University of California-Santa Barbara Top Questions

UCSB does not have a football team, so it is not like other colleges where football games are a big deal. But, our soccer team is very good and soccer games are highly attended by students. Basketball games also have big turnouts as well. Greek life at UCSB is not big. I believe only 9{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students ate involved in Greek life, in comparison to 20-30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} at most other universities. There are many things to do at UCSB. There are hundreds of clubs that one can join. Excursion club and adventure club are two clubs that provide entertainment on the weekends that do not involve drinking. Outdoor activities and adventures every day of the week are possible at UCSB. There are also clubs like Salsa club, tango club, and other dance clubs that one can join. Finding something to do is never an issue. The beach is just steps away so going to the beach Is always an option. Santa Barbara also has great hiking trails! There is also the option of taking the bus downtown (just 20 min) and spending the day in downtown Santa Barbara where there is the main street "State Street" full of shops, stores, bars and restaurants. Also has a beautiful pier and wide beach

Soccer is big at UCSB, a lot of students attend soccer games and show their appreciation for the team and sport. I lived in a campus owned apt. and we just had friends walking in and out all day, it was almost too social. but we get things done when we need to. If i am awake 2 am on a Tuesday i am probably drinking with friends, studying, or writing a paper. Frats and sororities are almost pointless at ucsb. A lot of people join them because of the party and social life, but at ucsb everyone is part of that scene.

Here at UCSB, almost every acitivity revolves around the outdoors in some way or another. Whether students are surfing, cycling, skateboarding, playing volleyball, or anything else, you can bet they're outside in the warm weather. If you don't play sports (like me) there are still plenty of student activities. There are clubs for every single ethnicity, belief, lifestyle, or hobby here. There are two student-run newspapers on campus. There is a radio channel. There are fraternities and sororities for the pre-med, the Latino or Latina, or the philanthropy-inclined. And if it doesn't exist, you will find someone else who's interested in the same thing you are. It's just a matter of reaching out and taking the initiative.

Without a football team, UCSB students have taken a keen interest in the school's soccer and basketball teams in particular. In the "Thunderdome," students roar for their basketball team, and at Harder Stadium Gauchos throw tortillas onto the field with every UCSB goal scored. UCSB has repeatedly illustrated that we do not need a pigskin to enjoy ourselves.

Many people are in the Excursion Club. They go hiking, kayaking, etc around Santa Barbara. There are many active people at this school, so this is a popular club. I am in NSCS, which is an honors society. I am currently an officer and we recently made holiday cards for a retirement home in our area. We do a lot of community service to try and better the community. The students in dorms always locked their doors at the beginning of the year but by the end of the year no one locked their doors because we all trusted one another. Soccer and basketball games are very popular. They are always well advertised and everyone enjoy's cheering our teams on. I met my closest friend at orientation before my freshman year. She was my roommate for a day at orientation and we hit it off great. Now, over a year later, we live together and are still good friends. Every year, UCSB has Floatopia in our Spring quarter where we go to the beach and have an all day party. Another tradition at our school is the crazy Halloween weekend. Our staff at UCSB is very good about trying to make these events safe, so they have many restrictions about guests. People party pretty much every weekend and it seems to be a new trend to have "Wine Wednesday" and "Thirsty Thursdays". I think pretty soon they will start partying every day of the week , but not everyone parties. I live with 3 other people and none of us party, so although it is a big thing at our school, we find other ways to have fun. For example, on Saturday we are going to take a break from studying for finals and make snowflakes to decorate our room and bake cookies. We watch movies a lot or go to downtown State Street. There are many things to do without partying.

UCSB's population is very diverse. There are many environmentally conscious people, surfers, artsy people, and more. The LGBTQ community is also represented and welcomed to the UCSB campus. Gauchos work hard to play harder!

We have to major student events in Isla Vista each year, they used to be Halloween week and Floatopia. While Halloween has been calming down in recent years, it is still a massive event where thousands of students arrive into our tiny one square mile town basically to drink and go nuts. Floatopia used to be something similar on one of our campus owned beaches, but in recent years the police have cracked down heavily on this party and it's been forced to move into Isla Vista and become a smaller, spring daytime Halloween (minus the costumes of course). While these are our biggest parties, there are a number of more common activities students engage in such as heading to the beach, cycling, slacklining, martial arts, frisbee, club participation, a number of student organized events, speeches and concerts, Athletic events can get pretty huge here at UCSB, and while we don't have a football team, our soccer games draw pretty massive crowds.

At UCSB, the most popular sports events are our Soccer games. This is because we don't have a football team, but its also because the soccer games attract a lot of students who go just to have a good time. It also attracts a lot of the members from the community who love soccer. At soccer games, its a tradition to throw tortillas during the game as a way to rally support for our team. There is also Halloween, which is basically a festival that happens on the weekend right before (or on) Halloween. This involves several thousand people going outside in their costumes in the collegetown of Isla Vista. It attracts a lot of young people who are not from around the area and it cost Santa Barbara county $500,000 this year to pay for all the police that were out there keeping people safe.

UCSB is commonly known as one of the most social campuses in the nation. Some students accepted to Berkeley and UCLA choose UCSB over these two campuses because they report that UCSB has a much friendlier atmosphere. As such, students have a LOT of pride for this school. One chant we cheer at soccer games is, "Gaucho 'til I die!" This pride can also be seen in our Chancellor, who is not only committed to providing the best college experience possible to his students, but also genuinely loves UCSB in general. With over 300 student organizations and easy access to creating new ones, students can ALWAYS find extracurricular activities to broaden their academic career. This provides a college experience that is not only fun, but also career-boosting and enriching because employers tend to hire more well-rounded graduates than the ones who got straight A's and didn't do anything else with their time but study.

Chilla Vista, sponsored by Associated Students Recycling Board.