More education can equal a better job, but before you enroll in school, consider potential earnings versus cost.
According to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Cappex.com, a scholarship search site, new students should use two tests before they enroll.
1 The total amount of the loan for all school years compared to the first-year salary of the new job.
The loans for all years should not exceed the first year salary.
2 Can you repay the loans, in full, in 10 years?
If you think your goals can meet these tests, don't sign up until you consider all the costs of college: Tuition, commuting, new electronic devices.
If your college dreams do not pass these two tests, consider how you might meet your goals a different way.
Looking for grants for school should be the first step. Use a search engine to find grants in your discipline. Pell Grants can be available to those who never received a degree. Also, look for tuition waivers for older students and grants for the unemployed.
Jane Bryant Quinn recommends community or two-year degree programs that are much more modest in cost.
Online degrees can be less expensive, too.
Direct student loans from the federal government have a low fixed interest rate, but don't make the mistake of borrowing too much.
Free courses, free knowledge
Finally, if you just want to learn something new, why enroll at all? Try AcademicEarth.org for lectures in dozens of subjects by the best professors in the world at top colleges like Yale, Harvard, and MIT.
Even if you pay to go back to college, try watching some free courses such as Introduction to Computer Science offered on Harvard's website. You could get a head start in your studies and clarify what you want to know.