<p>Welcome to the forums Greg</p>
<p>What was your reasoning for the dorms you chose? What kind of environment/people are you looking for?</p>
<p>Thanks for the update, GregD!</p>
<p>Highly appreciated,</p>
<p>so, does anyone know if the housing is a lottery system or if it is first come first served? I remember reading something that said it was "really random"</p>
<p>Define nerds, hipsters and hippies?</p>
<p>I think they mean
Nerds: intense studying, computer games, etc
hipsters: Abercrombie and Fitch type, preps
hippies: pot, art, relaxed.</p>
<p>personally ive gotten over the stereotypes. i was freaking out about them, but im over it. im sure I will like someone in my dorms, and if not, i have friends going so i can chill with them until i find more friends.</p>
<p>nonono, hipsters = urbanoutfitters.com (ex: ray ban sunglasses, wannabe vintage clothing that is super expensive for how cheap it is to make it/find it at a thrift store, tight boy jeans, nikes, v neck shirts, multi color/80s style)</p>
<p>preps = a+f, holister</p>
<p>and will someone please answer my question? or is the answer unknown :/</p>
<p>i have no idea. talk to the admissions people and post back on it. im slightly interested myself.</p>
<p>lol is it bad that i dont know my own generations stereotypes??</p>
<p>It's okay I'm as lost as you are. And bbbf I think it's first come first serve at least that's what I remember them mentioning at the preview day at UCSC. I might be wrong though.</p>
<p>SO guys i had a question? which dorm would be better for me? I'm really into sports and stuff, and i thought the view of stevenson was great when i vistied, but then i also would like to party/ am not a pot head so to speak but enjoy it once and a while? would i be best at Stevenson which is known as the jewish college i guess? or Cowell, which are my two top choices. Also are the people at porter really artsy like the theater type?</p>
<p>To Nimar13.... Im thinking college 8 would be good for you... read somewhere on here that its full of athletes</p>
<p>So... based on the first post of this thread...
Here's my thoughts overall.</p>
<p>I like Cowell because it sounds like it has the most normal/cool people.
Only thing I'm worrying about - is it known for it's partying? Like any more than the others? Because I really want to avoid that.</p>
<p>Crown sounds good because I like video games/am doing a computer science major.
I just don't want to be surrounded by people with no life.</p>
<p>Porter because I like the whole laid back, chill lifestyle. I also like that they have something about a digital media aspect.
But I really am not into drugs at all. I could live with it I suppose, but I want people to respect that I don't want to do it. And honestly, I'm kind of worried that the people will be totally weird. I mean, I like artsy/creative people, but... I dunno.</p>
<p>Merrill I haven't heard much about. Anyone know anything?</p>
<p>Kresge, from what I've heard sounds like Porter, but without any of the good sides, basically... I dunno. Prove me wrong?</p>
<p>Stevenson. All I know is that it's athletic, and Jewish. I'm Christian and not athletic... so... (Not that I have anything against Jewish people. I just don't think I'd fit in.)</p>
<p>Oakes is apparently all rappers and gangstas. Not for me.</p>
<p>8 is apparently all cliquey and preppy. Again, I'd like to avoid that.</p>
<p>9/10 I heard are also A&F and preppy. Meh.</p>
<p>////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////</p>
<p>SHORT VERSION</p>
<p>Cowell - Known for it's partying more than others?
Crown - Are there any normal people there?
Porter - Would a clean cut kid survive there?
Merrill - I don't know anything about Merrill. Anything you have would be helpful.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Well I have good news for you. ^</p>
<p>I have spent a couple days at the campus now, visiting many colleges and such. #1 thing I have to say is that the people here are all fairly normal.</p>
<p>I am going to write a detailed report when I get back home and have the time to do so, but you really should get up here and discover things for yourself. My visit totally changed my impression of Santa Cruz, and it was pretty high before I visited. No matter what college you end up with, people are very polite and nice to be around and I honestly did not see many 'hippie, strange people' that I was expecting to see more of. </p>
<p>Lets just say I came here expecting to see about 1 in every 4 students that I probably would not want to hang out with. I also came thinking that colleges like Porter would have even a higher percentage of these people. Both of these pre-thoughts are very false. I've seen an extremely small minority of people who dressed a little different then I would, but the cool part was that they talked like normal old college students. Oh, and many students at Porter look pretty normal to me, even our tour guide who is allergic to the smell of smoke had nothing but good things to say about Porter, as that is the college she has been for the last two years.</p>
<p>and what is normal exactly? you think you're normal, I think I'm normal.. </p>
<p>I don't understand why "hippies" are so often stigmatized. I can understand why people would steer away from "druggies or alcoholics" but not every "hippie" is apathetic and reliant on drugs. Since when does an understanding of nature and a general consciousness of one's ecological/societal/political impact = weird?</p>
<p>bbbf- </p>
<p>Normal is my standard of your normal high school student but a little bit older. They take care of themselves and wear clothes that are within one or two sizes of their body size. Usually I do not see students with long unkept hair, multiple piercings (nose, tongue), or wearing very bright + very large clothing at my high school. I guess your vision of 'normal' might be different from mine and I did not mean to offend you if we have different views. </p>
<p>As far as hippies, I have nothing against them. There are just the common stereotypes of UCSC: drugs and hippies. Neither of which I observed over my few days on the campus. Sure the 'nerdier' of the students looked to be at Crown, and they differed greatly from the students at Porter, but no one seemed unapproachable or an obvious 'druggy.'</p>
<p>hear hear bbbf!</p>
<p>all i want is to avoid anyone gettin me down. so cali, what you said makes me feel pretty good about the dorms. im not all that worried. I picked porter as my first choice and i dont think ill change it anymore.</p>
<p>What I wrote was taken the wrong way. I was mostly hoping to make people feel better about UCSC itself, because most if not all of the students were very friendly and chill. There were not any strong sterotypes within the campus. And to make you feel good about Porter, bananaslug, my tourguide was a porter student for two years and she seemed very nice. She talked very highly of the dorm rooms and the dorm life at Porter and recommended her college over the others. She said that some people started at College 9 and 10 because they were new, and ended up transferring to Porter their sophomore year because they made better friends there. I am sure you will enjoy this college.</p>
<p>What's the porter people like? I'm into business, I like entrepreneur thoughts, are porter people the laid back type? I'm thinking about 9 and 10, then 8 and then stevenson</p>
<p>Is there any strategy for avoiding being assigned to a Triple?
Does UCSC actually honor your preferences? Also, is it first come, first served in terms of when you submit your SIR?
Finally...which colleges involve hiking up hills?</p>
<p>Emma - I cannot answer all of your questions. However I do know (according to my tour guide) that colleges are not first come first serve. Those who have priority such as sophomores get to choose first, and then Freshmen get what is left. I guess after everyone submits their SIR, they house the students the best they can. My tour guide said that you will usually get your first choice but 99% of the time you get your top 3. Also, if you request a specific floor such as substance free or single sex, they must give you what you request. </p>
<p>Hiking up hills? Crown has a big hill, but I do not think that should make your decision for chosing a particular college as each and every college is easy to get to via bus.</p>