Santa Cruz Reviews
UC Santa Barbara
Reviews Summary
Santa Cruz dorm at UCSB offers a vibrant and sociable community experience, highly praised by students for its supportive atmosphere and good vibes. The dorm is renowned for its modern architecture, featuring various lounges and community spaces conducive to social interactions. It's an excellent choice for freshmen eager to make new friends, thanks to its welcoming residents who maintain a balanced social life without excessive wildness. Santa Cruz's stellar location is undoubtedly a highlight, being just a minute away from the beach and in close proximity to dining commons, the library, and lecture halls. However, the dorm isn't without its challenges; the rooms, particularly triples, are often cramped, and the men's bathrooms are frequently in bad condition due to heavy usage. Nonetheless, the dedicated custodial staff works hard to maintain cleanliness. Amenities like good Wi-Fi add to the overall livability, making Santa Cruz a popular choice among the ChI-5 dorms, despite the minor drawbacks of tight spaces and occasional water pressure issues in bathrooms.
Cramped Rooms
Social Environment
Great Location
When students lived here
Freshman Year
9
Overall rating breakdown
Room
Building
Location
Bathroom
Browse 9 Student Reviews
Reviews with a Verified Student badge were written with a school email.
1 year ago
I enjoyed my time at Santa Cruz. There is a great community, good vibes and a supportive staff. I liked the various lounges and community spaces, the architecture also felt modern enough and sufficient.
Verified Student
1 year ago
Great environment at Santa Cruz. Everyone was very welcoming and it was cool to meet different people. The men's bathrooms were always in bad condition due to messy people though. Shoutout to the custodial staff that dealt with it for the whole year, real MVPs.
Verified Student
1 year ago
I really enjoyed my stay at Santa Cruz. Good ra, social people, and nice lounges, it was an overall nice experience
Verified Student
2 years ago
The triples are a bit cramped and the bathrooms in each wing get nasty pretty quickly. But other than that, it’s really easy to make friends here, it’s literally a minute walk away from the beach, and it’s close to the two dining commons, the library, and a few lecture halls, which imo made it worth it for me.
Verified Student
2 years ago
tiny rooms, espeically for 3 people, Building had decent amenities, next to beach though so that's cool. good wifi too
Verified Student
4 years ago
I absolutely loved Santa Cruz. Yes, the rooms are a little cramped as triples but I think that is the case for most UCSB dorms. Really great social dorm for meeting people, but not crazy wild in my experience. By far the best on campus dorm.
4 years ago
I'd say definitely one of the best choices of the ChI-5 dorms. Lived there my freshman year, and the reputation of the folks who love there is good (friendly and welcoming but not ridiculously wild most of the time). The rooms are also pretty and bigger than triples in the other ChI-5 dorms too! The only downside (again, as with all the ChI-5 dorms) is that the bathrooms tend to get dirty as they are typically shared between about 30ish residents.
4 years ago
Rooms are a bit of a tight squeeze and bathrooms sometimes get crowded (but they’re always pretty clean.) You absolutely can’t beat the location (right on the water and close to central campus). It’s always such a social dorm and the lawn is great for hanging out/studying when the weather’s nice!
4 years ago
Tiny rooms and no water pressure in the bathrooms. Building is nice but the rooms are too small.
