<p>Hi guys. I was wondering what's the best optional using option when transferring. My goal is to meet new people and be more involved in school. I heard that it is hard for transfers to fit in since most students are already settled and have their own thing going on. Schools I may transfer to are UCI, UCLA, UCSD, and maybe UC Davis. If anyone has particular information about their experiences after transferring to these schools. I'd appreciate hearing about it :)</p>
<p>Hi!,
I am a transfer student in UCD now and i am loving the college so far! Honestly in my opinion, making friends all depends on how much effort you put in to it, regardless of your housing situation. Choose your housing based on expense factors and individual preferences. I live in an apartment, off campus, with two other transfers off campus and I get to have my own laundry,a full kitchen,and more privacy than a dorm. Apartments are more expensive, but then again you wont have to deal with noisy freshman in the dorms during mid-terms. On the flip side, its easier to make friends in a dorm because its more intimate and that kind of forces you to connect with your roommates, and floor mates. Also there is the added convenience of being on campus. I have been able to make some great friends because i joined a sports club and i’ve bonded with some great girls every morning, six days a week, during practice. I chose just one club bc it requires a lot of my time and commitment but you can find lots of clubs and organizations that are less intense and more chill. I just started to get involved in some lgbtq events and thats been amazing! I will tell you that in the beginning, you will feel lonely sometimes and it is hard to be in a place where you know no one, but don’t stay in your room all the time bc its safer. Get involved in things that you find interesting and you will find friends! One thing that I think transfer students forget to think about when they are applying is how they will fit in socially in a UC, which is really the one thing that makes college fun! Look at your schools and see if they have club/groups/sports that interest you and make that a part of your decision process. Good Luck!
PS.
Davis is awesome! Seriously, super nice ppl(almost too nice…), great college town feel, and you get to zip around on your bike everywhere!</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I live 20 mins from Davis. Judging from what you had said about an apartment, it does seem a lot more convenient to be able to do your own laundry and such. How hard is it to find roommates and what did you have to do?</p>
<p>My advice would be to spend your 1st year in U-owned housing. Each UC campus accepts several thousand transfer students every Fall, so most campuses (if not all, but I’m not sure on that) have set aside areas of student housing for transfers. That way you’re not living among a bunch of frosh, you get to meet fellow xfer students, etc. Furthermore you will have an RA living right there to help answer questions, the dorm will host xfer-student orientations and other events. </p>
<p>By living in a dorm you will be as close to campus as you can get, having meals prepared for you, laundry and other facilities right in the dorm, etc. Dorms are not cheap, though, and many students find they save money in apartments. An apartment can be quieter, although the flip side is you are more isolated from meeting fellow students than you’d be in dorms or other U-owned housing. It is easier to find roomates when you’re already a student; typically people decide in the spring to get an apartment and find one. Check with the housing office to find out what they can do to help you match up with a group of people needing one more person if that’s the way you decide to go.</p>
<p>As far as meeting people, no doubt it is easier as a frosh when everyone is new and looking to build a circle of friends. Its not impossible to meet new people; dorms help, joining clubs and playing sports is a great idea, often there will be rec classes of other kinds that may interest you, etc. So you can do it, but its going to take placing yourself out there and trying.</p>
<p>I go to UC Davis and lived in a dorm last year; my building was full of transfer students (no freshmen in Webster Hall for the 2011-2012 year), so there was no awkwardness of having freshmen around (I did, however, have noisy neighbors upstairs. Apparently, the suite above me was the only known noisy suite in all of Webster). I made friends pretty easily with my roommate and suitemates. I don’t know what you mean when you said being able to do your own laundry in an apartment was an advantage–we had to do our own laundry in the dorms as well. Only difference is that the laundry machines in apartments are coin-operated, while the laundry machines in the dorms were card-operated.</p>
<p>Dorms sound so tempting!</p>
<p>I just transferred to UCLA this fall and live in University Apartments. If you really want to meet people and be involved, I think the dorms/suites/plazas are a better option. I don’t know if it’s just the apartments I am in, but I rarely see anyone in my halls! I am sure it would be cool if we interacted with each other like those on campus…The upside though, is the apts are way more affordable!
Just make sure you attend the activities fair and get involved with clubs!!</p>
<p>This thread is pretty interesting, it looks like you’ll get a pretty decent range of responses from students at the universities you wanted. Anyway, I’m currently attending UCSD (now you only need someone from UCI to comment lol) I live off campus about 2 miles and I really enjoy it. The studio I live in is TWICE as nice as the transfer dorms at UCSD, known as the Village, which are pretty nice to begin with. In fact, UCSD probably has the best transfer dorms in the UC system, to me they were definitely nicer than UCLA (De Neve was okay actually) and Davis when I was looking at schools I was accepted to. Here’s a link of what UCSD’s transfer housing looks like:
[UC</a> San Diego Housing - The Village, Virtual Tours](<a href=“http://hdh.ucsd.edu/thevillage/tour.asp]UC”>http://hdh.ucsd.edu/thevillage/tour.asp)</p>
<p>Anyway, I chose to live off campus because I consider myself a pretty independent person and the thought of sharing a small, less than 400 sqft room with another person was not at all appealing for me. I can manage roommates (suitemates) in the traditional sense where you share separate rooms, but at this point in my life the thought of sharing a bedroom with someone 24/7 and then a suite with 2-3 other people was unacceptable. Personal space and privacy were pretty key for me so if they are for you, off campus may be your choice. When I initially got accepted at UCSD, I tried to see if I could stay at the dorms and have a single room to myself, but all the single rooms were already taken by continuing transfers, which tends to happen.</p>
<p>Anyway, I ended up going the off campus route and I don’t regret my decision at all. The complex I live in has a 24 hour gym, an olympic size pool, and two tennis courts and private parking which are all great amenities. I have a full kitchen with granite counters and a combo washer and dryer in my studio so laundry isn’t an issue either (I feel like a real estate agent writing this lol). The only drawback is I pay about $200 more in rent and utilities than I would have at the Village. However, for me the money was a non-issue because it was a no brainer given all the extra amenities of where I live and the privacy of living by myself. If you’re concerned about the price of living off campus. I’d suggest finding roommates (try craigslist about a month before school starts there are A LOT of people looking for roommates) that will make it that much more affordable, likely cheaper than living on campus plus you’ll still have your own room. There are 4 girls that live in my complex that are all freshman at UCSD and chose to be roommates here rather than at the dorms on campus and they seem to like it. Also there are A LOT of people that live off campus at UCSD hundreds all within a couple blocks of each other in an area called University City, so don’t assume that living off campus means you never see anyone. I see about a hundred students a day just walking to the shuttle stop in the morning and afternoon to take the bus to UCSD. Another thing, if you live where I do in University City, transportation to campus is SUPER easy. UCSD has a shuttle service that comes around practically every 5 minutes (10 mins at the most) to various spots around the area. I can literally walk out of my studio, walk a couple hundred feet to the shuttle stop and get picked up by the bus in a few mins at any time during the day, it runs at night even too until midnight (convenient if you stay late on campus). Also as UCSD students we have free access to all the city bus routes, which is convenient if you don’t have a car and live off campus. I would hope that all the UCs have similar services, but I’m unaware of any that have a direct shuttle for students like here. I really can’t stress how thankful I am that UCSD provides this service because it makes transportation super convenient for all of us in the area. </p>
<p>All that said I can say that living in dorms pretty much forces you to interact with people on campus and you tend to make significant connections a lot more quickly because of the living environment. I imagine it’s pretty hard not to get to know someone that sleeps in your same room every night. From my experience, people living on campus tend to be a little more aware of the events going on also, but if you’re proactive you shouldn’t be limited by living off campus. I’m actually a fairly shy, introverted person (I fake like I’m outgoing well enough) so meeting people during college was a big concern for me when I first got here. However, there are so many events and clubs and organizations that are impossible to miss during “welcome week”, the first week of the quarter that it’s hard not to be aware of ALL the opportunities to meet people. It may seem awkward at first, but if you go to those events or stop to talk to people in clubs or organizations that advertise on campus you WILL meet many many people and will make friends along the way. I pretty much went to every major event on campus that first week and got to know at least 20-30 people pretty well in just a few days. All that said, if you tend to be a hermit (I was in CC lol) and never leave your apartment, but you still want to meet people then dorms are definitely the best option as they force you to interact with people. If you’re a decently outgoing person, or can fake it well enough lol, then even if you move down here and don’t know anyone (I moved here with no friends or family here) and you live off campus right away there will still be plenty of opportunities for you to meet people and develop friendships.</p>
<p>Sorry for rambling for so long. This is my first quarter on campus and I kind of used this thread as an outlet to share my experiences so far and possibly destress a little from midterms these past few weeks. I hope the 45 mins I wasted typing this is able to help you out in the long run when it comes to deciding between on campus or off campus. I know it was a big decision for me. Anyway best of luck to you, I hope you get accepted to those UCs and find the perfect living situation for you.</p>