<p>i went to the spring insight today and it actually made me feel a little bit better about the school since i was a little intimidated about the whole party reputation (plus i was a little disappointed from before since ucsb was not of the top schools i wanted to go to, but it was the best school that i got accepted to). when i was there, i didnt see a big party? maybe its cuz i didnt go down to isla vista or del playa… i think its like most ppl say, u only party if u want to party. but then again its only a one day event so u can’t exactly know for sure what ucsb is like…</p>
<p>i only went to the college of engineering presentation and the computer science presentation (one of the few girls there too…)</p>
<p>Check on the website to see the majors and minors. I really don’t know the answers to your questions but you should visit… I can’t stress that enough. </p>
<p>What part of LA are you from because I think you don’t have to go through union station. There’s a train station at chatsworth if you live near there. Try looking at amtrak’s website. Also, there’s something you can do where you get discounts I think if you commute using the train. I didn’t really look into it because I’m not going to UCSB, but I don’t think you could commute every day. Well you could, but it would take forever and won’t be much fun. You might want to find a place in Goleta/Santa Barbara instead of Isla Vista. It might be more tame there and you get to ride the bus for free to the school within a 25 mile radius I believe.</p>
<p>Chesserforlife: I’m sorry to say but it is impossible to travel back and forth from LA to SB everyday you have class. Not only is cost a problem, but the opportunity cost is huge. The time you spent traveling is better spent on studying, resting or doing whatever else you need to do instead. I had one classmate who travels from Camarillo to SB and her performance in school is suffering. She was not able to attend the group meetings we had for our project presentation. It doesn’t matter what university you want to attend, you just have to live near it to be able to participate and enjoy the campus life.</p>
<p>jackchen: Del Playa is the main party street. You can probably find a party there any day. It might get loud if you live in Manzanita which is the closest dorm to Del Playa. The big parties were on the beach and in DP. You wouldn’t have noticed anything unless you walked north of the lagoon. So I guess it won’t affect you if you don’t live near there.</p>
<p>konakai thanks for the info and wishing me luck. I live in los angeles by hollywood not even close to chatsworth. yeah amtrak is not any fun specially with all the money I have to spend. my other solution of course is get a car, but yeah i am definitely going to visit the campus anyways. I also applied to occidental I hope I can get in there, its very near my home and they have a great program from what i want to major. and are you freshman or transfer student?</p>
<p>Occidental is a great school! I was actually going to apply there but I got lazy and I didn’t think I could afford it… but mostly I was lazy, haha.
And I’m a freshman student.</p>
<p>yeah, occidental actually makes you do more things than a regular university. which schools have you been admitted and rejected so far? and what high school do you go to? what part of los angeles do you live at?</p>
<p>Konakai, my son and I attended the open house today as well, and my impressions are a bit different than yours.
We attended several presentations; one lecture on black holes given by a physics prof and one by a music prof on music in the movies, both of which were well done and interesting.
The rooms were full and the audience was attentive and interested in the subjects presented.
The question and answer presentation given by the College of Letters and Sciences students and faculty was also well done and informative, as was the presentation by the College of Creative Studies.
The main walk was filled with information tables for the various majors/minors, clubs, intramural sports, etc available at the school. The students/faculty manning them were all helpful, informative,and excited to be attending UCSB.
From what I observed, the thousands of parents and prospective students attending the open house had a positive experience.
We also wandered down to the beach via the lagoon. I thought it was beautiful, filled with all sorts of plants and birds. I did not see any trash, litter, or debris anywhere on the trail.
In fact, we commented on how unique it was to access this natural wetland so easily.
When we arrived at the beach, the only thing we observed were people having a fun and enjoyable time. We watched the sheriff helicopter land, and it sat there for about an hour while my son and I talked.
I don’t know what happened on the other side of the bluff with the activity there. I can say from my experience in college and graduate professional school that college is what you make of it. If you want to party and get drunk, then you can do that anywhere you go.
It is assumed that when you move on to college you will act and behave like a responsible adult. Don’t blame the University or anyone else if that doesn’t occur. Put the blame where it belongs, on the offending students.
All in all I was very impressed by the campus, students, and faculty, and I will be very pleased if my son decides to attend UCSB.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to blame the campus. I liked the campus, just not the drunken students. But now I know that many of the students at the whole Floatopia/DP parties weren’t UCSB students at all. </p>
<p>I actually talked with a couple of professors from the biology department and I really enjoyed listening to them. I went to the Alumni House for the Chancellor’s reception and I thought he was a cool guy, but it was not well organized. They stuffed all of us into a tiny room and didn’t really say much. It was supposed to be a “mingling” experience but the guy who talked to me was some biased kid who said that UCLA/Cal are bad and SB is better. We left and went to the Colloge of L&S honors program presentation. It was ok, but they were running around trying to find people. </p>
<p>The trashy part was the beach, not the lagoon trail. The main problem I saw was Del Playa. If you went there you would know what I mean. And I know everyone says that college is what you make of it, but there’s no point in me going to a school where I wouldn’t feel comfortable. It’s all personal taste. My dad said even if the school paid me, he would not let me go to the school and I agree. The school is actually paying me ($50,000 over 4 years) and I am not planning on attending.</p>
<p>UC GPA: 4.4
SAT: 2080
SAT II: 790/730
I have a few EC activities that I really committed to, but my community service was lacking (20 hours).
A lot more people at my school got accepted to Berkeley than UCLA. My counselor said it might be because they are trying to diversify so they want to pull students from different areas. Cal might be more inclined to take students from SoCal while UCLA from NorCal… but that’s just a guess.</p>
<p>Konakai, you are fortunate that you have other colleges to choose from that will better suit your needs, desires, and expectations.
Not every school is appropriate for every student.</p>
<p>I have a gut feeling that I’ll end up at UCSD. I think personality-wise I’ll like it there. But I’ll see when I visit. Even though it’ll cost more, it’s worth it if I’m much happier there.</p>
<p>i live in San Diego and for me, Santa Barbara was nothing new to me in terms of temperature. i saw people having fun and having a great time. the students that i have talked to were really helpful and nice. i saw the helicopter thing but i don’t think that happens every single day. The reason that i have decide to go to SB is because it has a good engineering program since im going for my comp. engendering b.s. Also to escape my parents. I HATE with a passion beer so im not even planning to drink alcohol but you can still have fun.
For konakai27, i guess you will fit in San Diego much better. i think it has a stronger bio program. Nothing happens at the school from what i have heard of. During the weekends it is a dead school since it is mostly a commuter school. although, in the news it always says that students are found with wee in UCSD. Here’s a news flash, every school has drugs and weed. It is you who looks for it and i know this is a cliche but it is absolutely true. For me, the only good thing about it is that it has a tight library. Some attractions that SD has is Legoland, the SD ZOO, Wild Animal park, Sea world and of course Tijuana. Although it may seem that you will ever go to TJ. I hope you make a good choice.</p>
<p>You have to realize this:
Floatopia is one of the biggest parties at UCSB. The other one is on Halloween. It would be inaccurate to base your impressions of UCSB’s atmosphere on that ONE day, which is the biggest party of the year, and the last Saturday of spring break! You also have to know that a LOT of the students weren’t even UCSB students - many were students from other schools on spring break who come down to UCSB for the event. I know people from UCSC, SLO, UCLA, and SDSU who all went to Santa Barbara for that day.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to DP, so I don’t know what it was like there. However, I knew from some of my friends in college (none of which actually go to UCSB) that Floatopia was that day and that it’d be totally wrecked/crowded. I did not want my parents to get the wrong impression by seeing the BIGGEST party of the year, especially since I would be home normally at that time! MANY of the UCSB students were actually working and helping out that day, so they weren’t even the main participants. :)</p>
<p>A friend of a friend of my parents has a daughter who goes to UCSB, and she let us visit her rooms. There in Manazita, which I thought was actually too secluded and off campus for me. I’d rather be right in the middle of it. Anyway, she said she liked it because it’s the quietest of all the dorms, though today was obviously an exception. She’s a nerdy, quiet, pre-med Asian type (not hatin’, I’m Asian too) and dorms in the Women in Science (I think?) special interest dorm. It’s an all girl small building, pretty big rooms, new, with mostly pre-med students. Only four people share a bathroom, and they’re pretty clean/private. Just info for anyone interested. She said there are many special interest dorms you can choose from if you are wary of the party-school reputation, like “substance free” or “quiet” floors. You can go here to see them:
<a href=“http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/reshalls-livlearn.htm[/url]”>http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/reshalls-livlearn.htm</a></p>
<p>The presentations I went to were actually very well-organized and informative. I’m happy to say that my parents were impressed and are MUCH less worried about me attending the school. These are parents who have sent children to Cal, UCI, UCSF, and UCSD, so I’m pretty sure that UCSB’s presentations were up to par. :)</p>
<p>I’m not trying to persuade you to go to UCSB or anything. I think it’s actually really fortunate that you visited because now you know that UCSB is simply not the right “fit”. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience but maybe you could find some good in it; after all, you were in a very beautiful place. But anyway, I’m simply trying to provide another perspective for those still worried about UCSB… I for one have found the college I want to attend.</p>
<p>Hello. I am a long-time lurker from Los Angeles (specifically the Western San Fernando Valley) who has finally decided to register and comment on some of the schools I was accepted to. I have learned a great deal from reading all of your comments and would really like to thank you for helping me and the other lurkers out.</p>
<p>Santa Barbara has been one of my college options for some time. First, my dad wanted me to consider accounting, and he believes that the school has an excellent program. In addition, I knew that the weather is nice year-round and the school is an easy train ride back home any time I need to leave. And third, I needed to have good alternatives to LA and Berkeley, which were not slam dunk schools for me (though I was eventually accepted to both). Considering these, when I received notification of the Regents Scholarship, I was thrilled. </p>
<p>After I analyzed all my choices, I figured Santa Barbara was right up near the top. My dad had really been hoping that yesterday’s Spring Insight would sway me towards the school. It didn’t. But it didn’t completely disappoint me. The campus seemed a little nicer than I remembered from the last time we visited and the library was one of the best stocked I ever visited. The presentations and people answering questions were really not very informative, however. For someone who applied randomly to the school it might have been okay, but I had already read a lot about it on this site and elsewhere. And the Scholars Reception was, quite honestly, awful. The area of the alumni house that we were in was far too small and the food ran out way too quickly. I do appreciate the fact that the chancellor himself showed up, considering many administrators at my high school now are too “untouchable” to show at school events, but whatever program they had was very poorly planned. I also wish that we could have gone into the residence halls to get a better feel for the living arrangements. </p>
<p>I was really upset about one thing, however. For one day, I expected Santa Barbara to make an effort to make the campus seem pleasant and unlike its stereotypes. But that stupid Floatopia going on near Manzanita at the end of the afternoon reminded me of what I really dislike about the school. Everyone who knows me understands that I am not a SB-style partygoer. Most have told me to avoid the school for this reason. I do not drink or smoke at all. Manzanita would be my first choice for housing for a number of reasons and the buildings themselves looked nice, but I would hate to not be able to sleep at night because some dopey neighbors can’t learn to control themselves. I also found the location of the campus, just as others have said, rather isolated. I could get used to it, but the adjacent cities are much smaller and more tourist-oriented than what I am used to. </p>
<p>Even if, after considering all of my options, I decide to attend Santa Barbara, I will worry about what I will do in a year or two when I want to get out of the residence halls. Considering the high cost of living and my relative unfamiliarity with the area, I am afraid that I will be unable to find a place that is inexpensive and acceptable (namely that it is QUIET). Then what would I do?</p>
<p>TWSA50, you have to realize that UCSB could do nothing about Floatopia. It’s legal, and the people there were either students on Spring Break or students from other schools! Think of it this way, that’s the WORSE UCSB will get, and it’s not how it will be every day. I’ve actually be to SB before, when it was much less crowded, and I was surprised how tourist-y it seemed too… but I think it was because there were so many visitors today, since last time I visited it was very calm and chill. :)</p>
She said there are many special interest dorms you can choose from if you are wary of the party-school reputation, like “substance free” or “quiet” floors. You can go here to see them: