| I think that I can give you a pretty good opinion. I go to the University of Alberta, which has a similar campus life to UBC. About 20% live on campus, like you said.
The only people that have the 'college life' are the people in dorms or frats/sororities. Everyone else just goes to bars, especially with legal drinking age at 18 (although 19 in BC). But the people that live on campus do have their own parties. They have things called 'floor crawls' where everyone in a floor in a dorm makes their own drink and goes around partying. I've been to them before and they're fun as hell.
I think that you should definitely live in dorms. Everyone that I know in dorms is much happier than those than commute here at the U of A. I commute and it sucks! | 
College Confidential is dedicated to providing the best free college admissions information available on the Web, through our many articles and this discussion forum. For those of you who wish more personal advising, College Confidential offers private counseling services, conducted via e-mail, with services starting at $89. Counseling is conducted by our Director of Counseling Dave Berry, co-author of America's Elite Colleges and/or with Sally Rubenstone, co-author of Panicked Parents Guide to College Admission, and our other outstanding associates. See College Counseling for more information.
