So after finally getting a chance to talk to Adam, I’m confident that I’m making a good decision about school. I’ve decided upon Westwood Online. In total it’s probably going to run me in the $60,000 range but at the same time (after talking to Sean and working with his knowledge of financial aid and grants) I’m also confident that financial aid and grants offered through the school and other outside resources that I’ve been provided with will more than likely cover about half of the full tuition. So instead of hoping to get a $65,000 loan (I’m factoring in supplies here) I’ll only have to look into about $25,000-$30,000 which isn’t as bad as I originally thought it was.
I did some playing around with numbers and noticed that if I keep on the path I’m on, I’ll be bringing in about $45,000 a year and that’s just good enough for me. If I put the bulk of it into savings I should have the loan paid off before I even graduate and then I don’t have to worry about an excess interest payments.
I was considering taking the Web Design & Multimedia course but after talking to Sean I’m not too sure because he told me about how his step mother made some pretty decent money working only 4 hours a day at $80 an hour doing graphics design. Westwood also offers a Graphics Design & Multimedia course.
Adam explained to me that even with his Bachelors I still know more about actual web design than he does. After a quick look at the over-view of the course I found out that it’s all basic introduction based courses and there really is nothing new that I’ll be learning through that course. So now I believe I’m just going to go straight for the graphics design course. It’s all still in the same price range and I’ll be able to utilize the upcoming iMac purchase I’ll be making.
I’ve been talking quite a bit about that on AGn Designs lately but I’ve decided to take about $1600 and get a 20″ iMac that’s fully loaded, to my specifications naturally. I don’t have to worry about any excess crap. But I could also take the route of taking out a loan for school and take $3,000 of that and throw some major components into the larger 24″ iMac that, as of right now, is base-priced in the $2,000 range.
So here’s where I ask you to help me out. Should I wait for the loan or should I just get it now?
Get one now. There is no reason to put off the inevitable. I’m happy for you going to school, stay on the path because I fully know about paying those loans off. I’m doing it right now and not even going to school and that pretty much blows!