<p>Well Marcus, you have to be in dorms for your 1st year, so that answers your dilema.</p>
<p>Ill field your q anyhow; Santa Barbara is social no matter where you are, the difference will literally be the age of people you are around. On campus, you will be surrounded by freshmen your age. Isla Vista you will be surrounded by sophmores +. AND Isla Vista will have 100x more parties in it simply because they are off campus and dont have RSO’s or whatever they are there.</p>
<p>As opposed to the last post, you are not required to live in the dorms for your 1st year.
And more precisely, there are a handful amount of freshmen living in IV, including myself.
Living in the dorms definitely helps with meeting friends, but you’ll have your own bathroom (or just share one with your roommate(s)), a living room and a kitchen. Besides, it’s a lot cheaper to share a room with another person than living in a double on campus. You might not meet as many friends as living in the dorms, if you don’t go out party. No matter you live in IV or in the dorms, it’s pretty hard to avoid the party scene, because you might wanna go out have fun with your friends once in a while.</p>
<p>I dont want to avoid the party scene haha, the party scene is one of the reasons why im going there, im a really social guy and i love to party.</p>
<p>Im just wondering if it would be better for me to meet friends at the dorms or in a house, and maybe were it would be easier to get connections that might make it easier to get into some parties. Since im from Sweden im going to start college when im 19(born 1991), if i got it right most people in the US are 18 when they start? which means that i would be hanging out with younger people if i lived in a dorm? </p>
<p>ps. dont comment on that i shouldn’t choose school just because i want to party etc, ofcourse im going there for the education, but i already have that stuff figured out. And this is the thing im thinkin of right now</p>
<p>Hej Marcus. I personally hated dorms, and one of the reasons was because I was a year older than everybody else (went to school in Finland). And I hated sharing one small room with 2 roommates. I ended up spending most of my time at my friend’s apartment. I wish I knew that there were freshmen living in IV before I went for the dorms. The school and the upperclass people kept recommending living in the dorms, and they never really told us about living in IV your freshman year. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t have chosen dorms. I’m so happy to be living in an apartment right now. I still have a roommate but we have a living room and a kitchen so I feel much better than when I was living in a dorm room lol. And it’s cheaper.</p>
<p>Also, you can party and avoid partying anywhere you live anyway ;P</p>
<p>I’m a second year and living in IV right now. I don’t know if there are very many freshmen living in IV, but I’ve known a few people who lived in IV their freshmen year tho. ;)</p>
<p>I live in school owned apartments (San Clemente) and there amazing. However, talking to all my friends who have stayed in dorms they hated it and now they are all living in IV. I also depends where in IV you live. I cant imagine living on Del Playa (the main party street) because you would never get any sleep. But id recommended living in IV. Your going to meet a lot of people both ways. Plus having a swedish accent will help with the ladies. lol</p>
<p>my friend lives on del playa. ****ing party zone. there were prob 5 or 6 people carrying 30 packs down the street… in their arms, on their bikes… hell even on their long boards</p>
<p>without question you want to live in a dorm. That’s what freshmen do. If you’re social I would recommend living in FT “Santa Catalina Dorm”. You might even request the multicultural floor. That’s what I’m on even though I didn’t request it.</p>