@FieldOfDaffodils Yes, that’s true - 1st year only and other dorms I’ve seen are rather drab thought lots of kids choose to live off campus with friends - there are some cute apartments in the area. The quality of education/peers is going to be very comparable at both schools. Really, it’s splitting hairs. You will get an excellent education at Rutgers and there are plenty of employers in the area recruiting on a regular basis. Rutgers is a much larger university in a small city with twice as many staff as UCSB. UCSB of course is a beach town. Class sizes overall will tend to be smaller at Rutgers than those at UCSB Both unis are rated in the Top 100 and you cannot go wrong with either, but UCSB is rated higher by most rating groups.
Honestly, I see no reason to choose Rutgers over UCSB unless your daughter finds a specific program of study or professor that she is particularly interested in. Or, if she wants a new experience. My daughter was insistent on going to college in a big city far away from home to get a different perspective on the world. East coast/West coast attitudes are different and she might like exploring a different area of the country - it’s an easy shot to NYC, Philly, DC, etc.