California ... a failed state

Uh, California also has cheaper public university options… ;D

If you count Berkeley Art Institute a cheaper university option…

Was around that area (a really good sauna there, on the opposite way from UC Berkeley), and there are a LOT of “Berkeley” schools there.

If you can get into UC Berkeley, paying for it is the least of your problem… schools like that they’ll help you pay for it.

California has the Cal State system, which is cheaper than the UC system.

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They are, but still not cheap. The estimated cost of attendance at Cal Poly SLO is $29k for people not living at home.

Plus real estate prices in most California cities are through the roof, even outside of the SF Bay area. So unless you live at home you can’t realistically afford to live anywhere close to the college you attend. Not without either a very good scholarship, job, or rich parents.

In this age of secure, instant mass communications elections should be held online and politicians should serve only as long as their approval rating remains at 50% or above. Once it falls below 50% an online election spanning 48 hours would be held and the winner would replace the loser the following day.

The ruling class and its minions will fight such a system tooth and nail though because they won’t be able to game such a system and lull the people into believing they’re really calling the shots.

Yes not cheap. But the prices I listed above do include food and housing.

That would require an awful of vigilence from the masses and introduce a lot of ineffiencies through constant changes in direction, especially in areas with even distribution of parties. And would further disenfranchise people with inadequate connectivity. The referendum situation is bad enough, with special interests routinely driving the narrative.

You can only vote over a 12 hour period now and you have to go to a polling station. If the majority of people were voting online and you had 48 hours instead to go to a polling station and vote using a terminal there voting would be easier than it is now for everyone.

There is a voting period of weeks. You can drop off your ballot in a designated box or mail it in. Or vote in person on election day. Of course you need an address for that option. Some areas offer early in-personal voting.

https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-info/ways-vote

University of Texas charges about 5000 a semester for in state, 3x that for out of state. But the dorms are ungodly expensive, like much more expensive than living in an apartment. It used to be the other way around, where dorm is cheap and has good dining options (such as the all you can eat buffet that your housing cost pays for all 3 meals).

But now it’s just itty bitty living space for a lot more money than apartments.

Most people who mail in their ballot or arrange for early in-person voting are sophisticated enough to vote online using the same authentication factors they use for conducting their banking business.

If there were online voting you could subsequently go online and verify that your vote was counted. Right now those who mail in ballots have no idea whether their vote was actually tallied or not.

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Sure, but almost 2/3 of that isn’t college costs, it’s living expenses. I hate it when living expenses is lumped in to show how expensive college is… you gonna have living expenses regardless.

It is true that college costs (not including living expenses) have become too expensive for the average student. In the old days a summer job could pay for college, but now you are unlikely to pay tuition, even in state working a summer job unless your summer job is CEO of some big company.

I made it work taking out Stafford loans but Stafford loans would never be enough to pay for out of state tuition, because it has a limit of something like 12,000 a year. You won’t make that working at Walmart unless you don’t have to pay rent or food. My pay in 2017 working at Walmart was around 18,000, working a mix of full time and half time including bonuses. It is enough to cover living expense but not both living expense and tuition.

And financial aid has a condition of taking at least 12 hours per long semester. So you won’t be working full time during a long semester (my tactic was to work half time during a long semester and full time during the summer).

However one thing about UT Austin is they have more or less flat rate tuition. Your tuition is the same whether you took 12 or 18 hours. So you could graduate faster and save money if you take a lot of hours, but given how hard the classes are at UT, you might fail half of them unless you have very large and good memory.

But let’s not talk about the tuition at ivy league or ivy-like institutions. If you can get into those schools the school will help you pay for it. You and your parents may need to fill out a bunch of paperwork and they would investigate your financial background to see if you are able to pay it, and if not, you get need based scholarships, which in conjunction to stafford loans, is more than enough. If they find that you or your family is rich enough to pay it though, you will pay it or you’re not going.

I went there for Executive Education–10K for just a week…great campus though—worth every penny that I didn’t pay for.

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Yea, I used to go to a ministry called IGSM, International graduate student ministry. They had a mirror ministry at UC Berkeley too. Both are hard schools though… I made C’s despite my best effort (to be fair I had to work too, so that takes away time to study). I’d probably make A’s at more normal universities.

Yes, but living expenses are very high near many California schools. Contrast to UGA in Athens. Out of state total cost at UGA only $46 or $47k at UGA compared to about $69k for Berkeley.

My son did, but he chose an out of state university that cost around 60% of the UCB cost after merit aid. The UCs give very, very little merit aid.

Contrast California with France where international students pay like 2K a year in fees, and this is a new introduction of fees.

Taiwan is cheap, too!