Pasadena City College, PUSD, Pasadena Humane Society… the first two definitely come with solid benefits More on reddit.com

Tell us about those juicy recruiting stories · My interview was scheduled at 11:30am PST. The HR person said that the committee is running a little behind and that they'll let me in shortly. I waited for 15 until I finally got into the Zoom space More on reddit.com

Pasadena is not particularly inexpensive, but it's nicer than nearby areas. For lower rent, consider Eagle Rock, Highland Park (both parts of LA), also Altadena which is a mile or two north of Pasadena, parts of Alhambra, and so on. Living in Pasadena can give you greenery, nice streets, proximity to shopping, and so on. South of Colorado Boulevard and west of Lake Avenue has many apartments on nice streets, as one example. PCC is often considered the best, certainly one of the best, of the many California junior (or community) colleges, especially based on its very good record getting its graduates into 4-year colleges. It's not fancy, classes get over-subscribed at times, the campus is fairly nice but it's not particularly beautiful, it's a commuter school, and other such goods and bads. My daughter went there for awhile and it worked for her. Many people who can't afford tuition at 4-year colleges take their first two years there. Two neighbor kids are doing that. They plan to transfer to a UC campus or private college when their two years at PCC are finished. Similar schools that are ranked high and do the same thing include Santa Monica City College, also a two-year school. These schools work to get you into either the California State University system (Cal State LA, Cal State San Diego, Cal State Long Beach, and many others), decent, if not fancy, colleges with lower tuition, or the more prestigious University of California (UCLA, UC Berkeley, etc) which are top universities. If you can, shoot for the better UC system, but you'll need very good grades to get in. In each group of schools, there are better and worse choices. CalState LA does not impress me, but it's fine, though a few other Cal State schools are actually pretty nice. All UC schools are good quality, but they rank from I'd say maybe UC Riverside near the bottom all the way up through UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UCLA, and UC Berkeley at the top. Do some research on which schools are well-reputed. Aim for those if at all possible. If you had mature roommates, you could afford a nicer place with some peace and quiet (to study) at a lower rent. PCC has a good library and there are public libraries scattered around Pasadena, as well, for studying. If you want to live alone, you'll have to settle for a more modest apartment. Finding a house of any kind is very unlikely. To find a student-shared apartment, you can look for other students at CalTech, PCC, or other local colleges who need another person to share an apartment. Craigslist might work, and the colleges themselves may have roommate-wanted lists, too, or bulletin boards (literally or online). Apartments in Pasadena are often found by just driving around in neighborhoods you like and looking for "For Rent" signs. If you get the word out with college housing offices in the area or through Craigslist or people you know, you might even score a rental bedroom or "in-law" apartment in a nice house at a cheap price and end up with a nice, quiet place. As for San Diego, it's a little less expensive to live in, I think, than Pasadena though maybe not by much. UC San Diego is a very good university as are nearby Cal State colleges and some other colleges, some private ones included. I'm not familiar the the 2-year city colleges in San Diego. It's worth checking San Diego out, too. Good luck. More on reddit.com

It has been eons since I was a pcc student but hopefully student work programs are still available. I worked a part time job as an office clerk in one of PCC's offices. Super convenient as I could walk to class from my job and vice versa. More on reddit.com