There are only so many classes most will want to take at the going rate for an American education. California, thankfully, has a policy which keeps those earning an above average GPA in school for free. You must pay for your own books, which can sometimes cost as much as the class itself. Some teachers are kind enough to not have a textbook requirement – this helps them to fill their classes quickly but you can only imagine how much extra work they must put in to teach the curriculum according to the the accreditation standards.
In the State of California, education and healthcare is nearly universal.You must submit information to Covered California or take a nice cut on your tax returns for not doing so. I appreciate my school, the art department I’m in has been nothing but helpful and supportive, but there are other more affordable ways to learn the techniques that supposedly would have cost me $10 k a semester had it not been for said GPA and a long residency on the dean’s list.
Lynda or Skillshare, these websites are filled with fun classes teaching everything from computer science and robotics to painting and SEO. If I was to pick one, I’d say skillshare.com is the affordable choice. They are not owned by LinkedIn and the monthly cost is minimal. Where Lynda is a hefty $400 annually, skill share is $99. Plus, with skillshare, you have access to every single piece of tutorial you can get your hands on. If you changed your mind tomorrow and decided Python programming was better for you than screenprinting t-shirts, then you would have every right to start your new path quickly and effortlessly. With Lynda, the saving grace is that if you attend UCSD (The University of California-San Diego)you could access the website for free. However, Mesa (my school) doesn’t have a Lynda account – but we have other awesome free perks for attending and probably the greatest benefit is the amount of tutors we are allowed to see any time. In fact, we are an international language school, you can learn Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and at one point Tagalog from tutors if you happen to walk into the Learning Resource Center which is usually open from 6 am to 10 pm. Whatever the case, education is easy to come by – the practice and the willingness to seek what you’re interested in learning is on you.
Sabibi Davidson 