Let me just put it this way. You indicate that you live on Long Island. Granted Santa Clarita is a bit different in that it's somewhat isolated due to the geology (a triangular canyon) of the area, but its identity is heavily tied to its proximity to Los Angeles. Other than that it's basically living in a suburb, which to my understanding is pretty much the way of life in most of Long Island. You eventually learn things about where locals go, but most of the interesting things involve driving out of town.
A lot of these little museums are the kind of places where there are prominent signs and relatively few visitors. I noted that I'm familiar with Santa Clara, California. I lived there just a few blocks from the local art museum. I have never been there. On the way back from
Disneyland once, we stopped at a store in Santa Clarita and struck up a conversation with another customer who was a local. I said something about the biggest attraction in the area, and she thought about it for a while and had not idea what I was talking about. When I mentioned Magic Mountain she understood, then said she'd never been there.
Mundane shopping is pretty much what you'd expect from a suburb. You mentioned Target, where the closest is maybe 2.5 miles. The closest Walmart is actually closer located in a strip mall with a Chili's, Starbucks, Toys R Us, etc.
There's a lot of hiking in the area. There are a lot of regional open spaces, and Angeles National Forest is pretty close.
Take if for what it's worth, but here's a discussion about someone moving to Valencia for an MFA at CalArts.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/los-angeles/2116244-moving-la-area-calarts-mfa.html
Santa Clarita is a pretty horrible place for anyone who isn't a 55 yr old retired cop, or whatever. It's totally southwest Stepford. The individual neighborhoods don't really matter. They're just basically subdivisions of the same 90s desert stucco architectural style peppered with franchise businesses.
There are also no interesting places near there and it will be a pain in the *** to get to class. So live in SC, because that's where everyone else at calarts is going to be, and suck it up and drive 45+ minutes when you want to go to that 'rad' arts district warehouse party, or that 'gnar' highland park DIY backyard show, or that 'chill' echo park PoMo reading.
To be fair, CalArts was there long before most of the subdivisions and before there was ever a city government. Magic Mountain opened around the same time (1971).
In short CalArts is a world class art school in a boring suburb. I guess there's nothing wrong with that. I live in a boring suburb and haven't gone crazy yet. Since you're familiar with Parsons, it's certainly a different way of life than Greenwich Village.