spideygirl - frankly, I feel this was true >10 years ago - I have many friends with 8-12 yr old kids and imo the emphasis on education is at its highest in the history of this country.
I have to stick to my post - get a loan/degree - will be the equivalent of literacy in one generation…
(sorry, I’m not trying to be insensitive/not supportive - just being honest, as I’d like others to be if I were in your situation)
That is sort of true, Buid, but sort of not true. There are so many kids coming out of four year colleges, in debt, who cannot find a job (or can only find a terrible one). I have heard that there may soon be a serious shortage of reasonably priced apartments, since so few young people are commanding the kinds of salaries which will allow them to take on a mortgage. Gone are the days of a shiny BMW and a cool condo within months of college graduation (for most kids, anyway). It is quite possible that the person who lacks debt and starts to make some money in their non-degree career will be the person who can actually afford the house.
There are and always will be ways to make money in this country doing things which do not require a degree. I do agree that getting an education is important anyway, for its own sake. I don’t agree that a person should take on loads of debt to do it, especially if their chosen career does not require a degree at all. A CC is fine for such a situation, with the degree acquired slowly (and affordably) over time.
“Perhaps it is simply painful to acquire two Ivy League degrees (a dubious claim with the reasoning I have witnessed here), only to discover that there is still a world of opportunity without any degree at all.”
Oh boy! 
I’m also a high school senior, and I am thinking of not going to a 4 year school, stay at home and go to CC and study culinary instead. I don’t know if I will have a job or not, but at least, I love what I’m studying.
Whether or not being an entrepreneur (for someone who does not apparently have a passion for it, otherwise would have been posting on some kind of entrepreneurs’ forum) is a viable career choice, I would ask:
<li> Why can’t you afford loans? Is it because you already have a lot of debt?</li>
<li> What state are you in? Let us find you an affordable school.</li>
<li> Did you know that you can get a bachelor’s in six years? Two of CC while working, then one quarter on / one quarter off (working), one on/one off until you finish? So you can pay cash? It’s painstaking but possible. I took a quarter off to work and I would have done it again and again until I finished. I know another person that did it.</li>
I don’t know about two-year careers, but there’s a nursing glut around the corner, as well as a glut in a lot of these med-tech careers. I wouldn’t assume a four-year-degree was out of your realm, especially not if you’re willing to be patient. UW is only $6.5k/year, so if you finish CC paying cash, that would be $13k for a bachelor’s on top. I’ll bet you could pay at least $3k cash (like you paid for CC), get $1-2k in grants, and then at MOST you’d have $8k of debt, which is way less than you’d be making at the end.
Also consider that a lot of employers that want a bachelor’s might be willing to hire someone that has a solid academic background, an associates and is getting a bachelor’s at night.
Good luck! Aim high!
online degree will be helpful in that case…
There are many criminal justice jobs available to those with an associate’s degree! I’d definitely look into those.