Hello all,
I’m currently driving down to visit UCSB and I’m pretty sure I will be attending during the Fall 2016 quarter. I’m doing a tour for about an hour tomorrow but will be in town for a couple days. What should I look for on campus while I’m roaming to get the best understanding of what it will be like to be a student here? Any places I should make sure to visit? Any recommended questions to ask students/faculty if I run into them?
Thank you so much.
Definitely go look around their “quad” area or some centralized area to see the type of students who attend the school. I also suggest this as a place to hunt down a student and ask the real questions: what do students do for fun? How is the food? Do you like living in the dorms? Also, I suggest touring the specific department for your major and asking as many questions you can about how the curriculum is taught, if they have research and internship opportunities, etc.
Make sure to visit the library or libraries that relate to your intended area of study. You’ll probably spend a lot of time there, so check out the facilities.
You could ask students what their least favorite things about the school are. There’s always a negative aspect or two about a school, so you should see what there are and see how much they bother you and turn you off from the school.
Also eat in the cafeteria. Look around and see how people interact. If you see some friendly faces ask if you can join them for lunch (my D did that at two schools and it worked out well). Pick up a copy of the school newspaper as well.
Make sure to stay in Santa Barbara if you can, and not Goleta. And be sure to check out State Street.
If you know someone who graduated from your school that goes there, try to reach out to them, even if you don’t know them very well. They often are glad to share their experience and wisdom, and that kind of perspective is invaluable.