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The 8 Top Quality Student Apartments Near UCSB
Sorted by quality score from verified UCSB reviews, high to low. Scores reflect current UCSB reviews only.
University of California, Santa Barbara·Santa Barbara, CA·Updated Monthly
By the FMP Data Team · Reviewed July 1, 2026
Willow Springs leads our July 2026 ranking of the 8 Top Quality student apartments near UCSB with a 5.0/5 quality score, followed by Arrive Los Carneros II and Sumida Gardens Apartments. Across the 8 properties reviewed, students keep coming back to unit condition and building upkeep: the quality signals that move a property up this ranking. Browse all off-campus housing near University of California, Santa Barbara for every option.
Sorted by quality score from verified UCSB reviews, high to low. Scores reflect current UCSB reviews only.
| fmp score | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Willow Springs | 5.0/5 | 5.0 | 5 | 37 min | $3474/mo |
| 2 | Arrive Los Carneros II | 4.2/5 | 4.2 | 5 | 38 min | $4390/mo |
| 3 | Sumida Gardens Apartments | 4.2/5 | 4.2 | 5 | 67 min | $4340/mo |
| 4 | Encina Meadows | 4.2/5 | 4.2 | 5 | 60 min | $3116/mo |
| 5 | Arrive Los Carneros | 3.6/5 | 3.6 | 5 | 40 min | – |
| 6 | Tropicana gardens | 2.4/5 | 2.4 | 5 | 17 min | – |
| 7 | Tahitian Apartments | 1.8/5 | 1.8 | 5 | 25 min | $2750/mo |
| 8 | Pacific Oaks | 1.0/5 | 1.0 | 5 | 51 min | $2910/mo |
Walk times are door-to-door to UCSB campus. Rent is per person, per month.
quality score, high to low. That’s the whole ranking. Verified reviews rate it 1–5, and recent reviews count more than older ones. Ties go to the property with more reviews.
Every property near UCSB can appear, but it takes a minimum number of verified reviews to rank by score. Under-sampled properties sit below every qualified one, ordered by review count, and move up automatically as reviews come in.
The composite score in the full table: quality plus management and quality from verified reviews only. Useful context, but it doesn’t affect the order. Rankings are independent: there’s no way to pay for placement.
We ran every verified quality review for UCSB-area apartments through theme analysis. These are the themes students bring up most when a place feels high-quality, by share of the reviews that mention them.
Based on AI analysis of verified UCSB quality reviews, refreshed monthly. Percentages show the share of reviews that mention each theme; most reviews mention more than one. See our complete UCSB review data →
each fmp ranking re-ranks the same properties by a different lens (management and quality among them) and keeps its own list, refreshed monthly.
The highest-rated all-around: the best overall score across social scene, management, and quality.
see the ranking →The most active social scenes: shared spaces, resident events, and roommate matching, scored from verified reviews.
see the ranking →The most responsive, reliable landlords: maintenance turnaround, lease transparency, and deposit fairness.
see the ranking →Willow Springs leads our July 2026 ranking of the 8 Top Quality student apartments near UCSB with a 5.0/5 quality score, followed by Arrive Los Carneros II and Sumida Gardens Apartments.
This list is ranked by one number: each property's quality score from verified reviews. Students rate a property's quality 1 to 5, and we average those scores, counting recent reviews more heavily than older ones. No self-reported data from landlords.
In reviews, the highest quality scores come from well-kept units, a building that’s clearly maintained, and amenities that actually work as promised.
Monthly. We re-pull verified reviews and re-score every property at the start of each month, so the order reflects the most recent 24 months of student feedback. The “updated” date at the top of the page shows the latest refresh.
There's a minimum number of verified reviews to rank by score, and we don't publish the exact bar so it can't be gamed. Properties under it still appear, below every qualified property and ordered by review count, so a 5.0 from one review never outranks a 4.5 from thirty. Once a property collects enough reviews, it moves into the scored ranking automatically.
It's fully independent. There's no pay-to-rank. Position is set by verified reviews alone. Property managers can't buy placement, remove reviews, or influence the score.
If your property is on this ranking, you've earned an FMP Award. Reach out and we'll set you up with the official badge for your website, social, and print, free. It's how renters know your ranking is real.
student apartments near UCSB