<p>I am really have trouble deciding where to live this fall. I got into the honors program which gives me preferencial housing if I live on a scholars floor. I wanted to live in Manzanita at first b/c they are the newest/nicest but I hear that they are really unsocial. Im not a huge partier but it would be nice to be able to make friends. I heard FT is fun.. but the distance is an issue. And with the scholars thing... does anyone suggest that or no? AHHH what do I do?</p>
<p>I'm a transfer student looking for on-campus housing, so I've read about Manzanita a bit. There seems to be some varied comments about Manzanita. For example, falkster/url</a> doesn't like it, [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=837890#post837890">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=837890#post837890</a>] Merc says it can be isolated and boring, wellendowed<a href="who%20lives%20there">/url</a> has always praised it, and [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=230366#post230366">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=230366#post230366</a>] thisisabalconyscene calls them "simply phenomenal", while [sixthbatter[/url</a>] doesn't reccomend them for freshman.</p>
<p>The [url=<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/ucsb/732921.html">http://www.livejournal.com/community/ucsb/732921.html</a>] UCSB LiveJournal group](<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=639427#post639427%5Dsixthbatter%5B/url">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=639427#post639427) loves them almost unanimously, although one person did mention it was harder to get to know people. I think wide-ranging opinions prove that it depends on the kind of person you are and what you're looking for. Other than "too far from campus", I practically haven't seen any complaints for Francisco Torres, and I'm sure dorm room life there will be a blast, plus you'll be living with pretty much freshman only. </p>
<p>You can do a forum search on "manzanita" or "torres" to see more opinions.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, that helps.</p>
<p>The ironic thing is that I'm living in Manzanita next year. Ahh, it won't be so bad as long as it's not the first year.</p>
<p>Live at FT. I at first thought, d@mn, this sucks a$$ that I live in the boonies. But it was the best place to live. Manzanita is quieter. Manzanita does have better food. FT sucks in terms of food. FT has larger dorms though, and semi private bathrooms (1 per 4 people).
Manzanita is on the beach. FT is Camino Corto, which is far. FT is REALLY FAR from Campus. Really it is kinda in Goleta (technically the parking lot is IN Goleta). But still it is fun. We have a better pool, tennis court, and personal gym.</p>
<p>I lived in Anacapa my first year, Manzanita Village Summer 04 and the entire school year of 04-05, and will be living there again for summer session B, then finally San Raf this year.</p>
<p>I wouldn't recommend staying in FT. It's damn far away, and the commute gets to most people. Also, Anacapa had a scholars floor, it really doesn't mean anything, other than you may be with people who share a willingless to do well (and even some "scholars" change to party animals after getting in.) Really, no one really cares if it's a scholars floor or not, and I held my grades rather well without it. I can't say i've necessarily been inside FT though, you may love it like some people do.</p>
<p>I'm going to vouch for Manzanita Village because more upper division people live in that general area. I'd say it's a bit more quieter because, they've grown a bit tired of the IV scene (and most that party have moved to IV), are starting harder classes, and the excitement of being an unexperienced freshmen has passed. Not many freshmen are priviledged to get Manzanita housing; seriously, only a few get in. You're on the side of the better beach also! Some houses are incredibly sociable like Gaviota house last year. I lived in a quieter house, but at times people would still slip by the RA and have their own water balloon fights in the house. Seems to be less overt usage of weed in Manzanita side also. You also get your own shower/bathroom, you still share it, but you get to use the entire bathroom alone since it has a lock. You wont believe how wonderful that is unless you've been through all the anonymous puking people had to deal with during Freshmen year, showering with a bunch of people in stalls next to you, and sitting on a toilet inches away from another person doing the same thing. Being around a load of people who love to blast their music at 2 AM in the morning, smoke pot outside your window, leave a used condem in the dryer machine, loves to purge their alcohol across 4 stalls of toilets, has made me seriously happy to live away from freshmen.</p>
<p>Also, most of my friends made my freshmen year were from other houses. I met them through my major, or through parties (even met my now girlfriend at a party.)</p>
<p>The food on Manzanita side is overrated. I'd rather go to DLG for their mexican food, or Ortega for their nachos on Friday. You want endless amounts of chicken with a crappy salad bar? Go to Manzanita's Carillo dining commons. The good news is that starting with last year you could eat wherever you wanted.</p>
<p>Now now, I've got to defend Carillo, the closest dining commons to Manzanita. Their Mongolian grill is excellent. And they have Caesar salad at literally every non-breakfast meal, and it far surpasses DLG's imitation. Speaking as the founder of the "Nacho Night at Ortega" facebook group, I do have to agree with Yen, Friday nights can be fun at Ortega. Just don't go every week or you'll get sick of it. And Carillo has a real pizza oven which is a lot better than the cafeteria style pizza of the DLG.</p>
<p>As far as FT vs. Manzanita goes, the rooms are the same size, except in FT they're a weird rectangle ship, whereas in Manzanita they're a normal square. The bathroom setup is pretty much identical in terms of how many share a bathroom (4 in each). If you don't want to always feel like you're at school and have a large chance to get in the party scene as a non-Freshman, FT's a good bet (if you get in as a non-Freshman) because it is sort of like living at a resort.</p>
<p>DLG has a bit more selection of dressings -- but I imo Ortega out does Carillo and DLG for salads. Ortega also has a type of grill where you order your sandwiches and they make it right in front of you; I like the steak. </p>
<p>I guess growing up with Asian food all around me and which developed my taste for Chinese food, I always thought the Mongolian grill was nasty, no matter when I try it.</p>
<p>But either way, it's a much easier access to to three dining commons if you live in Manz than FT.</p>
<p>I haven't posted here in a while, but I feel I should chime in here. If you want to have a good social life, please don't live in Manzanita. I transfered to UCSB last fall and lived there in Montecito house, and I didn't make any friends there at all because no one there really partied on the weekends, and in general I just didn't have any common ground with my floormates because they were too mellow and conservative for me and they were from different social and cultural backgrounds. I moved out into San Raf after a few months, but that didn't really help because it's pretty hard to move into a new dorm during midyear and bond with your new floormates/suitemates without a hitch. My dorm situation honestly screwed up my entire year, and I still don't have any good friends here who I can do other stuff with besides just meet up with on the weekends and go to parties. I really feel like I've missed out on the social aspect of living in the dorms, and I don't know if I'll ever have any close friends here by the time I graduate in a year. No one deserves to go through what I had to go through, so don't take the risk of living in Manzanita.</p>
<p>Not that it matters, but which dorm would've been best for a transfer student like me who actually wanted to make friends and have fun in college? Just wondering what college life could've been like for me. :(</p>
<p>Did you think it was Manzanita dorms that were bade, or was it really more about people around the dorm that you didn't have fun with (like roomate problems or problems with floormates and stuff like that).</p>
<p>I'm sorry for the problems you had, but it seems that I might not have that much problems with it because I'll probably be more productive in quiet environment.</p>
<p>rc251, I'm not really sure if the people in Manzanita are like that in general, or if I just had incredibly bad luck with my dorm situation. Probably a combo of both.</p>
<p>My advice is, if you do want to meet good friends and partying and a good social life is important to you, don't choose Manzanita. If you end up in my situation, you'll be pretty bummed and it'll probably affect your grades too. San Rafael may be a better bet, but I'd do some research on it just to be sure. If you don't really party much and you're a lot more academically oriented, then Manzanita should be fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I don't think transfers have a choice in any case (the website isays "Typically space is available in San Rafael and Manzanita Village Residence Halls" for transfers, so I assume that's where pretty much all tranfers go), so I just ranked Manzanita and San Rafael and that was it.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck, I really hope for the best for you :)</p>
<p>Plinko, it makes me really wonder why you didn't make many friends last school year. Maybe you should stop being picky of who you want to befriend with. Making friends is very easy.... but if you have a preconceived notion of what kind of friends you want you're gonna have a hard time making friend and you're going to pass up on people that may actually be your great friends in the long run. </p>
<p>I personally had a great time at Manzanita last school year. Even though most of my housemates now live in IV I'm still in contact with them and hang out with them every week and party. What makes Manzanita special is you won't become just a number. There are only about 40 students in each house and if you're the friendly type you'll definitely going to make some friends. I would not give up my experience in Manzanita and I'm living there again next school year and I'll make sure of knocking on some doors to make friends......</p>
<p>It wasn't that I was picky, it's that in college you need to find people who you click well with and have common ground with and share common interests with. My dorm situation went well beyond the fact that the other people didn't party that much. Ultimately, I just didn't fit in there, and it's a bad idea to change who you are just to fit in with a certain group of people. I ended up joining a club a couple months into the school year and eventually meeting a solid network of friends/acquintenses who I clicked pretty well with, and for a few months I had a solid social life, but not a really good one because all I really did with these people was go to parties with them on the weekends (they had a nice complex on DP with many parties on the weekends) and hang out sometimes on the weeknights when they had people over. I've met a fair amount of people, and I have several people who I can go to parties with, but these friendships don't go that much deeper than that. I came here wanting to make close friends who I could grow attached to and do other stuff with besides just go to parties and get drunk, because many of my friends back home I mainly just partied with and hang out with on the weekends, and I wanted to have true close friends in college. I think that everyone should try to have friends like that, because if all you do with your friends is party, it will really limit how much you can bond with them, and deep down inside you'll feel unsatisfied or even alone at times.</p>
<p>Building that kind of friendship you're looking for takes some time. Just have fun out there and call your friends regularly and see what's up. Make plans with the to go camping or maybe go somewhere on Spring Break..I'm sure the camaraderie you shared gets through past college.</p>