<p>So, I had gotten accepted into UCSB and while it is a beautiful school, one thing holding me back is that its the furthest (of the schools I got accepted) from home, though, it's the school I'm attracted to the most. A long distance relationship and my two dogs at home are the things that have me a bit worried. Not that it's impossible to deal with, but I'm curious to know how others coped with it as I'm sure some students have gone through the same thing.</p>
<p>I live in the SF Bay Area so it's about ~5 hr drive, which isn't horrible, but it could be worse. Amtrak is also an option so that seems to work out well. I'm just curious, how often did you guys go home?</p>
<p>I probably went home 2-3 times a quarter, but I was a 3 hour drive away. I know people from LA who go home almost every weekend. Those from up north, however, don’t seem to travel very often at all…</p>
<p>My sis comes home on major breaks like Thanksgiving, Winter, Spring, Summer, sometimes on the weekend, but she’s only 2 hours away…
You might be able to stack your schedule depending if you have enough AP’s to kill GE’s so that you have Thursday and/or Friday off and take a few 3-4 day weekends… just take the minimum credits (I believe it’s 12?) to be technically a full-time student to continue receiving financial aid, and it shouldn’t be that too hard.</p>
<p>Hey, I live in Sacramento and its ~6 hours of driving. I go home every major breaks and three day weekends(maybe three times this year thus far) and it isn’t that bad. Sometimes I go home with friends but I prefer amtrak even though its a 9~11 hour ride. It should be about 8 or so hours for you and amtrak usually overestimates by 30 mins if its by bus. Its all been worth it and isn’t a hassle at all, there’s a free bus that will take you downtown near the amtrak station for free to students. Don’t worry about the distance, I think you’ll be fine. And if you do decide to take amtrak, get the student advantage card. It costs $20 but saves you $20 everytime you buy a ticket. Also you can find many people to carpool home with on campus. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m from San Francisco and I usually only went home on quarter breaks and Thanksgiving. I think the only went home mid-quarter twice, once for a sibling’s graduation, and once to see a Warriors playoff game (and you Bay Area people know how rare that is, haha).</p>
<p>My daughter went to Sonoma and home is Ventura County. She came home on breaks (Thanksgiving, winter and spring break, etc.) and maybe one extra time each semester. You will find you will want to come home more often your first semester or year, but the longer you are at school, the less you will want to come home. Your social life will start revolving around new friends, jobs, activities at school, your friends at home will be away at school, and you will slowly shift to your new “home”. You will also fit into school faster if you stay at school on weekends. You might be really homesick at first, but you will get used to it. Is there any chance your family could come down to visit you maybe once a semester ? My kids didn’t come home for summers after the first year because they had jobs at school, or were traveling with various programs/friends. Just plan on coming home once a month at first and take it from there.</p>
<p>Well, like I said, I could probably count on two hands the number of people I know who go home almost every weekend. Granted, they are living pretty close in LA, but still…</p>
<p>Well I haven’t gone there yet but there’s an airport right next to ucsb with multiple flights to sfo every day. That’s how I’m planning on getting home
Might I add that I get free airline tickets, so perhaps it’s a bit easier for me to do that, but I think the pprice for plane tickets is comparable to amtrak prices.</p>
<p>yeah i live in central ca, stockton. and my bfs gonna be there and we’re still gonna keep the relationship so i might go home kinda a lot. breaks and maybe some weekends… my teacher was in a situation just like that he was a ucsb alumni and he went home everyweekend lol driving… haha it was 5 hours and a half, and it was his worse year lol he didnt study and stuff. lol i think if i go home ill drive… or amtrak it wont be soo bad.</p>
<p>I’m worried about the exact same thing. I live north of the bay area so SB is about 7 1/2 hours away. I love the campus I’m just totally worried about the distance. If I decide I don’t like UCSB not being able to come home would be awful.</p>
<p>When I first transferred, I was a little homesick at lonely because the school was in a new place, I pretty much didn’t know anyone at the school, and I didn’t have my parents to run to if I had certain problems, however, I just stuck through it. By the time my last spring quarter rolled around, I didn’t want to leave the school… I stayed an extra two weeks past graduation till my lease ran out, then squatted at a friend’s place for another week I didn’t want to leave IV for the cruel, cold, real word :D</p>
<p>I’ll be honest getting back to the Bay from SB can be a bit of a drag… I think sharing rides with people is the most fun way. The other option is taking the Amtrak Surfliner from Goleta to San Luis Obispo and transferring to the Thruway bus to the Bay Area… I’ve done that a number of times as well.</p>
<p>I’ve never seen that chart before! It’s funny to think that I actually know all the 11 other Lowellites from my class who go to UCSB, and basically all the people who went to Cal, too. It does sort of remind me that a lot of my friends are pretty far away, though - my college experience would be quite a bit different had I started off knowing at least a couple dozen people, like I would have at basically any other UC besides UCR and UCM.</p>
<p>As for 1150A’s question, I only go back between quarters. I’ve only returned home in the middle of the quarter once here (out of the past two years), and that was for a funeral. I didn’t have a long-distance relationship or anything like that back home, so I guess you could say that I haven’t felt too much urgency in making a lot of trips back up here. That being said, I’m always very happy to return.</p>
<p>I am, in fact, a Lowell High School grad I take it that you are too then, flushmaverick? I was many years before you, if so, haha. SB was never a popular choice here, although I think part of that has to do with the large Asian population who’s parents are afraid to send them to SB. Socially, Lowell was about the polar opposite of SB for me. Academically though, it was a very good and challenging school.</p>
<p>Yeah, I am. I remember there being some informational session with the counselors about taking AP classes in the cafeteria my freshman year at Lowell (it was very crowded, as you’d imagine), and they got to the topic of colleges, and one counselor said, “They need Asian people at UC Santa Barbara! Don’t be afraid to apply!” Not being Asian myself, and having already visited UCSB a few times as a middle schooler, the line stuck out to me.</p>
<p>Among the other take-home lines from the meeting: “You could graduate from college and start making $55,000 a year!” I thought it was only mildly unrealistic at the time, but the other counselors on the panel basically fell over themselves laughing. As it turns out, one of the counselors there is a Gaucho as well…</p>
<p>I agree with your assessment, though. I can’t say I was unprepared for the kind of work I found at UCSB, so I came to appreciate my time there a little more. One big difference for me is that I’m simply not as stressed out as much here. Looking back, I felt like I was under the gun a lot.</p>
<p>I fit the same demographic as you, but I felt the transition to UCSB wasn’t a problem at all. One thing I noticed at high school was that there was little race integration, and most people hung out with members of their own ethnicity… at UCSB, I noticed a lot less of this going on. </p>
<p>And it’s cool to see another LHSer on here! I graduated the year before they opened the new wing, so it’s been a while for me. It was definitely stressful; there was a lot of competition, especially in AP classes. I felt like UCSB had a more well-rounded atmosphere.</p>
I didn’t want to leave IV for the cruel, cold, real word :D</p>
I take it that you are too then, flushmaverick? I was many years before you, if so, haha. SB was never a popular choice here, although I think part of that has to do with the large Asian population who’s parents are afraid to send them to SB. Socially, Lowell was about the polar opposite of SB for me. Academically though, it was a very good and challenging school.</p>