Or just go to a trade school and learn a trade.
Perhaps our definition of "trade school" is different, but my experience is that "trade schools" are the worst and being nothing but a money grab. In 2000 after high school, my family and relatives chipped in $15k and I got a fed load for $5k (so $20k for the "school"). Lets just say it was for a "mechanic" trade. It was 13 months but you got a two year associate "degree". During the initial tour they continually talked about how because it comes with a "degree", the credits will transfer anywhere if I ever wanted to "go back to school". I graduated and got a job, but everything sucked. I quickly got tired of working 6 days a week, 10 hour days. There was a night shift and day shift, but with all the hours, you had no life either way. Even worse, I was working next to men that were 50 and not that better off than me. I couldn't stand the thought of "this is my life now". I quit everything, moved in with some relatives and enrolled in a 4 year state uni and spent the next 5 years getting a 4 year BA in computer science. I had to start from scratch again because the "degree" I got from the trade school didn't transfer to state colleges. I called the trade school and asked what school would accept the credits from their "degree", they didn't even know, and gave me another number to call. After a bunch of back and forth, it was admitted that what they meant by "credits are transferable" is that they will hand out my transcript to any institution that wants it, it is "transferable". Had nothing to do with getting class credit, which the guy could only think of two schools in the USA that would take it, and one was a pilot training school that was loosely affiliated.
Going the state college route, I also realized that a two year community college basically had the same program, only it took two years (if you wanted the full degree) and probably costed $3k total.
Stepping back more, the whole notion of going to "school" for longer than 6 months for any trade just sounds retarded. It doesn't matter whether plumber, mechanic, HVAC, etc, after 6 months of on the job training you should be very proficient. If you look at any trade school curriculum there will be much less than 6 months of actual technical classes due to all the math, english, and philosophy classes that you have to take so you can get your "degree" (which transfers nowhere). They simply do that to keep you in class longer and to rake in more money.
BTW, ITT technical institute only got like 1% of federal student loans but had like 20% of all student loan defaults.
