What made me choose SBCC?

For many of you reading this, may it is your last year at School and you are wondering where to go next year. I was thinking about the factors that made me choose SBCC. How did I end up deciding to go here, instead of other places?

Firstly, a huge factor was housing. Every other two-year college I researched did not have the dorm option that SBCC has. There is something incredibly scary about leaving home for the first time, and I did not want to be alone in an apartment with people I had never met before. My mum also felt that was anything to go wrong, in a dorm I would be better looked after. For her, having her eighteen year old daughter on the other side of the world, you want to know that people are looking out for her. The dorm option called 'Tropicana Gardens' (spoken in depth in a previous post), allowed me to choose a roommate, on how compatible you were with one another. This worked out so well for me. What everyone that lived at Trop last year said was that, it was good because it allowed us to meet so many people our own age (they are Freshman only dorms). Also, you are not missing out on the dorm experience that maybe some of your peers will experience, in four-year Universities. Plus, you don't have to cook! I was lucky that I never needed to seek help from any of the RA's, but my RA was really friendly and approachable, so definitely don't think it would have been a problem. I think it's just a really good idea to do just for the first year, just to transition you into life away from home.

Secondly, cost effectiveness. Without a doubt, international tuition in America is costly. This can especially be said of the private schools here and the UC's. Whilst I was accepted into four- years out of High School, I did not want to put such a financial burden on my parents. SBCC is extremely cost effective for any student, but especially for international students. All our lower division courses can be completed at a fraction of a price before transferring.

Thirdly, location. I had never even visited SBCC before coming here, crazy I know! However, you just type in SBCC on google images and the campus is out of this world. Even Obama said that it was 'unreal'! But beauty aside, I didn't want to go to a huge city having just arrived in America. Santa Barbara is not small, but it is nowhere near as huge as LA. This means you can be a big fish in a small pond, instead of the reverse. This is what I wanted, because I was so far from home and I wanted to be eased into American life, instead of a lonely soul in a huge city. Living in Isla Vista, has meant that there are students EVERYWHERE. I love this, it has a real buzz to it and such nice beaches, yummy places to eat and it is so close to all your friends.

Another factor, was that it has quite a big international population. I thought that if there was many international students, the international advisors would be extremely knowledgeable on any issues. There are a lot of new things you have to learn as an international student, i've found the advisors to be helpful in this. For example, you have to complete a form if you are ever leaving the country prior to doing so. Your international advisor will email you prior to say you must do this. I've heard from the ambassadors that they had greater culture shocks than me, the advisers were really helpful about this. The ambassadors are really aiming higher this year to assist new international students in any issues, questions they have on anything. I will keep you posted about a new forum, whereby you can ask any questions about housing, life etc to us.

Lastly, the academics at SBCC played a huge factor. My father had some reservations because i'd been accepted into very good Universities. Would the first two years be able to challenge me academically? Through word of mouth, we heard that SBCC was well thought of academically, despite being a two-year institution. I have found that especially for my major, Political Science, the Professors have been really great. Both Adam Benshea and Professor Eskandari have taken time to chat to me, to help me with career goals, exams and transferring. Their classes have been taught as if we were at Upper Division level, so are not for the faint hearted! I think academically, SBCC attracts really great Professors. It also has many honor's societies and attracts Iranian UN advisors, so it is really quite special!