What would be good examples, then?
Tim
I don't know, but you could make a list of schools with geology programs and see which are affordable. In-state tuition of course tends to be lower than out-of-state... A decent way to find out which schools have geology programs is to look at the authors of geology textbooks, and see what school they're at, and another way is to find a website that'll let you enter the major you want and'll tell you which schools have that major. And find out where major companies are that might hire you... odds are there's a school offering geology in the same area (like, Texas Instruments is in Dallas, and guess what? -you can major in Electrical Engineering at UT Dallas).
Personally, I'd also ask yourself what you want to do with your geology degree... some schools focus more on certain aspects, and other schools on others. You might also want to consider that most people supposedly find their job through networking... friends that graduated a year or two before you did, professors, etc. Of course, most of the jobs you're going to find that way are going to be in the general area of the college you attended... so if you don't like north texas, you might want to go to school somewhere where you'd later also want to get a job (also handy in case you find a wife while going to school... if you find a wife in Wichita Falls, you might be stuck in north texas because her friends and family live there).
If politics is that important to you, there might be a group like "Democrats on Campus" you can join, or just find friends at the general democratic party in Wichita Falls. I don't know how often you've moved before, but it always takes a while to settle in, even for NTs. I've never been to Wichita Falls, but I live in north Texas as well and I've encountered plenty of liberals, and I haven't been looking for them.
I believe Western Oregon costs about half as much. If you are currently paying in-state tuition, you will not find anything comparable paying out-of-state tuition. Maybe there is something tolerable in Texas? I recall Austin being pretty liberal, and San Antonio was nice, too. If this is something that you are serious about then you should be talking to a guidance counselor who will have all of this type of information handy. This his/her job, and you've already paid for those services when you paid tuition and fees.
I UT would would be more like $10,000 per year. It hasn't been 10 years since I last attended A&M and the tuition wasn't that bad -- more like $1000 per semester for residents. I seem to recall another university at Nacogdoches that was not too pricey. Go to collegefortexans.com and do some research.
The reasoning is that public universities are partially supported by state tax dollars. Families who do not live in that state are not contributing anything toward the support of the school through taxes paid to the state. Very simple, actually.
California just had a HUGE tuition hike for its state universities. Thank god for the community colleges. But it does evolve into a university-educated elite class and a high school or community-college educated under-class. When money = education, the social stratification becomes increasingly severe.
And the best and brightest are not necessarily at the top.