I want to go back to college...

[Emu]

Some backstory:

I have my associate's degree in psychology. I went to a 2 year college in Illinois and got that out of the way. However, in August 2007 I moved down to Florida and have spent the last year working a 3-11 pm part-time job. When I'm not working, I'm helping take care of my girlfriend's disabled grandparents, who are almost the only family she has in the world (her mother died in childbirth, and her father is MIA since before she was born.) Life expenses and my ridiculous addiction to video games has made it difficult to save money (which is actually starting to change in the last few months since I've started to get my shit in gear.)

My problem is this:

I want to go back to college, but I'm not sure where to start. My parents funded all of my 2 year college expenses. I don't have much of a credit history (I've never had a credit card, and the only bill I pay is for my phone.) I don't know anything about student loans or scholarships. Not to mention the so-called economic crisis is honestly making it look like taking on the burden of debt is a really, really bad idea right now.

Aside from the financial problems is the problem of time. I work odd hours and I'm the type of person who needs a lot of sleep to function. Also, my days off are usually occupied with getting groceries, cooking, cleaning and a small amount of personal time. The best case scenario is if I could take all my classes online so that I could do my assignments/study while at work. Has anyone had experience with this and how it relates to getting a scholarship?

tl;dr: I want to go back to school but money is an issue and I have a lot of responsibilities at home and my parents are 1,500 miles away.

[Asila]

Purely from my own personal experience:

I'm going to school now on the FAFSA, which is a grant based on your income--if you go to a state school, you can get a lot of your classes paid for, or close to. I'm going to a two-year, so I actually end up with money coming back to me after everything's paid off. I also take all online classes (I'm going through the HIT program). Online classes are calculated just like regular classes, as far as getting money for school goes, and frankly I've loved them. It's just a matter of finding a school that has a good online program.

Go for a state school though, I can't stress that enough, you'll have more of an opportunity to get government grants.

[pac-man]

The Montgomery G.I. Bill. I'm sure Hickman would tell you it's totally worth it.

[WhiteRat]

Mos def. Especially now that congress has passed the new GI Bill, not only will you get your 40K for school, you get up to 2000(maybe 1k, i'm not quite sure) a year for books as well as BAH at e-5 pay while enrolled full time.

Basically what that means is that the govt will pay you a rough estimate based on the cost of living in your area. So come August 1, 2009, my ass will be making money off the GI bill.

[Colonel Flagg]

Good luck with this. I've known several people who've done the same thing you want to do ... it took them longer than they wanted and eventually it was harder then they thought it would be, but they ended up with the sheepskin, and a lot of self-confidence. Bottom line - if you can cut it, it's worth it.

My advice would be to find a state school branch with a night-school program and go in to talk to someone in either the registrar's office, or a professor in your department of choice (psychology?). This would at least give you a place to start.

On-line universities have a tendency to be a bit impersonal, which is not a good thing when sitting through advanced courses.

[Asila]

State school, state school, all the way, I can't say it enough. You'll find a way to get paid if you do that.

I'll only disagree about the online classes to say that, if you're taking a class that you feel really comfortable in to begin with or--and this can be a crapshoot--with a really great teacher, you won't notice too much of a difference to taking in-person classes. I don't know too much about advanced course, as Flagg said, except that all the higher level english courses I took went swimmingly. I think it really depends on your school.

[glowbelly]

or find a job at a hospital or some shit that will pay for your education yo. the cleveland clinic has a branch down there in florida and they are paying for my nursing school 100%. oh and the classes are evening/weekend which doesn't leave much time for life, but shit it's free.

[pac-man]

Yeah, like the hospitals, some banks have tuition repayment plans for employees. I still say G.I. Bill. You get a cool uniform, benefits, and travel in addition to the college money.

[WhiteRat]

and you get fucked up the ass on a daily basis with no lube whatsoever!

[pac-man]

Shhhh! I wanna see if he joins the Army.

[Colonel Flagg]

Originally Posted by WhiteRat

and you get fucked up the ass on a daily basis with no lube whatsoever!

Horrors! No Lube!

[Colonel Flagg]

Originally Posted by Asila

I'll only disagree about the online classes to say that, if you're taking a class that you feel really comfortable in to begin with or--and this can be a crapshoot--with a really great teacher, you won't notice too much of a difference to taking in-person classes. I don't know too much about advanced course, as Flagg said, except that all the higher level english courses I took went swimmingly.

Probably OK for some disciplines, but for the sciences (my experience, nearly exclusively) you really need other individuals to bounce ideas around. It's getting easier to do online, what with teh internets, but there's still no substitute for the good old-fashioned study group. Plus you get to split the cost of the pizza & beer. Bonus.

I don't know, does psychology qualify as a science, or as a humanity? If the latter, you may be OK with online courses, as Ms. Asila suggests above.

[glowbelly]

i would stay away from online classes that require you to do labs at home. a&p classes are fine cause they are usually just looking at models, but if you end up in a biochem or microbiology class, you really really want to be in the lab.

i had great success taking online courses in english, math, psychology and yes biochem (but i'm pretty darn clever at it and i would never do it again).

[Asila]

And it does really depend on your strengths. I absolutely won't take a math or certain kinds of sciences online, mostly because I suck at them, but I ended up in an online physics class that went pretty well. Plus our teacher died about halfway through, so it went okay even with turbulence.