<p>I am most likely going to enroll at UCSB for the fall quarter as a Junior Transfer student. However, EVERYONE tells me that UCSB is a huge party school and lacks academically. As an upper division student, I don't want to be stuck in the situation where all I do is party and don't get any work done. For those that know, is the partying really that big there? Also, are there specific areas that I can live that are away from the party scene? What are some of the ways that I can avoid too much of the partying? Thanks.</p>
<p>If you want to avoid the party scene, then do not live in Isla Vista...
Live downtown Santa Barbara and take the express bus to campus (15-20 minute ride), or live in Goleta... Isla Vista is nice to visit, but it you want a more serious homelife, live elsewhere...</p>
<p>are u a student at ucsb? also, is the partying most on weekends of is it a daily thing?</p>
<p>I'm a lecturer/postdoc... been here 1.5 years...
There is a lot of partying/drinking in Isla Vista Thursday-Sunday...
Also everyday at the downtown bars along State Street (but you have to be over 21 and there is a huge police presence).</p>
<p>The grad students/postdocs are VERY serious... UCSB has a party reputation for undergrad, but the university as a whole can be very academically serious/rigorous... especially in the sciences/engineering.</p>
<p>It is VERY easy to avoid the party scene and focus on academics if that is what you want... I wouldn't worry about the party scene at all... there is still a lot to do in Santa Barbara outside of partying/drinking...</p>
<p>actually isla vista itself is sub-divided into places with more parties or less parties. The street closest to the ocean, Del Playa has the strongest party reputation, especially the 6400 thru 6600 blocks. The next parallel street has some pretty solid parties, too. But while I don't think any part of IV can be described as quiet and sedate, if you avoid the 2 streets closest to the ocean you'll avoid the concentrated parties.</p>
<p>ucsb hardly lacks academically. While not holding the same reputation as cal or ucla, it is quite respected and you'll have top-notch profs and TAs.</p>
<p>As for parties, really boils down to this. Anytime you put 20,000 kids in their own community you're going to have kids that make the most of their "freedom". If you name the "party" schools in CA, by and large you're naming the schools where students live away from home in a smaller town with the college. But there is PLENTY to do besides drink & smoke. Nobody is going to drag you kicking and streaming and pour beer down your throat (unless you rush a frat). If you aren't interested in the party scene, then don't take part. It's just that easy.</p>
<p>It will be easy to make friends who care about school. For starters, take a look at all the clubs that are career or academically oriented, as well as many of the ethnically oriented ones. As a transfer student there are services set up just to help you make the transition to the UC system and you should take full advantage of them.</p>
<p>I don't know where you're xfering from, but one thing to keep in mind at ANY large public school (including the top ones like Cal and ucla) is that you need to take the initiative. Unlike a communty college where instructors may have reached out to give unsolicited advice and guidance, at a large public its up to you. Your instructors will assume that everything's fine unless you approach them. Its not that people don't care; the school is loaded with counselors, peer advisors, the career center, profs who want to help you and are happy to do so. There are clubs to join, sports to play, shows to see, lectures to attend. But what some people don't understand at first is that the expectation is that if you have questions or want advice YOU have to make the first move and ask for it. If you want to get involved in campus fun then YOU need to join the clubs, attend the events, and so on; they don't go around inviting people.</p>
<p>Bottom line, ucsb is a strong school that can provide a great education while living and studying in one of the finest locations anywhere on earth. But to make this nirvana happen the burden is going to be on your shoulders to step out and take advantage of all that's out there. Students that are passive or wait for others to take the lead are often frustrated and unhappy at large public U's, and ucsb will be no exception.</p>
<p>wow thanks for all the info. you guys have really enlightened me on the subject that i was concerned with. I just got back from visiting the campus and surprisingly it was pretty quiet. I guess the other thing that i was majorly concerned about was having shrieking college kids making loud noise at a party or whatever while i was trying to study or sleep at night. can this be the case sometimes?</p>
<p>The loud parties tend to be concentrated on the streets nearer the ocean, although the kids in many apartment complexes all thru IV will will hire a band and hold a party once each year. So no part will be completely quiet, although as you saw first-hand with your visit the place isn't the zoo that people sometimes say.</p>
<p>The other problem is that you may end up in a room next to people who want to play the stereo full-bore at 2am. To some extent thats the luck of the draw. The streets nearer the ocean tend to draw the people who are more into that, but they can live anywhere. You can check with the landlord and see what their policy is on loud music, and you can also ask the people you will move in with. They may have lived there the previous year and need a roomate to replace someone who moved out, so they can tell you what its like.</p>
<p>As for studying, its a bad idea to study in your room anyway. Too many distractions. That's the beauty of living at a residential college like UCSB; the campus is just a quick walk or bike ride away. Sure, sometimes you do homework at home but why not take advantage of a big well-lit place for most of your studying? The library is open until midnight every night but Fri & Sat, and open until 2am finals week.</p>
<p>now i am thinking about getting an apt in santa barbara and not IV and just commute by car everyday to school, do you think this is an ok idea?</p>
<p>its really a personal decision. To me, one of the ADVANTAGES of going to a residential college like ucsb is that you live in walking distance of your friends and the school. If you want to go to the library to pick up a book, drop by a TA's office for some help, go to a play, visit the career center -- its all right there. Plus there is the vibrancy of living in a college community with the friends you make all right around you. By living in SB and driving you miss a lot of the spontaneity and accessibility ucsb gives you that is so hard to find in most other CA colleges.</p>
<p>This access does come at a small price -- college towns don't tend to be the quietest of places, nor the cleanest for that matter. However you already saw on your trip that the "zoo" reputation is overblown. I would suggest getting in contact, if you can, with some current students and asking them for their opinions. If you make another trip down there just walk up to a few people and ask them, or maybe your current school can put you in touch with some kids who transferred last year. And I should add that it's not unknown for students to rent a room in SB (or in Goleta, which is usually cheaper).</p>
<p>In the end it does come down to a personal decision. What might be right or wrong for someone else might not be right for you. I wish more people were posting on this thread, but SB isn't the school that attracts all the attention on these boards. If it was HYPS we would have plenty of opinions! So before you decide one way or another my best suggestion is talk to some current students and see what they say.</p>
<p>I do think sometimes people are scared off by the reputation; you hear from people that its a "total party place" and that its not a serious school. Some of this, BTW, is spread by people who are jealous that you're going to ucsb and they're not. Kids who do show up with this idea usually find out after they get their 1st quarter grades that they are NOT at Club Med for 4 years.</p>
<p>As you saw for yourself when you visited, its a great location that is also much like any other U. Kids are studying, going to class, meeting up with friends, in general doing what college kids are doing everywhere. I think the rumors you've heard may have made you a bit anxious, but you don't need to be worried. You'll go to the school, you'll learn a lot, and if you make the effort to reach out to the people and resources available to you then you'll make plenty of friends and have a good academic experience.</p>
<p>What was that joke acronym?</p>
<p>UCSB: University of Casual Sex and Beers? That was it.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, I am sure that you could get a very good, serious education at UCSB. It has a big party reputation, but that doesn't mean it IS completely a party school. Best wishes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the extensive comments mikemac. I found them imformative as well, since I'm also a transfer, and I'd like it if things were more on the quieter side as well, though I don't think I'd have problem living next to campus. I plan to live in the dorms my first year after I transfer anyway, so I guess this will be an issue a little later for me.</p>
<p>Anyway, do you have anything else you'd like to say about Santa Barbara? I still haven't submitted my SIR just yet, because I also got accepted to Davis, but I'm very close to just finally marking off SB after considering the advantages and disadvantages of each university.</p>
<p>hey RC251, where are you transferring from? It is really comforting to know that someone else is concerned with the party subject at ucsb. Thanks for posting. also thanks everyone for posting all your informational comments. I have learned a lot just from reading your opinions, keep them coming!</p>
<p>I'm transfering from the City College of San Francisco. I applied for the guaranteed transfer programs for both colleges, and after visiting both, and talking with some friends at each college (very few people went to Santa Barbara from my high school though), I thought Santa Barbara would be a better choice.</p>
<p>In terms of noise, it's really not a huge deal for me, but I would like a quiet environment when studying. Assuming I turn my SIR in, I'll probably apply for the Manzanita Village dorms, which from what I've read, is less rowdy than all of the freshman dorms, and when I look for housing the year after, I'll definitely find a place at Isla Vista, though away from all the really wild areas.</p>
<p>rc251, both are good schools so its really a win/win choice. While they are academically on par, the settings and atmosphere is quite different I'd believe so you should pick the one that you like best. I know little specifically about Davis so I'm not going to be able to do much compare and contrast.</p>
<p>The most important thing I stress to everyone going to a UC school (no matter which one), though, is the impersonal nature of the beast. Its NOT that people don't care or are unfriendly, but the expectation is that you will make step. Living in the dorms is a good start since you'll have familiar faces around and probably an RA to ask questions, but overall if you want to take part in clubs, get help from TAs, advice from profs, and so on, then you'll be fine if you take that first step.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. My finals are over, so now I have about a week to mull over what to decide, although I'm leaning much towards Santa Barbara. I live the virtually guaranteed dorm option for transfers, the summer transitions program, the business economics degree, and the atmoshpere of the school, and the close-to-campus living that's available, and a number of these things make the school more transfer-friendly. Davis was nice too, and it's closer to where I live, but it seemed a little more isolated and impersonal. I visited my friends from high school who lived about two miles away, and it seemed like they weren't particularily having a blast living there. Of course, I'm not even close to being the "party" type, but that could be more with the people I associated with in high school rather than me not wanting to try that out. And I think it would be a good experience at Santa Barbara to do that.</p>
<p>Also, UCSB was the only UC (besides Santa Cruz and Riverside) that accepted me as a freshman. I ended up going to a community college instead (long story), but the fact they accepted me on my merits back then gives me greater consideration :)</p>
<p>Anyway, what I meant in my previous post is not a comparison between the two, but is there anything just in general about UCSB what you want to say? Like what you liked best about it, what was worst about it, stuff like that :) I'm gathering all opinions about it and talking to some of my friends about it so I can finally make a decisions. I've visited both campuses twice already, so I think I have that part covered.</p>
<p>i also declared a business econ major for ucsb. looks like we're going to be taking some similiar classes if we both decided to go to sb :). it's nice to know that someone else is in the same boat as me. I was accepted to UCSD, UCSC, UCR, UCI, and UCD (and UCSB) and decided that UCSB was probably going to be my best bet for some sort of a business degree and i really hope i'm right. I also applied to Haas at Berk but got rejected :( and that was my original first choice. So here i am about to submit my SIR for SB and praying that I've made the right decision. It's relieving to know that I kinda already met someone from UCSB, makes the place feel a little less of a stranger!</p>
<p>Yeah, I haven't seen that many transfer students to UCSB on this forum, so it's nice to see other people going throught the same process. It's kind of hard for me to be pick between Davis and Santa Barbara, but I think I've done all that I've could in terms of getting a feel for both universities, and I'll be happy with whatever decision I make.</p>
<p>about what time does the partying start in Isla Vista and if were not locals hows the parking during the partying hours?</p>
<p>UCSB is definitely a very social school with a lot going on. It has solid academics. Michelle, don't shut the door on occasionally going out before you get there. Living in an off campus apartment and commuting by car might not be a good idea, unless the apartment is primarily filled with other students. Part of going to college is making friends and having a good social life. If you are more of an introvert who is very focused on their academics, you might be better off at UCSD. At UCSD, you would be in a very studious environment with few distractions. UCSD has one of the top 10 economics programs in the country. You could definitely go into business with an Economics degree, especially from a top institution like UCSD.</p>