I’ve got an okay perspective on them.</p>
<p>First off, I’m pretty sure all the halls over there have one bathroom per sex per floor (except for the really long hallways in Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa). I guess I’m just bringing that up because I really like not sharing a bathroom with as many people over in Manzanita.</p>
<p>San Nicolas and San Miguel are both 8-floor high-rises (San Miguel has two towers, though). San Nicolas was renovated a few years ago, like someone said earlier. San Miguel doesn’t really seem too bad - the whole “San Mighetto” thing is blown a little out of proportion on CC. The elevators do were a bit jankier than the ones in San Nicolas, and I got the feeling that the walls were thinner, too (but that could have just been me). San Nicolas is right across from the De La Guerra dining commons, while San Miguel is right across from the Ortega dining commons.</p>
<p>Santa Rosa is a sprawling two-floor hall. It’s the oldest hall on campus, but it doesn’t look that way. It’s closer to the De La Guerra dining commons than Santa Cruz and Anacapa. It’s closer to the middle of the campus, too.</p>
<p>Santa Cruz and Anacapa are twin halls - they have the same two-floor layout as Santa Rosa, but they’re not as spread-out. Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa surround a student parking lot and fairly large grassy area, for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t see much difference amongst the Chi-5 highrises and Chi-5 shorties… perhaps the shorties might have more of a feeling of community because you have a lot more “neighbors” - you aren’t divided by a bunch of floors.</p>
<p>As you can see, procrastination takes many forms at UCSB.</p>
<p>Edit: They’re called the Chi-5 because they’re named after the Channel Islands, and there are 5 of them.</p>
<p>Thanks flushmaverick for your input! It’s helpful to hear all that.</p>
<p>Are they all co-ed or how does that work? I know in San Nic girls have one wing of a floor and guys have the other. Are all the Channel Island dorms about like that?</p>
<p>
They’re all co-ed. I think San Miguel might have one sex per floor, and all the shorties have the sexes divided by hallway. It’s kind of odd explaining it, but it’s better if you look at maps of the halls:</p>
<p>Santa Rosa:
[Santa</a> Rosa PDF map](<a href=“http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/hchoices-images/pdfs/DisMap-RH,S.Rosa.4_5_02.pdf]Santa”>http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/hchoices-images/pdfs/DisMap-RH,S.Rosa.4_5_02.pdf)
There’s a different sex every time the hallway makes a right angle.</p>
<p>Anacapa, Santa Cruz:
[Anacapa</a> PDF map](<a href=“http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/hchoices-images/pdfs/DisMap-RH,Anacapa.4_5.pdf]Anacapa”>http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/hchoices-images/pdfs/DisMap-RH,Anacapa.4_5.pdf)
Every L-shaped segment of the residence hall has a different sex within its wing of the building.</p>
<p>The residence halls is something I know kind of well, since I’m involved with the halls’ student government. If you want to see a sample of the kind of events we do in the halls, you can look at our facebook page: [Facebook</a> | Residence Halls Association](<a href=“http://www.facebook.com/home.php?src=fftb#/pages/Santa-Barbara-CA/UCSB-Residence-Halls-Association/51141030965]Facebook”>http://www.facebook.com/home.php?src=fftb#/pages/Santa-Barbara-CA/UCSB-Residence-Halls-Association/51141030965)</p>
<p>Oh sweet, thanks! That’s helpful.</p>
<p>I was trying to figure out the maps on the website but didn’t quite understand what it was talking about.</p>