r/UCSantaBarbara

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What are the best places to buy a bike from around UCSB?

Hi! I'm an incoming sophomore choosing classes for fall. Small Bio is currently full, and there is a huge difference in grade distribution between big and small bio. For anyone who's taken big bio, how bad is it? The grade distribution doesn't look terrible, but do ygs think I should just wait till next quarter or deal with it?

Hi, my roommate and I selected our housing for the next school year and were aiming to get a double. When we chose our apartment, we were able to successfully get a double, but when we received our confirmation email, it now says "trpl" in parentheses. I heard about housing turning doubles into triples, but I didn't think they'd do it after the selection process. Does anyone have any info on this?

Hi folks. I met with an endocrinologist today who prescribed me a GLP-1 after understanding my hereditary conditions and struggle with losing weight after controlling diet and regular exercise.

He prescribed Wegovy and within 10 minutes the SHS insurance messaged me saying it wasn’t covered.

I know it is mostly covered if you have diabetes but not if you’re trying to prevent diabetes.

Does anyone have success or suggestions with getting this insurance to cover GLP-1s? Thanks!

I’m an Iranian grad student at UCSB, and honestly lately I’ve been struggling a lot.
I’ve spent most of my PhD here TAing, teaching, researching, and trying to keep up with everything, but over the past months it’s become really hard to keep acting like life is normal. My entire family lives in Iran, and during the internet blackouts I often couldn’t video call them or even know if they were safe. During the massacre in Jan this year by the regime, I spent nights terrified watching the news and wondering whether people I loved were among the victims.

Then the next morning I still had to show up to campus, answer advisor emails, teach coding sections, and act functional while internally feeling exhausted and disconnected from everything around me.

What has surprised me most is how lonely this experience feels. Sometimes people discuss Iran, war, or politics around me in very abstract ways without realizing that for some of us, our families are living through it in real time. Even well-intentioned conversations can make me feel more isolated instead of supported. Like I get really judged if I say I support the war against the Islamic republic…

I’m not trying to make a political statement or start an argument. I just wanted to say that for some international students, especially those with families in conflict zones, it can feel incredibly heavy trying to carry all of this while continuing grad school far from home.
Lately I’ve been missing Iran deeply and questioning whether I even have the energy to finish this PhD anymore.

hi i just got into ucsb with a full ride from cc! i’ll likely be coming in the fall, but i just wanted to hear everyone’s most favorite and least favorite things about the school and what to know. i especially wanna hear from other black students because that 2% is scaring me, but i’d love to hear what everyone thinks of the school and also the best coffee places, best on-campus job, and where to get good food, and what’s the best housing, etc. etc.! i’m also pre-law and also interested in journalism, so anything regarding that, thanks!

I’m a transfer student going into my 3rd year, and I only have about 2 weeks left to decide whether I should commit to UCSB or SJSU. I visited the UCSB campus yesterday, and honestly, I wasn’t as impressed as I expected to be. At the same time, I’m not a huge fan of the SJSU campus either. However, I do like the idea of experiencing life away from home, meeting new people, and building new friendships. I’m from San Jose, so commuting to SJSU would also be very convenient for me.

My biggest priority right now is graduating as fast and efficiently as possible. I plan on taking summer classes and trying to finish my degree early if possible. One thing that really concerns me about UCSB is Econ 10A. From what I’ve heard, it’s an extremely difficult class, and you need at least a B to officially get into the Economics major. My cousin attended UCSB and ended up failing the class, which eventually led to him dropping out. That honestly worries me because I don’t want to transfer to a school where my major still isn’t guaranteed after already coming this far.

Financially, SJSU is practically free for me since I can stay at home, while UCSB would probably cost me around $20k–30k or even more. I know UCSB may have a stronger reputation and potentially better opportunities for economics, but I’m trying to figure out whether the additional risk, cost, and stress are actually worth it for my situation.

Time is running out, so I’d really appreciate any honest advice from people who have been in a similar position. Please explain which option you think would be the better decision for me and why.

Hey guys I saw the email that was sent by the physics advisor about a series of cleanroom courses and think it is interesting to have a try. (course description: https://enroll.professional.ucsb.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=39181435)

However, when I click the page, it seems like it is charging 3700 dollars. I'm not sure whether this can be covered by a summer tuition cap or if I need to pay out of pocket (which I can't afford).

Or please leave a comment if you don't recommend this course at all. Thanks for sharing!

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(Sorry for the long-winded post)

Hi there. I graduated from UCSB in 2022 with a degree in Anthropology. I was a transfer student and originally was a Comm major that unfortunately had to switch majors. I got a C in one pre-req class and I tried to appeal but they wouldn't allow me to continue. When I spoke with an advisor, they were selling me on Anthropology because I told them ultimately I'd like to be employable.. I had a Marketing and Business development internship while in school as well..

Worst decision I probably made tbh.

Anyway, I did have job offers and I worked in the entertainment industry and video game industry doing receptionist and customer support work. That customer support job at the video game publishing company I worked at (505 Games) was the best job I had. Unfortunately, they laid off 30% of the entire company 2 days before Thanksgiving in 2023. On top of that, my dad got sick with cancer so I ended up just becoming a full time caregiver until he passed. After he passed, I threw myself into a Cardiovascular sonography program. Why? Well, a lot of pressure from my bf's mom... she knew I hadn't been working because I was laid off + caregiving but it seemed like as soon as he died everyone expected me to just hop back into working. I needed time. I just went through the most challenging time of my life plus dealing with grief.. so I wanted a couple moments to breathe... I didn't get that though. She told me if I did the program she would just hire me afterwards. So I did what she said, and the Drs where she works isn't hiring new grads now. Lol

So that put me to where I am now. My BA cost me $18k due to scholarships etc, and this stupid associates I got cost me $45k (lol). Why not work as a tech? Well, I found out through clinicals I kind of hate the work and its super physically demanding. So what do I do?

Honestly, everything I've done in my life so far has been for other people. I wanted to get their approval and to be accepted. I'm over it now. It hasn't served me at all nor gotten me the respect or praise I've been wanting this whole time. So... without making any rash decisions, I'd like to know how viable/worth it it is to maybe try to obtain a masters and a PhD in something I am actually interested in... the issue is, is I may be biting off more than I can chew because of what I'd like to do.

If possible, I wanted to look into physics. I've always been obsessed with space, NASA, telescopes, sci-fi... I always wanted to take part in it. A friend of mine whom vanished off the face of the earth (social media, haha) I looked up yesterday to see what she was doing career wise since we hadn't spoke in so long, and she's now Dr. Lauren Schatz that works for the Air Force at the Starfire program in Albuquerque, NM. Working with sodium lasers and all sorts of cool optics. She's an award winning physicist now. It was awe inspiring.

Here I am, someone who hasn't accomplished a fraction of what she has, now looking at myself in the mirror asking if this is the life I want? How much time do I have left? What can I do and is it possible? Is it practical?

I appreciate anyone's thoughts and suggestions. I'm feeling pretty lost at the moment.

hello, i am taking managerial accounting in the fall and i dont know which professor to take. does anyone have any recommendations?

hiiii, i was wondering if anyone has picked their apt for the 2026-2027 school year? i think my housing assignment pick is next week. i was just wondering how is it looking if anyone has picked theirs. thank you!

As a new student for next fall, when and how do I register for my courses?

Hi I’m a transfer tag student that has been accepted to UCSB for Econ and Accounting. I have completed Calc 1 and 2 and didn’t know that my college change the sequence that Calc 3 is now required to satisfy the transfer requirement. I did not check this because someone that has closed to me had passed away so I’ve been busy with that, and didn’t check in with my counselors. I reached out to the counselor office and they said I will need to write an explanation letter and my plan to take Math 12 in the summer to satisfy the requirement. I wrote a very long letter and proof of enrollment in the class for the summer. Has this happened to anyone where the community has to review their application and did they end up being apply to attend in the fall? I’m really nervous and I have have roommates and visit the school. I hope they consider the weight of my situation my summer class with end in July a few days after the transcripts are needed. I asked the counselor and they said there are some cases students are able to attend and some are decline it’s review case to case.

Hi! It's around summer, and I see many Reddit posts, Facebook market place, Instagram stories, and just word of mouth about subleases and lease takeovers for summer and fall.

UCSBPlat.com already serves and reach many Gauchos. Maybe it can be a good place for sharing about subleases and lease takeovers too, so that useful listings can reach more people, and you can have cool features like filtering and search that FB marketplace posts lack?

So, I spent a week and hashed this onto Plat. You can go use it now at UCSBPlat.com/housing

Post about your sublease and lease takeovers

How each listing looks (thank u Airbnb for UI inspiration lol). Most importantly, each listing must be reconfirmed to be available every 24 hours, so that stale listings don't confuse people

I mean, I need a fall sublease myself, so hopefully someone can post something on Plat so that I won't be homeless haha.

Hope this feature is helpful, and I welcome any suggestions and feedback. I built Plat 3 years ago, now I'm about to graduate after fall; housing would be the last touch I'll add to Plat before calling it a day