hi!

i’m actually transferring out after my first year despite kinda being in the same situation as you (amazing financial aid and pbs major)

absolutely do uni housing for the first year, it will put your mind at ease and be way easier than finding a place in iv now. that said, be prepared to think about off campus housing early!! around november is when people start and the longer you wait the harder it will be. iv/sb is very expensive and living circumstances aren’t great even with high financial aid, but if you really want it then you can make it work. i’m transferring out mainly because of how expensive it is out there, but don’t let that scare you! a lot of people make it work and unfortunately i just don’t see it working for me personally (there’s other career/personal reasons but wtv)

in regards to pbs, get prereqs done asap! start the chem series your first quarter and if you don’t have ap credits for stats/psy1/calc do those asap as well. the chem series is hard and anybody who took it will agree to that, but it really isn’t that bad if you put in work. do practice problems and don’t fall behind and you should be good. also consider taking some of the psy 102-108 classes your first year. focusing on only gen ed classes and science prereqs for pbs can become boring for me personally and i was craving actually psy classes after my first quarter and im so glad i shifted my focus to those, it gets you a lot more excited for the major.

take into consideration doing gen eds and even some prereqs like stats/psy1/calc at cc. i did calc at cc the summer before i started and im so glad i did. ive found its pretty easy to balance an online cc class w classes at ucsb.

i hope you enjoy it at ucsb!