Lynn329
I paid as I went. It took a few years. I think I was using a home equity at the time -- which is like a loan but you can deduct the interest on taxes.

Considering that I had no full time job, it has been worth it. I have a teaching position now. Before that I taught as an adjunct, which is exploitation to the max! Adjunct profs get paid per course, I was paid $2000 per. So in a semester I could can comfortably teach 12 credits (4 3-credit courses) so I could make $24,000 a year IF I got the contracts. Sometimes I got a summer class. Often adjuncts have to scramble among campuses. You work like a dog and with no benefits, by the way.

I did that, and had 2 or 3 other income streams (10 hours per week working with schizophrenic adults, freelance garden design, translating Italian for the public schools, occasional editing and writing gigs)AND went to school at night, once or twice a week (commuting an hour each way)AND still had a teenage son at home (ex-hubby was then traveling to exotic splaces with his new lover and didn't want to watch our son when I was at school).

But now I have the perfect job with the perfect colleagues at the perfect place and hope to be there as long as possible.