Big decision...

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I'm a week away from my 30th birthday. I've spent a total of about 4 years (2 periods of 2 years each) in junior colleges trying to get degrees in robotics and IT (a few credits shy of each) when life has pulled me away for one reason or another. I'm now thinking about going back to school and becoming a student for a while. My current job is paying me enough to scrape by, but won't let me reduce my hours and wouldn't be conducive to even a part time college schedule. My options right now are basically to stay at a job I'm going nowhere at with no benefits and little pay or try to spend the next few years struggling to live on student loans and focusing on school. I've been in IT for 12 years and it seems like I make less and less every year. The jobs where I live have been harder and harder to find and my coworkers are getting laid off around me every day.
My goal is to go back for an undergrad in biochem and possibly go on to try to get a masters or phd in molecular biology (one of my aspie interests). I'm sure I could get at least a 3.7 GPA easily. My unemployed husband is at a community college right now to get his gen-eds out of the way so he can transfer to a local school for kinesiology. Advice? Opinions?

If you are dissatisfied with your job and you think that going back to school would improve your life (or even if you would just enjoy it) then I cant imagine why you shouldnt.

Crap jobs are a dime a dozen.

Go back to school so you can do something you really like.

Life's too short to spend in unnecessary misery.

I live in Chicago, IL, US. The american economy sucks right now. I'm going to start looking now, but my roommate has been looking for a job for almost a year.

Err... I thought you already had a bad job--says so in your first post.

What I mean is, if there are jobs to be had, you can always get a bad one, especially if you don't have a degree. So, you might as well quit and go to school.

However, you probably don't want to be COMPLETELY unemployed while you go to school.

As perverse as it is, these days it's harder for the unemployed to get a job than it is for the employed to change jobs...

Maybe you could do some kind of work-study?

PS

If you want a better economy, head south. Unemployment is much less than 8% where I live. It's even lower in some parts of Texas.

I picked "go back to school" because I was also miserable at the types of jobs I was able to get, and thought school would be the only way to further myself. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. If you job is lousy anyway, in regards to pay, hours, mobility, benefits then it is not logical you will have it for the rest of your life. Why not go study so you can get it over with and do something you love?

Well I'd say if you're in a job that's going nowhere with people getting laid off around you. Maybe you should just take a chance with going back to college.