Starting Back in College

Well, I've started back in college again.  I don't know exactly how I'm going to pay for it all, but I'm in college, I just signed the papers. 

I won't go back to take classes from my former employer.  I don't care if I'm 90% of the way to a degree there, and could do it in a couple of semesters.  I won't go back, because my experience there as an employee was simply too horrid, and a number of people there made it clear that if I did try to come back, they would be out to destroy me.

Now to continue my education, I have to pay around $75.000 to an online college, with a less than stellar reputation (strangely, only very slightly worse than the state school I came from).  Few if any of my credits transfer, and I have to take three years of year round online classes to get a degree. 

In my opinion it's totally worth it.  The cost, the time, and the effort are all worth it.  I need a degree, and I hate the university that I gave nearly 20 years of my life to.  I've vowed that they will never receive another dollar from me.  They've taken too much from me and those I love already.  I owe them nothing.

As for my major, I'm majoring in computer science.  They offer two (better than my former university), one with an emphasis in programming, another with one in networking.  For the time being, I'm going for programming.  I'll post about the overall quality of the classes after I actually experience a class.

I'm actually a bit excited.  If I can complete my degree, I can get a better job, and more importantly, I can get the skills I need, as my wife and I are trying to go into business for ourselves, as that is the only realistic way to get a job when there simply are no jobs.  When measured using equivalent criteria, unemployment is almost double that of the great depression.

We're also talking about my wife going to school and getting her photography degree, and me getting an MBA.   This would give us the skills we need to run our business as we get it started, as it is our preference to be self sufficient, rather than reliant on the whims of others.