If you look at the annual tuition rates for public schools in the United States, you will find the UC system to be an outlier. I gave a system in the same state that is closer to the national median. How much simpler can this be communicated?
1. If you looked up the average tuition in the US and found the UC system is an outlier, then quoting CSU prices is a red herring — just tell us the average tuition and perhaps the standard deviation.
2. The question that started this thread was “does anyone really pay 250k for college?” Even as an outlier, the UC system price is relevant. It is an existence proof that many people _do_ pay close to that sum for undergrad.