<p>I'm highly considering living in Tropicana Gardens my first year. Does anyone have any personal experiences with the place or know anything about it (that's not already in the brochure)? Basically is it a good alternative to on- campus dorms?</p>
<p>It's ok, much better than the other off-campus dorm Fountain Blue. Food is ok. About 75% of the kids here go to city college so there can be some noise, but since the UC students are usually put close together it's not that bad. If you're bringing a car (which you don't really need in IV) get reserved parking because the free-for-all parking lot is in high demand and you'll need people to save your spot for you if you plan on keeping it.
I like the suite-style set up, which I think only FT and San Raf have.</p>
<p>You live in Trop Gar now? Did you find it hard to make good friendships? I worry that if I live there it'll be kinda isolated from ucsb activity as a whole.</p>
<p>Not hard at all. The suite setup probably makes things easier than it would be on an on-campus dorm. I'm not sure what you're afraid of being isolated from. The social scene (not only parties, but the majority of the UCSB population) is in Isla Vista and Trop is in IV, so in that sense you'd be more isolated if you lived on campus.</p>
<p>what would be better, on campus or off campus? from what it seems like, off campus seems like a better choice. and even among the off campus housing, which one should i pick? i heard francisco torres is usually for upperclassmen, what about the rest?</p>
<p>FT is almost exclusively for freshmen. The other off-campus UC offerings are the UC appartments (El Dorado, Santa Ynez, and Westgate) which are for upperclassmen.</p>