I don't know much about your situation, but consider Western Governor's University, assuming you're in the US and looking for some tech bachelor's or master's. It's fully accredited, largely asynchronous, fully online college (you take proctored tests.) You pay by 6mo term rather than credit hour, but it's a flat rate. In general it's extremely affordable if you can dedicate enough time to take classes fulltime, and you can still get full normal student aid. About 4k/semester tuition for bachelor's. I'm not in tech but my understanding is that all the WGU bachelor's include various industry certs/trainings for free, or if you already have your bachelor's, you can take just the certifications.
A lot of people also do Sophia to transfer in their gen eds. I'm not doing Sophia because the credits eventually may not be considered towards CPA requirements, but especially in the field of tech it's an easy way to shave thousands off, if you can transfer in even a few credits. If your community college and whatever else you plan do to does allow credits from Sophia, you can at least spend a semester knocking out a few gen eds. Sophia afaik is still about 100/mo (with no extra book fees etc) and I don't know much about it, I don't have experience there. If you plan to get special licensures down the line I'd double and triple check that they'll be okay with Sophia, but if you're just trying to get like, Bachelor's in IT, Sophia is a really wise way to go about it. If you already have some community college credits but not a full degree,
reverse transfers are also a thing (completing the last portion via Sophia or WGU, but getting the degree from the community college.)
WGU has been extremely affordable AND accommodating to me. Online schools like this CAN get a bad rap because obviously you get what you put in. But personally I find my retention is actually a lot better with the self-paced curriculum and in many ways I've found it's higher quality than my community college was. All the bullshit is stripped away. No spending two weeks of class on Getting To Know One another. If you can complete a project in 3 days instead of 3 weeks, then you just do that, get it graded, and start on the next project or next class, even.
When you're coming out of high school and there's value in "the college experience" and the "networking" present in going off to Local Big University, I guess the premium can be worth it. And a local community college can offer those sorts of things too. So I'm not anti- those things. But I do think people discount online colleges. People care less and less, esp. as you get older, where the degree comes from, and networking is more about your current existing jobs.
However obviously WGU requires a fulltime commitment and you have to be capable of working largely independently. Sophia is a lot lower stakes. Some people do pay the 100/mo with the intention of cramming in a lot of gen eds to save thousands, but you could also take like 2 gen eds in 6 months and you'd still save money compared to even a community college.
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If you're in the right position in life, you can get a fully accredited bachelor's in two years for like 16k or less, while still working. Basically what I'm up to.
