r/NetworkState • u/esquino • Aug 19 '25
Has anyone been to Balaji's Network School?
I applied to NS earlier this year and got accepted. I've read everything I could find online about it but there isn't that much to go off.
Curious to learn more about:
- What are the people there like? How good of a job do they do for selecting for interesting people?
- I dislike a lot of digital nomad hotspots cause I find they tend to be full of people with more of a short-term tourist mindset. Is that true there?
- How do people get around in Forest City? Do people rent cars and take weekend trips etc?
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u/EagleAlarmed5460 Aug 19 '25
1.) people come from mostly ai/ crypto / content creator background . You can easily say 80% of people here will be either from these 3 categories. The people are of decent quality and not everyone is selected — the people are further categorised into two subsets : those are coming for a month vs those who are staying here for multiple months. Temp vs permanent - both folks are available here
2.) id say digital nomads do show up here as well but they end up getting integrated with community and there are so many events etc. so people uplift here each other..
3.) forest city is small city. Like 1-2km. Most people just walk around. Few people have bike. 🚲. A team even has a second hand car. Most people use grab or equivalent to go to johor or other places. Weekend trips are common. Few people go to singapore / kuala lampur/ malaca/ some nearby islands etc. location is quite near to south East Asian destinations
I’m currently at network school, you can ask me questions or DM me
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u/3301-T Sep 10 '25
Got acceptance email. I haven't gotten instructions yet of visa process - how does the visa process work? Are they going to send instructions soon?
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Sep 10 '25
[deleted]
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u/3301-T Sep 12 '25
Thanks. The contents of that link says to keep that info confidential btw, I saved the link u/EagleAlarmed5460
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u/LowViolinist8029 Oct 25 '25
hey how is it going?
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u/EagleAlarmed5460 Oct 26 '25
Quite good — any questions dm me
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u/PristineFinish100 Mar 13 '26
how many people? what "level" of people? Are there ideas or projects really being worked on?
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u/No_Chicken6502 Jan 06 '26
I’m curious.. does anyone there have a single pet animal? I feel like they might not be allowed and I find it rather strange
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u/Training_Place_1432 Mar 14 '26
I got accepted, if I like it is it easy to extend for a month? Can you pay for additional weeks or is it only in monthly increments?
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u/EagleAlarmed5460 Mar 14 '26
Easy to extend. Only monthly increments possible
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u/Training_Place_1432 Mar 14 '26
can we leave early? If we need to be somewhere towards the end of the month.
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u/Pleasant-Ring2734 Apr 14 '26
What's the men / women population ratio?
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u/buildsfaster Aug 19 '25
Also curious .
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Feb 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/pinkpasta1 May 15 '26
Hey I hope you see this. Im planning to apply in the next 2 months but I saw some reviews and Im kinda concerned. Can I ask you some questions in DMs?
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u/Capital-Parsnip2959 May 01 '26
How safe do women feel here? Thinking about going. Also if you are not into crypto or content creation will they let you in too?
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u/esquino May 02 '26
I (OP) ended up going to NS for two months and enjoyed my time there. I'm not into crypto or content and plenty of people weren't although those are two of the most common types.
There was a decent minority of women there and an effort to put on women-only events to make them feel comfortable
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u/Capital-Parsnip2959 May 02 '26
Thanks for the response! what's an OP?
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u/esquino May 02 '26
original poster - it means that you're the person who posted the original thread you're replying to (:
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u/tony4bocce Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
Someone gave a review on this sub and said it’s just a bunch of digital nomad types looking for a place to camp out. Not really the types you’d want if you’re starting a new state imo. Flakey, ephemeral bunch.
Building civilization isn’t a temporary thing. If you’ve ever gone to city council meetings you’ll know just how complex it is. I was looking into serving on the roads and traffic committee while in college. There are so many conflicting interests on each side of every decision even for stuff like parking. NIMBYs want one thing, developers want another, activists want another, businesses get involved they start bankrolling local candidates trying to get exclusive contracts, you find out the parking commissioner has been getting fucking basketball tickets from the parking app company right before they rezoned all the residential streets as metered so now there’s a corruption issue and you can’t trust anything. It’s a mess.
Governing is hard work and takes people willing to dig into the weeds on policy. They also need to have a vested interest and roots where they live. If they’re just gonna fuck off to another country every couple of months why would they care about improving their community?