Wow Hannah! First off, welcome to Greek Chat! I'm excited that you are interested in Greek Life duruing your Universtiy Years! It will be very exciting for you going so far away from home...so I think it would be awesome if you rushed and found a home away from home with one of the houses on campus...
Sororities are groups of women (kinda like a club, but oh so much more) who come together as sisters and live by similiar ideals and values. It's a support network, an academic network, and a social network.
To get into a sorority you go through some form of "rush" or recruitment. That is where you get to spend time for each sorority and pick whether or not you feel at home with that set of girls...at the same time, they pick if they feel like you fit in well and would be a great addition to their chapter (which I'm sure you would be to any chapter!).
Here is some more information about UCSB specifically:
Greek life homepage:
http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/osl/GreekLife/Index.asp
On the campus, these are the Panhellenic Sororities (Panhellenic is an umbrella organization that oversees all of the organizations):
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Kappa Sigma
Some of the chapters don't appear to have webpages...you can also look at:
http://www.geocities.com/ucsbpanhell...ororities.html
It is the College Panhellenic for UCSB and has pictures of all of the houses at least.
Hope this helps!
__________________
There are friends who pass like ships in the night, who meet for a moment, then sail out of sight, with never a backward glance of regret...Friends we meet briefly then quickly forget.
Then there are friends who sail together, through quiet waters and stormy weather. Helping each other through joy and through strife. And those are the kind who give meaning to life.
~ ⚓ΔΓ⚓ ~