Hi there, Im new here and I thought this would be a great place to start.

Im 23 right now, I have been a musician 14 years now, and I finished school for my bachlors degree in automotive technology last year. I worked as a mechanic, but had to quit that because of health issues (years of nasty chemicals made the skin literaly fall off my hands) and took a job with GM. Well GM aint doing so hot, Im out the door, and now I'm a college grad with a job hearing people bitch at me about their trash not being picked up all day.

With the auto industy in shambles, I have been looking at new aveunes to do something I enjoy doing for a career. I have been recording music personnally for the last few years with Cool edit pro, some borrowed equipment, 4 channel mixer, and finally a decent sound card. I have put a lot of thought into going back to school, but Im having some trouble coming up with a plan. I know I have goals, I just don't know how to get there. I talked to Columbia College in downtown Chicago, for about 60 credit hours it would ring about $30k which is a good chunk of change. I considered the community college down the road (college of Dupage) but I was told not to waste my time. Not to mention working full time is pretty much manatory unless I can find some otherway to cover expenses.

I was looking over some of the earlier posts and it seems like you guys have a good idea how the industry runs and pretty knowlegdable.

Heres my questions:
-how much should i consider school?
-Is it likely that school would give you a better chance for job placement?
-Try working for practicly nothing and be an intern or apprentance?
-Devote spare time and money on equiptment and books for the do it yourself approach, does that work? I'm definatly a more hands-on person, sucking up stuff in a book doesnt always work for me.

I do apprieciate any time and effort from anyone that replies, if the questions sound redundent to earlier questions i do apolgize. I just need some help being pointed in the right direction.

Thanks

The question is always the same, the answer is never clear...