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<p>As far as textbooks go, they would cost you nothing overall if you know what you’re doing. Buy them at the lowest used price and sell them back at around the same price or higher. If you do this right you may even make a profit at the end.
As far as UC schools, if you get satisfaction from people being impressed just because of the name of your school, maybe it would be worth it to you. Otherwise, average job return from your investment isn’t there for the UC schools to be considered a “good deal”.</p>