<p>OK OK. So I haven't been accepted to Santa Barbara or Davis yet, but I'll probably know of my admissions status within a week and I'm getting anxious so I think I'll just ask now...
So, Santa Barbara, Davis, or Santa Cruz? I realize that this is clearly a matter of opinion and that half of my replies will be something along the lines of "FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!!!NEWB!!!". I plan to visit some of the campuses and such soon but for now I'd like to hear some of your opinions on these schools. My impressions are...</p>
<p>Santa Barbara: The party school of the group, about on par with Davis academically (?), probably the best location for me (southern cali beach go-er)
Davis: The...cow...school. Not a bumping social scene but good academically and the biggest school = most school related opportunities?
Santa Cruz: The pot school? Less renown academically but a pretty campus. Seems to be the smallest and therefore may have less academic opportunities i.e. No honors program?</p>
<p>Oh. I'm thinking of a major involving something in english or literature or maybe journalism. Keep that in mind. And for the social life... Raised a Mormon but don't want to go to BYU. Even so, I've kinda retained my puritan ways (joke) so i'm not a partier or anything though maybe that could change...drinking/drugs don't appeal to me though...</p>
<p>Why do you prefer Davis? I've heard that out of those universities it best fits the classic college town description. I wish I knew what that entails...</p>
<p>Haha looks like I really do need to figure it out myself...</p>
<p>I think UCSB is the classic college town. Everyone lives on/near campus so all your friends will be nearby, and the school is actually in Isla Vista (not Santa Barbara) so the town adjoining campus is dominated by student stuff (pizza, etc). You have bike paths all across campus and that's how people get around. There's something special about spending your day in shorts and a t-shirt, with that beach-air feeling on a mostly sunny day, cruising around on your bike or playing frisbee with some friends. As for parties -- anytime you put 20,000 college kids in one place there ARE parties, but there are also plenty of things to do besides drink/smoke. Lots of events on campus, lectures, sports is big (both IM and school teams), a gym, and so on. UCSB has the "party" reputation, but it also has plenty of serious students and top-notch academics. A lot of frosh who think they've gone to Club Med for 4 years get a wake-up call after they get their grades 1st quarter. </p>
<p>But UCSB is a small town, so you HAVE to visit to see if its right for you. I knew people (only a handful, but it happens) who enrolled sight unseen at "the school on the beach" and they knew within hours of actually showing up it wasn't right for them.</p>
<p>As for Santa Cruz -- if you like it you'll love it, but its one of those schools that polarizes people. For some they've found nirvana. For others, its just wrong. UCSC has the highest transfer-out rate of any of the UC campuses, so people are voting with their feet. You really have to fit in with the counter-culture vibe there or you will be made to feel quite uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Yeah I haven't a problem with the beach setting. Quite a persuasive thread you wrote there... I was leaning toward UCSB already but yeah. This is of course all conditional on my acceptance...I'm only in UCSC for now.</p>
<p>SC or SB. theres notihng to do in Davis but get drunk and look at cows. The campus is waaay tooo big, too many students, nasty weather, middle of nowhere. I havent been to SB, but come on, a place with that many beautiful people cant be bad. And Santa Cruz i have been too, it is the most glorious, friendly, wonderful UC.
To depict my love for SC, i shall share this small anectdote.
My father and I were lost for a minute, so we stopped to look at a sign with a map on it. Within moments, a cute girl in a sun dress came up and asked "are you lost? where are you trying to go"... needless to say, i was floored.
To sum it up: beautiful weather, people, campus... good academics, excellent living arrangement... doesnt get any better at a UC</p>
<p>i guess coming from a big city, you dont expect people to be that friendly, especially to people who are so obviously estranged, confused and out of place</p>
<p>It does have a beach but the community around it sucks. The campus itself is ****e . They need to dump a ton of money to re do a lot of the buildings. </p>
<p>MY CHOICE: DAVIS</p>
<p>at Davis you wont see cows everyday.. only if you go to that one section of the campus. And you wont smell them either. AT UCSB you have that pond or water area in every damn pic of the school and it smells really bad if your anywhere near it.</p>
<p>I am not a student or graduate of any of these colleges but as an observer, Academically -Davis is a superior school, an agressive person can carve out a great education there. The town of Davis is user friendly and like many places off campus housing is an issue.
UCSC was designed to hide students from one another (Reagan didn't want another Sproul Plaza) but it does have a nice forest meets the fields atmosphere. A hike to town.</p>
<p>I never visited SB because its reputation is not education, so I wasn't interested in it. When a school is better known for it's parties than its library or majors it says something.</p>
<p>ive been to UCSB before and its awesome.. its one of the most beautiful places ive seen... but i would have to agree that the pond/lagoon smells like crap</p>
<p>*I never visited SB because its reputation is not education, so I wasn't interested in it. *</p>
<p>I think a lot of the reputation stuff is overemphasised. While UCSB is known as a "party school", Davis is known as a "cow town". When you visit both campuses though, and see people posting abotu the two schools, you get a fairer opinion.</p>
<p>The campus visit is one of the most important things you can do because it lets you figure out if a place fits you. Sometimes you know right away a place is right or wrong, so listen to your gut, but more often you'll discover each has some pluses and minuses.</p>
<p>Before you visit have a checklist of things you want to look at so the kaleidoscope of impressions and images isn't overwhelming. Of course as a HS student you might not have a firm idea of what to look for, but fear not! The collegeboard has a page with a few tips ( <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,4-23-0-27829,00.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,4-23-0-27829,00.html</a> ) although I wouldn't buy their book. You can find info on campus visits with google, and a number of the books about college admissions have a chapter regarding the campus visit.</p>
<p>BTW for the person who wrote about UCSB, "It does have a beach but the community around it sucks". Exactly! The place around UCSB (Isla Vista) is a classic student community. Most students aren't interested in fancy landscaping, designer homes, and the like. Its run-down student housing, which I guess either works for you or it doesn't.</p>
<p>I can't seem to find which of the schools offer the best department in English/Humanities etc. Maybe that's because I don't know where to look...</p>