Pokey. *Poke Poke*

Want to attend college for free? It can happen if you learn German.

All German universities are now free to Americans and all other international students. The last German state to charge tuition at its universities struck down the fees this week.

Even before Germany abolished college tuition for all students, the price was a steal. Typically semester fees were around $630. What’s more, German students receive many perks including discounts for food, clothing and events, as well as inexpensive or even free transportation.

In explaining why Germany made this move, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Hamburg senator, called tuition fees “unjust” and added that “they discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

Actually, German universities were free up until 2006 when they started charging tuition. That triggered such a crush of criticism that German states began phasing out this policy. Lower Saxony was the last holdout.

It’s too bad that politicians in the U.S. don’t feel that a college education is worth supporting appropriately. State aid to the nation’s public universities took a nosedive during the 2008 recession and education funding remains well below those levels. The average state is spending 23 percent less per student than before the recession, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Actually, state support has been declining for public universities for a quarter of a century. Using an interactive tool from The Chronicle of Higher Education, you can see how state government subsidies have cratered at individual institutions.

With the average undergrad borrower now leaving school with more than $29,000 in debt, the free ride in Germany can look awfully tempting.

How to handle the language barrier

German is not an easy language to learn. Fortunately, however, there are international language programs in Germany, which have become very popular with international students before they tackle obtaining a degree in a different language.

What’s more, an increasing number of German universities are offering degrees in English. These are often called international studies programs or in some other way have the word international in their title.

ITS LIKE BEING WRAPPED IN A BIG WARM PROTECTIVE HEAT BLANKET AND ITS WONDERFUL

her new album has few love songs

she told Rolling Stone that she doesn’t date anymore

she finds it necessary to make fun of herself every chance she gets

why “Shake it Off” exists

why she DOESN’T DATE ANYMORE

why she refuses to date even though it’s her own personal life

did i mention that she doesn’t allow herself to date anymore lol

This isn’t funny. This is fucking disgusting. Sure, she looks like she’s shrugging it off like a joke. I get that it’s a joke. So does she. But do people not understand that Taylor Alison Swift’s entire future is basically ruined? She has dated six people in her entire eight year career. Six. Not fifteen in the last year. Not twelve. Not six people in eight months. Six people in eight YEARS. Still, though, she seems to get slammed for it by every media outlet, by every award show host, by every country music fan, by every One Direction fan, by every person who reads any magazine where they pull information out of their asses to get money. They have no problem ruining someone’s reputation for money.

Taylor Swift is a twenty-four year old girl who will eventually need someone to spend the rest of her life with. How is that going to happen now? Not only does Taylor get bashed, but any male she is seen with gets bashed. Taylor could be seen with her brother and get slammed for having a new boyfriend. Sorry, HollywoodLife, but I don’t think Taylor’s very much into incest. 

Whoever decides to date Taylor is going to get shit on by magazines and people everywhere. “Haha, bro, watch out. She might write a song about you” will probably be the end to every article about her future boyfriend and her relationship. Maybe some man out there will be able to brush that off, but what the fuck? 

A twenty-four year old girl with a heart of absolute gold shouldn’t be forced to go through that. She is trying to live her dream while leaving the greatest impact on the world she possibly can, and now she has to control what she released, who she dates, who she’s seen with, and basically just control every single little aspect of her life. I get that it’s the life of a celebrity, but take Adam Levine for example. He’s a great guy. He’s also idolized by women everywhere. He’s had more girlfriends in his career than Taylor. Do you hear about that?

Get rid of the double standard; let Taylor Swift live her life without the rumors, the jokes, and the hate. As someone who Taylor has impacted positively, it’s just really fucking annoying.

You know when you’re in class with someone who has no idea what the fuck they’re talking about? That’s what being a Taylor Swift fan is like, everywhere. Turn on the TV, false information. Open a magazine, false information. Scroll through Twitter, false information.

Instead of making jokes about Taylor’s relationship-life, why don’t they make fun of her for, I don’t know, something harmless? Tell her she’s addicted to Instagram because she is sometimes seen up at 4 in the morning commenting paragraph upon paragraph of comforting messages to tweens who are dealing with things they don’t know how to deal with.

I have never heard anyone harsh on him the way that people harsh on Taylor Swift.  He is allowed to take inspiration from his personal life, and people don’t act like he’s somehow violating the trust of the women he dates, breaks up with, and sings about on the stage.

No.

First of all, Nala has no merch whatsoever. People forget about her after they watch Lion King for the most part. The story is about Simba, not Nala. Nala takes a back seat. There’s a period of time where we don’t see her at all. How can you say that having her is just as good as having an actual African princess?

I get if you like Nala but what you’re saying is really rude and a bit condescending. Disney really needs at least one African princess and it’s dismissive to say that Nala should count. She’s not a human, she’s a lion. That’s not decent representation at all. And like WDCR said, there is a lot of racism behind comparing black people to animals. It’s 2014. We should be over that.

By that logic, we can now systematically ignore:

Redheads

The entire state of Rhode Island

Anyone who makes over $500,000 a year

Pacific Islanders