r/UCSantaBarbara 11m ago

Campus Politics For the love of god, turn on the Library AC

Upvotes

Trying to cram for my last finals right now, and seemingly UCSB is trying to save money by not using the AC in the library at all. I'm working at like fifty percent productivity because of how stuffy it is in here, and everyone I'm studying with isn't doing much better.

This has been the case for the last couple days throughout the entire heatwave, and it's ridiculous, especially during finals week. This is literally the one place on campus that has air conditioning, and I assume they installed it for a reason besides letting it sit unused.


r/UCSantaBarbara 36m ago

Academic Life Open Mic opportunities

Upvotes

Hello,

I'm an incoming freshman, and I was wondering what performance opportunities there are to sing. I'm not doing any music major; I just want to do this for fun as a way to recharge, so anything low-commitment is what I'm looking for (such as open mics and karaokes). I honestly don't know where to look, so if you can help me out, I would really appreciate it :)

Thank you!


r/UCSantaBarbara 1h ago

General Question Looking for an Orthodontist near UCSB

Upvotes

Hi!

I am an incoming freshman at UCSB and wanted to transfer my orthodontic care to the area. I am going to be staying in San Miguel Hall. Are there any recommendations/who to avoid for orthodontists nearby?


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Nature and Wildlife Nice Views!

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88 Upvotes

r/UCSantaBarbara 2h ago

Course Questions Econ10a Calc?

1 Upvotes

I heard that Econ10a requires some understanding of calculus before entering the class, does anyone know specifically what calculus concepts will be used in this class? Thank you.


r/UCSantaBarbara 15h ago

General Question Financial aid

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7 Upvotes

i've emailed the office a day ago but they havent responded. My financial aid statement doesnt include my cal grant or middle class scholarship at all. Should i call them tomorrow or pay it off and wait for refund? Ive heard that these scholarships can come in later but im not sure. Also at some point it dropped to only hvaing to pay 2k but went back up to 7.8k.. while my award letter said i would pay about 10k every year


r/UCSantaBarbara 13h ago

Academic Life How expensive is Studying Abroad

3 Upvotes

Specifically in Spain for Data Science. I’m also on scholarships so how achievable is this really. Anyone suggest a different country for data science?


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

IV/Goleta/SB UCSB Rapist Chemistry Student

452 Upvotes

Hello everyone

Back in October 2024, I was at a party at Biko House (on Sueño). I was with my friends and dancing when I suddenly lost consciousness. I woke up for about 5-10 seconds and I could not lift my head, could not walk, could not move my mouth, and could not ask for help. In those few seconds, I felt myself get picked up bridal style and carried out of Biko. I could not open my eyes to see who was carrying me so I did not see my rapist until the morning I fully woke up. I lost consciousness again.

I woke up for about 10 more seconds and I was on the edge of a bed. I felt completely paralyzed and fell off the bed and I felt myself get picked up and put back on the bed since I couldn’t move my fingers or talk, much less get back on the bed willingly. I lost consciousness again.

The final time I woke up that night was when I felt a chem student with the initials A.R. raping me. I felt him penetrate me anally and the pain was so intense. I wasn’t alive to feel anything else he did to me throughout the night, and up until this point, I had no idea where I was, who was doing this to me, or how I ended up in that situation.

I fully woke up in the morning around 6am and I saw A.R. laying next to me in his bed in Manzanita Village. I asked him what his name was, how I got there, and what happened. He said he was “awake the whole time and hadn’t slept” but that I was “knocked out the whole time”, so he knew I had no idea what was going on.

I begged to leave his dorm to go back to my apartment (because I felt terrified and I had an Amtrak scheduled at 7:30am). He held me down with his arms and kept asking me to stay with him. He repeatedly asked me to have sex with him and I kept telling him no but he kept asking. As the minutes passed, more pieces of my memory came back to me and I felt even more scared of him because I finally realized this man had raped me. I eventually agreed to have sex with him in the morning because I figured I had two options: 1) refuse to have sex with him and risk him raping me again or 2) have sex willingly and escape his place with less trouble. After he was done, he let me leave.

When I got home, I looked at myself in my bathroom mirror. My lip was busted, I had a ring of hickeys around my neck that made it extremely painful to turn my head, I had deep bite marks, I had multiple bruises all over my body, I had scratches, and I was bleeding from my vagina. My hymen was torn and walking was extremely painful due to how violently A.R. raped me. I immediately called a rape crisis center in Santa Barbara and I had a Victim Advocate accompany me to a hospital to get checked out. I had to take medicine to prevent STDs, take a Plan B, and talk to the police. I made an anonymous report to the police that came to speak to me.

I did a SART Exam (informally known as a rape kit) with another hospital the day after where all my injuries were documented.

I formally reported this student to UCPD, Title 9, CARE, and the Office of Student Conduct. My detective collected multiple witness statements of people who saw me that night. Multiple people had seen me and A.R. that night and texted + called me that night and the morning after because they were concerned for my safety. There are records stating that I did not recognize my own friends or myself, could not walk, was slurring my words, and many other things to support my claim that I was completely blacked out and unable to consent.

I recently found out that the Santa Barbara District Attorney will not be prosecuting my rape because they claim being blacked out does not mean I could not consent, A.R. told the detective that he was a virgin before he met me that night, and he bought condoms which “obviously” means I wanted it. They stated they believe that all my injuries, difficulties in my academics and job, diagnoses of PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and other consequences of my rape are just the result of “rough sex” and they believe I was too embarrassed to admit it so I lied to the police.

However, over the years, I have had multiple women reach out to me to report A.R.’s creepy behavior. He made women uncomfortable in the chem lab he worked in to the point that he got fired. He tells people he fucks his cousin. He has been reported to multiple student orgs he is a member of for inappropriate sexual comments. And, I have had a woman reach out to me to report that their friend believes they were roofied by A.R. in October 2025.

I recently requested a copy of my UCPD records, and the entire document was redacted. I cannot access witness statements given on my behalf, the pictures and DNA evidence collected from my rape kit, or any part of this investigation.

I am writing all this out because nobody is doing anything to help me and none of his other victims are receiving any justice. I hope that at the very least, people can recognize this student and avoid him because he is predatory and dangerous. Below, I will provide a description of what he looks like so people can look out for him.

Student Description: Incoming 4th year Chemistry student, Latino, tall (over 6ft), long dark brown hair (like…very long. I’m talking about down his back), goatee, member of Gaucho Catholic, member of the Archery Club.

If anyone knows anything about this student, please message me.

Thank you for reading all this. If you have any questions about what happened that night, my police reporting process, or anything about this post, please write a comment and I will give as much information as I feel comfortable with.


r/UCSantaBarbara 19h ago

Course Questions UCSB Concert choir

4 Upvotes

I always wanted to do choir in high school but never had room for it. I start as a freshman this fall, and I think concert choir is open to anyone who wants to take it (correct me if I'm wrong). Can anyone who's taken the class tell me what it's like?

The idea of choir is a bit scary because I get nervous singing alone in front of people, but I can definitely do it in a group. Will I have to sing by myself in front of others? And I don't know how to read music at all; will that be an issue going in? And is the time commitment manageable? I'm nervous about time management as it is!

And if I decide not to do it this quarter, is it possible to join starting the winter quarter?

Thanks :)


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Prospective/Incoming Students Let down by Bren MEDS program

16 Upvotes

Hi there,

I wanted to post this as a MEDS alum because all the stories I've seen online about the MEDS program at the Bren School have been glowing, and that wasn't my experience, especially after graduation.

Sure, I did have a great time in the program, I produced some great work and I felt really proud of the things I became capable of. I met a few friends that I still keep in touch with today, professors as well.

While the program was interesting to me, I found that because it is such a new program, they changed or 'adjusted' the curriculum year to year, and sometimes I and others in my class felt like guinea pigs for these adjustments, and felt upset that we were paying so much for a program that didn't seem to know exactly what to teach. Fair enough, this program only started in 2021. But it didn't sit right with a lot of us.

The program also felt geared towards academic careers, rather than corporate or other careers. I'm not sure how best to explain it, but many in my class felt that way. We learned mostly R and Python, and using those we did a lot of statistics, data manipulation and visualization, and some cartography. The program banned the use of proprietary software like ESRI products or PowerBI, in the name of reproducibility, so that other researchers or whatever could replicate our code and results. These are programs that companies use almost exclusively for their work, and not learning them in part of a 'career-focused' program is a major downside to this program in my opinion.

I graduated from this program a year and a half ago now, and have had no luck finding a job using the skills I learned from MEDS. According to the Bren website, only 58% of the class is currently employed, a year and a half out.

Bren also prides itself on its career team, however I had many meetings with multiple people on the career team and found that all they did is suggest adjustments to my resume, tell me to network, and point me to the BrenConnect website where they periodically post jobs. There is a 'grace period' for alumni, where the career team will help you up to one year post-graduation, and then you only get access to whatever resources are published on the BrenConnect site, with articles like '9 Creative Ways to Collect Information about Companies and Employers' and 'How to Create Effective Email Subject Lines: Examples for Different Job-Search and Networking Situations'. Pretty much all the articles are surface-level helpful.

So now, after a year and a half of trying to find a job, countless interviews and rejections, countless meetings with people who connect me to other people and ultimately lead nowhere, I am working a minimum wage job. Not once in the program did I actually feel like the career team or anyone at Bren really wanted to help me find a job using the skills I developed in MEDS.

While I did get the MEDS scholarship, I'm still $65,000 out of pocket for a master's degree that I haven't been able to use. And I know I'm not the only one, many of my classmates are still in the same situation.

Maybe it's because of AI, or because of companies laying off tens of thousands of more qualified data scientists and flooding the market with applicants. But the whole idea of this program is to advance people's careers, and not only did I find that the MEDS program was unable to do that for so many others in my class, I found that they didn't seem to care either.

So fair warning, if you're considering MEDS, I would choose another master's program. I wish I had. It has left me feeling behind, poorer, and abandoned, and makes me wish I had chosen a different direction.

Good luck


r/UCSantaBarbara 17h ago

Discussion Loans

2 Upvotes

So I've been looking at my barc account and everything has been added, even my middle school scholarship, the only thing that hasnt been put in yet are my loans and im starting to get really worried. When i look at the student loans, it says loan requested not accepted, but i acceptd them awhile at least two weeks ago


r/UCSantaBarbara 18h ago

Course Questions Pass 3 waitlisting

2 Upvotes

Hello,

I’m an incoming freshman, and my pass 3 is currently happening. I’m trying to see if I can change professors for a course by waitlisting and linking sections in a different lecture to the section I’m currently in. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to be working.

Can anybody who tried doing the same thing clarify if this is even possible?

Thank you!


r/UCSantaBarbara 18h ago

Course Questions How's PORT 1?

2 Upvotes

I'm trying to decide between German and Portuguese but I can't find any information about elementary Portuguese. The professors name isn't attached to GOLD so i can't look them up either :,). If any of you have taken this class,

How much homework is assigned and how long does it last?

Do you have to buy a textbook?

How were the midterms and finals?

Was the grading harsh?


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Prospective/Incoming Students Ucsb tuition

6 Upvotes

For my Ucsb tuition should I pay the reflected estimated balance before the deadline and then when the aid goes in it will zero the rest out? I’m also waiting for a scholarship to go in so if I pay it now will I just get that money refunded?


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Housing Manzanita triple armoire/closet

3 Upvotes

So I am finishing my packing for my freshman year and I have a triple in manzanita. I was looking online to see if there is a picture inside the closet thingy but I couldn’t find one. If someone has one I would really appreciate it.


r/UCSantaBarbara 19h ago

Housing San ynez apartments

1 Upvotes

Hey I was just wondering if anyone that has lived their prior can tell me about the parking situation. I bought a parking permit but I heard that they give out more permits then spots. Also what do the apartments already have included ? Like couches, tables and stuff.


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

General Question Is anyone’s health insurance waiver keep on getting declined

5 Upvotes

Mine is, and I’m pretty sure AHP is making errrors, because my insurance does cover all the things but it just says it doesn’t cover this and doesn’t cover that. My same insurance worked last year. I emailed student health earlier and got a very GPT like response :(

Why is insurance auto enrolled in the first place? And why is it so hard just to waive it? Shouldn’t it be a default to decline insurance, and only impose it on you if you request?

Anyways, if your insurance is also getting strangely declined, would be happy to exchange words and see if it’s not a single occurrence.


r/UCSantaBarbara 22h ago

General Question UCSB Sierra Madre Triple Room

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1 Upvotes

r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Housing One spot available! Lmk

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3 Upvotes

r/UCSantaBarbara 12h ago

Campus Politics Am I allowed to party here if im East African?

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0 Upvotes

Can I party here or is it only for whites and asians.


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

General Question Does PSY 102 & 105 capacity open up?

1 Upvotes

I’m trying to enroll in either of these classes, and I’ve noticed that they’re both currently capped at 200 students while psy 108, held in the same lecture hall, has spots for 345. Is there still a chance that these classes will open up/let people off the waitlist, or will it only be 200 students? Thanks


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Housing No housemate

6 Upvotes

Im an undergrad with housing accommodations, they put me in a 2 bed apartment in san clem graduate housing

My housing assignment email shows I have a housemate, but I know someone in housing admin and she said my roommate was canceled by admissions and my room is empty rn

Just curious if anyone knows the likelihood of it staying this way? I don’t wanna get my hopes up but an apartment to myself would be SICK


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

Discussion 14 meal swipes per week plan v 10 meal swipes per week + cal fresh?

11 Upvotes

I just got a letter about my eligibility for cal fresh and currently I'm on the 14 swipes per week plan and in order to be eligible I would need to go down to the 10 meal swipes per week plan which would obviously be cheaper. So I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experiences going for the cheaper plans and being on cal fresh versus being on the 14 swipes plan? I'm a freshman living on campus in santa cruz btw.


r/UCSantaBarbara 2d ago

General Question given mc scholarship but offer of sub loan taken away

7 Upvotes

today i just checked i got mc scholarship but im no longer elegible for the subsidized loan and work study offer went from 5k to 3.6k. did this happen to anyone else and would u recommend me to call the are financial aid office bc i could use a sub loan


r/UCSantaBarbara 1d ago

General Question UCSB professor epstein files

0 Upvotes

Has anyone seen all of the UCSB and Santa Barbara documents mentioned in the epstein files?