Some info about living in Isla Vista

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Santa Barbara
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<p>I've seen a number of questions come up on housing in Isla Vista, and I wanted to make some points about it so that you freshmen and transfers who are deciding between colleges can make the right decision when it comes to picking a UC.</p>

<p>-Isla Vista is expensive. Unlike many campuses, the majority of students live adjacent to campus and commute via bike/walking rather than driving/taking the bus. Thus, demand for the limited amount of housing in Isla Vista is high. This may have changed since I was a student, but as a rough estimate, expect to pay anywhere from $400-$750 each to share a room, and $750-$1100 for your own room (and higher if you use a room intended for 2 people as a single). Most UCs are in expensive areas already (Berkeley, Santa Cruz, West Los Angeles, La Jolla, Irvine) and I would say that Isla Vista is probably at the top of this list. If money will be an issue for you, please budget out what you will be paying for 3 years of off-campus housing (for freshman, 1 or 2 for transfers) and understand the costs that you will be paying. If money is going to be a major issue, you may want to consider the UCs in areas where housing is cheaper due to the fact that there is still space to build (Davis, Riverside, and Merced).</p>

<p>-Isla Vista is a true "college town." Many buildings are fairly grungy. The town is dense and the streets are thin. Parking is difficult. Leaving doors/windows unlocked is a great way for property crime to occur. Depending on which streets you live on, it may be LOUD on the weekends (amplified music heard outside your house is a citable offense only after 10pm on weekdays and midnight on weekends). If you haven't been to UCSB yet, walk through Isla Vista to make sure that you can visualize yourself living there for 3 years, because it's not for everyone.</p>

<p>-Living in Isla Vista doesn't limit academic success. Occasionally I see posts saying that all students do in Isla Vista is party and this leads to one of the highest dropout rates in the UC system. However, here's the hard data for graduation rates for all California colleges:</p>

<p>College</a> graduation rates for every California school - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee</p>

<p>As you can see, UCSB falls right about where a mid-tier UC should. Irvine slightly edges out UCSB in the 4 and 5 year graduation rates (but not 6 year), and UCSB is fairly well ahead of Davis. These figures may be lower than you think because they include student attrition.</p>

<p>-Final comments: I graduated from UCSB in 2008 and I now work in Sacramento. Looking back at my days at UCSB, many of the things that seem unpleasant about Isla Vista add to it's "charm" that you can't find in many other places. You're within walking distance to about 15,000 of your friends, and the ability to hang out or go to parties without ever having to get into a car (and finding a designated driver) is a great perk. The town is always active on the weekend and for a student from NorCal like me, I never felt lonely due to a mass of students heading home for the weekends which happens on many other campuses. It's an easy walk to campus, to the beach, to IV Theatre for movie nights, etc. Unlike many campuses, you don't need to drive out for entertainment</p>

<p>Anyway, if you guys have any other questions about any aspects of life in Isla Vista, feel free to ask and I'll give you my honest assessment.</p>

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<p>“fairly well ahead Davis” ?</p>

<p>ha, good one. maybe when it gets a med school, vet school, business school, and law school!</p>

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<p>You should read my post more carefully… I was referring to graduation rates as listed on the Sacramento Bee article. UCSB has a 4 year graduation rate of 49.9% while UC Davis has a 4 year graduation rate of 42.6%. This suggests that retention rate at UCSB is better and/or students are able to get required classes faster in order to graduate on time. This also debunks the myth that UCSB students are prone to dropping out.</p>

<p>Also, it’s arguable how much professional schools contribute to the undergraduate experience, although there’s no doubt that they increase name recognition of the school. UCSB was originally a liberal arts college, and was transformed into a research university from 1970-1980 ([scroll</a> down and read the interview here for details](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/ouruniversity/08_07/welcome.html]scroll”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/ouruniversity/08_07/welcome.html)). Even though it is a full-fledged research university now, I think the focus will always remain on undergraduates.</p>

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<p>I’m living in IV next year.</p>

<p>did you ever have trouble getting your deposit back? did you wish you hired someone to videotape the place when you got it? what property manager(s) did you sign with?</p>

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<p>I had a place with SFM Vista Del Mar my senior year. They have an office next door to Sweet Jane on Trigo. I think their prices are reasonable although they tend to have older properties.</p>

<p>I got $475 out of my $700 deposit back. Part of this was that the contract had a carpet cleaning clause (you either professionally clean the carpet at the end of your lease or they do it for you and take some out of your deposit), and I also stupidly spilled bleach on my green carpet which turned bright orange :smiley: </p>

<p>I suggest at minimum to take photographs of your apartment. The Community Housing Office at the UCEN can video tape an apartment for you as well ($12 for move in or $20 for move in/move out).</p>

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<p>^^^I definitely agree with rc251 that UCSB’s focus will always remain on undergraduates, since UCSB has the least number of graduate students among all UC’s. There’re 20,000 students at UCSB, and only 2,000 of then are graduate students. Undergraduates at UCSB have significantly more chances of getting research opportunities compared to other UC’s and research universities.</p>

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<p>

There’s actually 3,000 grad students according to the UCSB Common Data Set at <a href=“http://bap.ucsb.edu/IR/CDS2009_2010.pdf[/url]”>http://bap.ucsb.edu/IR/CDS2009_2010.pdf&lt;/a&gt; but that’s still a small number compared to many other UC campuses. UCLA, by comparison, has almost 27,000 undergrads and 13,000 grad students (although some of those are in professional programs such as medicine and law).</p>

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<p>When should I start looking for fall 10’ housing ? is it too late too look in may/june ?</p>

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<p>Generally, property owners begin leasing in January for the following June. Most of the higher demand properties like oceanside Del Playa are probably filled by late January, with the rest of IV property being gobbled up between January and March. You’ll have pretty slim pickings into April. At that point, your best bet is to start looking at Craigslist ads for people who need roommates.</p>

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<p>ok cool, thanks.</p>

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<p>search for housing gets more competitive as the school year nears, some nice places go as soon as november</p>

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<p>Also some nice places never really turn over. Some even stay in the same family for a decade or so! I’ve known people where someone moves in to an oceanside apartment, they bring in friends as replacement roommates over the next 3 years including a brother or sister, then the sibling repeats the process…</p>

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<p>one more - is sabado too close to del playa ? I’m 90% sure we will be getting a place there (65 block) it’s only one block away from DP :/</p>

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<p>Is it the 6500 block or the 6550 block? Also, are you on the north (mountain) side of the street, or the south (ccean) side? It makes a difference :)</p>

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<p>haha ok well the actual address is 6559 and according to google maps it’s on the side of the ocean and a block from campus and less than a block from super cucas.</p>

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<p>After living in Isla Vista for a while you get a feeling for the nuances and different streets and such, haha :)</p>

<p>I’d say you may get a moderate amount of noise from that location. Most of it would probably come from mountain side Del Playa houses if they happen to be hosting parties on the weekends… you may get a little bit of noise from the crowds that walk down El Embarcadero to DP. The biggest factor is just a luck of the draw of the neighbors you get, to be honest.</p>

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<p>ah, ok thanks for the help :)</p>

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<p>what about el greco st area? is it loud there or not as much partying?
how is frat housing?</p>

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<p>ok, well I just got back from visiting isla vista for the first time and here are my thoughts.</p>

<p>1.Students EVERYWHERE - this is seriously a student ghetto (if you will), there are nothing but young people everywhere. It’s very vibrant actually haha. Peopls seem very friendly, we just knocked on the door of the apt. and the girls who live there showed us around.
2. Housing is expensive and suckish - ok so I’ll be going to sbcc this fall and I found 2 girls and a guy who go to ucsb who were looking for housing and they found a place for $500 a month each person. The place was tiny, seriously the rooms were small for singles, let alone a double :confused: obviously if you spend more money i’m sure you could find a bigger place but I decided to lease it anyways, I’d rather save that extra money and use it elsewhere.
3. Parking is impossible - there are 20k people in a very small town. It seems beach cruisers are the popular form of transportation and cars are the minority. Thankfully I’ll be taking my motorcycle so I can probably squeeze in between cars.</p>

<p>overall, it was an experienece :stuck_out_tongue: I’ve never seen anything like it.</p>

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<p>enjoy it!!!</p>