Learning a marketable trade at a local community college/vocation-technical school such as Nursing, (IT)Information Technology, Welding, or HVAC (heating ventilation air conditioning) could be the best educational value for someone wanting to be able to earn a livable income after finishing an educational program.
Our thanks to consumer advocate Clark Howard:
Look to community colleges to keep tuition expenses down
College tuition is spiraling out of control. While the economy experienced deflation in 2009, tuition is up an average of about five percent!
The problem is that there’s too much loan money floating around. If people had to pay upfront for their education, they’d likely be smarter consumers. But the kaleidoscope of available loans doesn’t exactly encourage price sensitivity.
In addition, if we did not have easy access to student loan money, colleges would be forced to run more efficiently and keep their costs down.
That’s why you’ll get more bang for your buck at community colleges and so-called “directional colleges.” The latter is simply any school with a description of where it is geographically located in the name, such as Clark’s alma mater Central Michigan U. These kinds of schools tend to devote more of their money to educating students instead of running a bloated operation.
Consider spending your first two years at a low-cost community college before going on to finish up your degree at a prestigious university.