[Santa Barbara, CA]

Hey sbgrad and others using the forums,

I hope you don't mind my asking but did you know anyone in the family housing? My SO was accepted and we were hoping to live in the graduate family housing. We aren't married but we're going to see if we qualify under their domestic partner parameters(aka: sharing financial/personal welfare.) I was just wondering if you knew anyone with a personal opinion of it since there isn't a generous amount of information online, beyond the official website and some defunct community websites. Any information would be appreciated wether it's about size, quality, community, etc...

I've contacted the housing department but they asked us to come and visit/interview which is a bit hard to do until next month. I'd love to hear something in the mean time!

Also, I'm glad to hear how much everyone has enjoyed their experience at the school.

Unfortunately I don't know about the family housing, except that one couple I know said the application was tedious. Don't know what they meant specifically.

If family housing doesn't work out, and if you're just looking for a one-bedroom apartment and want to live near campus I'd look at the Ellwood Beach area. The stuff south of Hollister on Ellwood Beach Dr. and Mathilda, as well as the surrounding area. There's a high concentration of apartments around there that should be comparable to family housing.

[Santa Barbara, CA]

I lived in a 4-bedroom, but I'm pretty sure the rooms are about the same size either way.

The bedrooms come with an xl-full bed (width of a full, length of a queen), a desk, two shelving units, and a closet. They're not very big, and there's no real room to add any additional furniture, but I never felt cramped.

The living room comes with a couch, two upholstered chairs, a coffee table and a couple of end tables. There's a storage cabinet-thing as well, not sure what to call it but we used it for extra kitchen storage. There's also a dining nook with a 4-person table. Again, there's not really room for extra furniture but I've seen some pretty impressive rearranging.

The kitchen has a fridge, 4 electric stovetops, an oven, a microwave, and a sink. No dishwasher. Not very much counter space but I cooked all the time and was always able to make it work. I do enjoy having a bigger kitchen now, though. I would often use the dining table as prep space when the counter wasn't enough.

The bathrooms have your basic toilet, shower, and sink. There's a medicine cabinet behind the mirror and storage under the sink. Again, minimal counter space.

There were also 2 coat closets in the 4-bedroom. Not sure how that works in a 2-bedroom. There are also windows all over the place, and the heating works well when you need it.

I'm pretty sure there are laundry facilities in every building. There was in mine, at least. $1.25 for a wash, $.25 for every 15 min of drying.

My main complaint was that it's small, but space is expensive in this area. Personally I think San Clemente is a great place to start. Rent is decent, it's convenient, and probably a lot of the other first years in your program will be living there.

[Santa Barbara, CA]

Hey, I'm a grad student at UCSB. I lived in San Clemente and I'm happy to answer any questions about the town or the apartments or whatever!

I would just like to point out that (with all due respect to our awesome, fun-loving undergrads) the graduate experience at UCSB is verrrrry different from an undergrad's. You'll hang out at different places, and you'll most likely want to avoid Isla Vista once the sun goes down. It's a fun place but it's really weird knowing that those people are your students. Almost all the grad students I know avoid it in most cases.

And to the poster above-- I LOVE Goleta!