<p>Can someone give a run down of the social life in each dorm. Which dorms are quiet, which have a lot of parties, which are really social, which have a lot of freshman, etc etc.</p>
<p>santa catalina has the most freshmen and is the most social. Thats going to be my first choice.</p>
<p>Manzanita is the best. My boyfriend lived there both years (I visited mannnnny weekends). It’s the newest & cleanest and it’s right next to IV where EVERYTHING happens, but it’s way closer to the campus than Santa Catalina. His first year, the whole hall were freshman. Everybody left their doors open and he made a ton of friends.</p>
<p>I’m like stuck between Santa Catalina & one of the on-campus dorms. While I love the fact that the bathroom ratio in Santa Catalina is 4 people per bathroom, I’m not too excited about its distance from the actual campus. However, I don’t know how I feel about sharing a bathroom with 30+ people. Any suggestions or opinions? Also, I might consider Manzanita, but I heard not many freshman live there and I think the first year is crucial for making friends and socializing so yeah.</p>
<p>there is nothing wrong with sharing a bathroom with 40 students. i think it provides a learning experience. you learn to share a place with everyone else; one negative action will affect your fellow hallmates. and it is guaranteed that the curtains won’t be pulled when you’re in the showers (unless of course you **** off some hall mates and they now have a personal vendetta against you)</p>
<p>but tell me please, why are you guys afraid of sharing a bathroom with people? and i’ll give you a reason why it’s no big deal.</p>
<p>Alright. I need a dorm that is </p>
<p>-close to campus or on campus
-social (but not necessarily a total party dorm)
-has decent food on/nearby it
-has decent rooms
and, although i’m not totally picky on this one
-maybe has a small bathroom ratio (again, i dont really care that much)</p>
<p>someone tell me where I should go. haha =P I’ve done research and looked on the website and everything, but I’d be curious to hear from a UCSB student maybe where they think I might like.</p>
<p>san nic, it’s between two dining commons, each gender shares a restroom with 20 people on one wing of the floor with the other gender using it’s own restroom around the corner on a different wing. both genders share a common lounge so it gets quite social as people begin to use the lounge as a hangout place/study place</p>
<p>I hear Manzanita is really antisocial. I’m interested in it, because I hear the dorms are pretty nice and the rooms fairly roomy, but the antisocial part bothers me a little. </p>
<p>I’m looking for a balance. I’m down for some fun, but I’m serious about doing well in college.</p>
<p>having lived both in the central (san nicolas, san miguel, santa cruz, anacapa, and santa rosa) dorms as well as in manzanita, the social life in both depends both on you and on where you are.</p>
<p>san nicolas is a great dorm. you are close to probably 80% of your classes and to the DLG dining commons. unfortunately, ortega (the other close dining commons) will be closed next year, but most first-years prefer the DLG anyway. as far as the social life goes, san nic (and, generally, the other central dorms) is the happy medium between santa catalina and MV. the different “living learning communities” also dictate the sociability of your floor, eg, obviously the quiet floor and substance free floors are a little quieter than, say, the performing arts floor. </p>
<p>as far as manzanita goes… each house is around 45-50 people, and it’s relatively uncommon for people from different houses to mingle. compare that to a building like san nic where 400 people live together, then when you realize that each house has 3 floors of around 15 people each, compare that to a floor in san nic with 50 people. you have a smaller pond to fish from, so to say… this isnt to say that you won’t make amazing friends in mv, or that you will meet tons of friends at san nic, but if you’re looking for lifelong friends in your dorm, its more likely at one place than another.</p>
<p>another thing to consider is that your food options on campus are generally limited to the dining commons and the University Center (so, like, panda express, wendy’s, and jamba juice). carillo by mv is the best dining commons on campus, but the ucen is closer to the central dorms. then again, mv is closer to iv, which has far more choices…</p>
<p>and, finally, realize that “close” means something different at sb then at sd or irvine. there is nothing in IV or at ucsb you can’t reach with 10 minutes on a bike or 20 minutes on foot, and most places will be 5 minutes on bike and 10 minutes on foot, max. distance is an inconvenience at sb, not a huge deal like it might be at san diego, for example.</p>
<p>it’s not like we really share a bathroom with 20 or 40 people though. i live in manzanita and we have like 3 or 4 (not sure) bathrooms per floor. so 5 people per bathroom. and you can lock the bathroom door if u dont want anyone to come in when u take showers.</p>