School tuition is outrageous

I am in an online school getting a BBA in accounting. I'm paying for convenience, I think. The school is amazing, the resources for research are practically endless, someone from every department is available 24/7 either by phone or instant message, the school is accredited, and I am in an accelerated program and set to graduate march 2014. When I first started, my husband thought he was going to be in the military until retirement so he transferred his GI Bill benefits to me, which is why I picked this school and the accelerated program. Well the time has passed, he has decided to get out of the military, and we agreed I would transfer the benefits back because his schooling will be more expensive when he gets out. No problem there, no hard feelings, we're in this together.

This school is going to cost me $40,000 for the remainder of the program! And that is WITH the pell grant paid toward tuition, which is a help of $5,550 each academic year! This is a nice school but I don't know if I can take on that much debt, I don't think my first accounting job will even pay that much in a year! I set out (late) to get a college education so I could be proud of myself for such an accomplishment but good grief! I have sent an email to my advisor saying, look buddy, this school is nice but too expensive. Give me suggestions or I'm taking my ball and going home. (Maybe not those exact words).

At this point, it would make more sense to get an Associate degree at a community college, get a job, and hope they offer tuition assistance so I can further my degree at that point. Or, option B, get the Associate at a community college, get a job, and leave it at that.

I have seen people who start on the lowest rung of the ladder in the retail industry and make it to Manager in less than 5 years. I have half a mind to just do that! I want to provide for my family, not screw myself out of $40,000 that could be going toward my son and comfortable living conditions for me and my family!!!!!!!!!!! The estimated monthly payment is almost $600! That's almost 10 times what I pay for my motorcycle payment. Good grief.

reply to post by Vanna


It's tough isn't it? I've got somewhere around 50,000 left on my school loans after paying for 5 years already. Still, I wouldn't be able to make close to 6 figures otherwise (Soon I will be making over that...). I'm making 5 times what I could before I went back to school. Of course, I'm an engineer, I don't think it's worth it to go to school unless you study math or science or even business...

Do yourself a favor. Get out while the getting is good and go to a community college. Take some book keeping classes or something and do that.

I'm in the process of getting my LLB,the cost of the tuition I pay is equal to 132 $ a year.I had very high grades in high school,and I'm in a university program where I'm on parallel studies getting both bachelor degrees in economy and law.The cost of tuition for the degree in economy is something like 270$. The state is paying for half of my education,and I'm not even on a scholarship,if you qualify for scholarship you pay nothing at all.I can never understand why education in the USA is so expensive.
I google a bit,and here is very interesting answer.
Why is college tuition in the USA so expensve?

reply to post by adnachiel21


Wow, you are beautiful!!

Thank you for the good reading, too. It's a shame the tuition here is so high but if someone doesn't have a college degree, they are unlikely to even get minimum wage jobs sometimes. I better make a decision, quick, either way...my current classes are paid until end of july and then I'm out of pocket.

reply to post by Vanna


Finish it if you can. You're right, you'll be lucky to get a job at all without a degree. I make 90k now compared to 20k if lucky before I earned my degree. And the 20k job was snaking drains and getting sh*t in my face...