<p>I live in LA, go to college at UCSB. I didn't want to go there and got rejected at my top choices, but money an my mom's pride demanded I go there instead of NYU or my local community.</p>
<p>I'm not a partier, at all and pretty introverted most of the time. I come out of my shell when/if I am doing something official/leadership-esque. To my luck I was placed into THE party dorm, and let me tell you the reputation is nothing compared to the reality.</p>
<p>My roommate is a decent guy, a little slow sometimes but its ok. He comes off as shy and innocent, but he actually parties a lot in the dorm tower or the nearby town Isla Vista.</p>
<p>I've been really uncomfortable the past 6 days. Everybody except for one person has gone out of their way to party and I just sit in my room or in the gym, exhausted from the 3 mile bike ride to campus (which i do multiple times a day), 100 stairs I climb to get to my room, and my crappy diet of rice and steamed vegetables.</p>
<p>Everyone here is way too peppy for me, way too into partying. I have met dozens of people, more than I ever met in high school on the personal level and all they talk about is alcohol and girls. Only one person is different, but he doesn't really talk.</p>
<p>I felt pretty lonely and out of place here and since we just beat UCLA at soccer the dorm and "party town" were going to be crazy so I took the train home, I'm on the train at the moment. Do you guys think its a good/bad idea that I just left? I also plan on either dropping out and enrolling at community college or sticking it out and hopefully transfer to a quite university or one close to home so I can commute.</p>
<p>See who you meet in your classes. You don’t have to limit yourself to the people you live with. You should be able to find at least some people that don’t party. It will take some effort to make friends, but that’s life. The situation with the people in your dorm should improve some too. There’s not much to do apart from party during zero week, but that should change now that classes have started.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking of transferring to another UC, you’ll probably have an easier time going through a CC. I would suggest sticking it out though, at least for the first quarter. If you leave now, you might not be able to take classes this fall and you might have more difficulty getting the required classes in time to transfer. Even if you stay at UCSB the whole year, you should still be able to transfer to a CC for a year before going elsewhere.</p>
<p>Thats what I thought too about parties, but classes started Thursday and the parties kept going wednesday and thursday nights. I hope it changes. I couldn’t really meet people in my classes yet because they are 500 people or more, but I haven’t started discussion sections yet so maybe I’ll meet someone there. I just feel really lonely (not homesick though) there.</p>
<p>Oh yeah definitely, I’ll finish the quarter. Not sure if I want to go to another UC, but yeah I’ll keep that in mind and go to SMC.</p>
<p>S, who is not a partier, ended up as a freshman in the party dorm and with a partying roommate.</p>
<p>S spent his time with the college’s group of student volunteers, and also got involved in several clubs that related to his interests. This included some things he had never tried out before. He did not come home until Thanksgiving break. </p>
<p>He made a lot of wonderful, nonpartying friends through his activities, and now is a senior who is in his third year of rooming with a friend he met freshman year.</p>
<p>Also, you’ll find as S did that lots of the most wild partying stops after Christmas break probably due to the bad grades that some of the partiers got.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to stay on campus, but find nonpartying activities to get involved in. That’s where you’ll meet like minded friends. Going home each weekend will add to your misery.</p>
<p>I’m also from the LA area, and a ton of my non-partying friends went to UCSB or USC and had the exact same problem you’re having now. We’re sophomores now; most of them joined clubs or leadership organizations, where people actually care about more than icing their bros and scamming for chix. </p>
<p>Additionally, the classes are ridiculously huge now, but as you mentioned, you will get into some smaller discussion-based classes over time and those will be more manageable (20-30 kids). You can meet people pretty easily in discussion because you will probably end up keeping your seating patterns more or less each day. (High school habits die hard.)</p>
<p>Basically-- give it a month, you’ll find people. Not to mention all the crazy-ass freshmen who are freaking out right now will settle down once the work kicks in. I promise you. Don’t go home, it’ll make it much harder.</p>
<p>What you describe is pretty much the norm for first semester freshmen. Many of these individuals will drop out within the next semester/year, and as you become part of a social group and move out of the dorms in future years, you’ll often forget that people act like what you now hate. I met my best friends through clubs and student government, but seminar classes are also a good place. I’m not sure if it’s possible for you, but try to avoid lecture classes as much as you can; they tend to be rather dull and you fail to develop relationships with the professor or other students.</p>
<p>I wasn’t fully content with the friend situation until sophomore year, so it definitely takes some time. For now, focus on your other interests and try to meet as many people as you can.</p>
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<p>The workload won’t really pick up until nearer the end of 2nd week. You’ll reach midterms pretty quickly after that.</p>
<p>500 people?! I’m so glad both of my schools have been in the middle of nowhere…</p>
<p>I would hate being in your situation as well, but try to stick with it a few more weeks, at least, and see how it goes. In the long run it makes no sense to force yourself to stay somewhere you’re miserable. That’s just throwing away thousands and thousands of dollars! If you continue to be miserable come up with a plan B and start searching for schools you think you’d be happier at.</p>