Housing at UCSB is definitely more stressful than UCLA, but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker in my opinion. My son is a freshman in CCS this year. He lives in the CCS LLC (housing is guaranteed the first year as long as you get your application in on time.) He has made a lot of good friends in the LLC, and next year, he and 3 of these friends have a 2 bedroom apartment in IV. They started looking a little before winter break and signed a lease toward the end of January. You can get campus housing after the first year, but I think on 30-40% of the students who apply get it. And it helps to start looking for off campus apartments early.
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Just a side note, but the best apartments (such as oceanside Del Playa) are often passed down like a family heirloom. What happens is a room in a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment opens up and 2 friends move in (typically students are 2 per room, just like at UCLA and elsewhere). One of the kids, lets call him Joe, has a younger sister who visits him at UCSB, loves the place, and goes there as well. When Joe is graduating his sister and a friend of hers may take over the apartment lease and move in to the room. They may have another younger sibling or neighbor from back home that moves in and the chain continues.
There are probably more people that avoid Del Playa, than those that want to live there. 
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Sororities and fraternities also adopt these as “satellite” houses, and pass them down to younger members when they graduate…
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Got a flag/banner and stickers from UCSB on Monday — best swag package yet from any school!
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We attended UCSB’s admitted students’ day yesterday. My son is debating between Cal and UCSB and while my husband and I slightly favor Cal for him (my older son is there), when we attended UCSB’s admitted students’ day yesterday my son was in love. This, despite the fact that it was really cold, really windy, and really rainy. He’s a big surfer and can’t wait to wake up and walk 5 mins to surf before class each day. We live in a similar beach town further south so of course he realizes that the weather is usually much nicer in SB, but his love for UCSB still surprised me yesterday when he spent most of the day soaking wet and really cold. Vibe & fit!
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Congrats to your son! UCSB was my son’s first choice (surfer, too) but since he got waitlisted he decided Cal Poly was the next best choice. It’s all about the “the vibe” lol. Plus he really liked what he heard from his dept meeting.
Will be interesting to see if he does get off the UCSB waitlist if he’ll switch.
All good choices!
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Thank you! Cal Poly is a great school and in my limited experience there, certainly seems to have a similar vibe. My son’s best friend is in the same situation as yours - currently admitted to SLO and waitlisted at UCSB. At UCSB admitted students’ day yesterday, there was an admissions officer manning the admissions table. I asked him about waitlist movement on behalf of my son’s friend and he said it’s possible there will be a few admissions prior to May 15th but it’s more likely any movement will happen after May 15th. I asked about the % of admits off the waitlist and he confirmed that it varies each year and couldn’t give any idea about this year. Basically no helpful info lol. Wishing the best to your son whether it’s at SLO or UCSB, both great choices!
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So did your son go ahead and choose UCSB over Cal? We attended admitted student’s day at Cal this weekend (also windy and cold and rainy) but campus is beautiful. It was very impressive. We also liked his college (CNR). But also attended admitted student tour at UCSB last week. My son is also a surfer and his major is good at UCSB (environmental studies). He is torn between the two. He’s not sure he wants the intensity at Cal but loves the variety of things to do close to the university. Yes UCSB has beach but smaller beach town vibes. He bought merch at UCSB and not Cal. A sign? Maybe. But he says he still doesn’t know.
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He hasn’t chosen yet, we’re visiting Cal this upcoming weekend and then he’ll make a final decision. He’s visited Cal several times in the past but only as a brother of a current student so we want him to see it through the eyes of an admitted student (and hopefully visit the Surf House, which apparently is where the surf team hangs out and/or lives).
Interestingly, my son didn’t buy any merch at UCSB despite spending time in the bookstore. My husband and I discussed what that means but in our son’s case, we think it probably means nothing. He does seem emotionally and mentally committed to UCSB so we expect that will be the final decision.
Btw, my older son is in CNR at Cal so if your son has any questions, I’m happy to put him in touch with my Cal junior. He’s planning to attend med school so has taken a lot of math, chem and physics courses. He’s never commented on peers being competitive but has said he finds Cal challenging and many of his classes are graded on a curve. Thus far he’s received all A’s/A- so it’s been doable for him but he’s a diligent student. I’m not sure my younger son would thrive in a similar situation. My older is also a surfer and despite thinking he’d surf at Cal, he’s gone 0 times- it’s too cold and far to make it attractive.
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Depending on how much your son prefers UCSB he might want to consider an alternative way to get much of the 4-year UCSB experience that I put in the thread https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/backdoor-way-into-ucsb Of course Cal Poly is a great school too, no bad choices here!
That’s a great post, I plan to send it to my son’s best friend who is on the WL for UCSB. Thanks for sharing!
Hi UCSB prospective parents and students:
For those of you who don’t have perfect scores- don’t despair! Not all is lost. Not everyone who gets into top UCs are 4.0 or “almost” perfect. I used to spend hours combing through CC- your child will be placed into where they are supposed to be.
My D24 received 2 Bs her sophomore year and a B and a C her junior year at her large public HS in Sacramento and still got into UCB, UCI, UCSC, UCSB, UCR, UCD, CalPoly, San Diego State, USF, Biola, Masters and waitlisted at UCLA and UCSD. She was accepted in Political Science.
**I believe it was rigor of schedule, extra CC classes, volunteer at variety of places
D24 Accepted
Major: Political Science
UC Unweighted GPA: 3.82
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.1
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.2
ELC (top 9% CA HS): YES
Comments about course load (including senior year): 5 APs (10th/11th) and 4 APs (12), 4 CC classes done in the summer (ECON, SOC, PSYC, STATS); she only got 4s and one 3 on AP tests.
Number of a-g courses: 26
Number of UC Approved Honors courses:
SUBJECTIVE::
Extracurriculars: Lots
Job/Work Experience: part time job at optometry office
Volunteer/Community service: Mentor/tutor title 1 school, mental health workshops,
**GIRLS STATE; GOLD AWARD GIRLS SCOUTS; CA STATE SEAL OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT (11th)
DEMOGRAPHICS::
State/location of HS (if domestic applicant): in state - Public- Sacramento
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They didn’t send anything when I was admitted in 2022!
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If he lives in in the Channel Island 5 dorms it’s more like a 30 second walk to the beach - best dorms on campus (totally unbiased 
)
Let me know if your son has any questions! When I was an entering freshman I picked UCSB over a few higher-ranked choices and I haven’t looked back since.
A newer version of that thread is at Backdoor way into UCSB, for some reason the previous comment started linking to an older version…
Channel Island 5 low-rise or high-rise? He was hoping to get into Anacapa or Santa Cruz, though I’m guessing you can’t really go wrong with any of them.
Thanks very much!
Anacapa, Santa Cruz or Santa Rosa > San Nic or San Miguel
Anacapa has the best views.
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