The Notorious LOL
07-29-2007, 01:07 PM
so lately I have been debating enrolling in an actual college for either an AAS or a Bachelors.
As of right now Im half ass attending a self paced computer certification training school...and while its not bad, I cant help but feel like a lot of it could have been done by myself just reading the books.
By the end of September I hope to have Cisco certification (which probably means nothing to 90% of this board) which will set me at a more desirable payscale.
Now, the downside of the above mentioned training is it was financed thru private loans. Nothing outrageously expensive, but as of right now I have about $8000 in loan debt.
My thought is that since I already have my foot in the door regarding IT work...getting an AAS or Bachelors would put me above others since a lot of people who start out have the degree and no experience, or have the experience and no degree. It seems to be a variant based on the company as I know MIS Bachelors graduates with $15 an hour jobs and 1 year tech program graduates with $100k Systems Admin jobs.
Anyway...my question is is if I finance thru an accredited college and qualify for loans and what not...are there any loans that are NOT private that I could use for "living expenses"? In essence, I would not even use the loans for that as I would still work full time and attending evening classes. My thought is is if I can get a loan that'll cover something beyond just books and tuition at a low interest rate I can knock out a chunk of some of that high interest private loan debt with it, and at least that way I would be paying significantly less in interest.
As of right now Im half ass attending a self paced computer certification training school...and while its not bad, I cant help but feel like a lot of it could have been done by myself just reading the books.
By the end of September I hope to have Cisco certification (which probably means nothing to 90% of this board) which will set me at a more desirable payscale.
Now, the downside of the above mentioned training is it was financed thru private loans. Nothing outrageously expensive, but as of right now I have about $8000 in loan debt.
My thought is that since I already have my foot in the door regarding IT work...getting an AAS or Bachelors would put me above others since a lot of people who start out have the degree and no experience, or have the experience and no degree. It seems to be a variant based on the company as I know MIS Bachelors graduates with $15 an hour jobs and 1 year tech program graduates with $100k Systems Admin jobs.
Anyway...my question is is if I finance thru an accredited college and qualify for loans and what not...are there any loans that are NOT private that I could use for "living expenses"? In essence, I would not even use the loans for that as I would still work full time and attending evening classes. My thought is is if I can get a loan that'll cover something beyond just books and tuition at a low interest rate I can knock out a chunk of some of that high interest private loan debt with it, and at least that way I would be paying significantly less in interest.