New Horizons, input please?

[Lurk]

Wow.. I have until tomorrow morning when I wake up to make a final decision on this. That's within 8 hours, so I hope responses can help out.

First of all, I'm 17, going on 18 in March. I'm a high school senior and..

I went to a meeting with a counselor at New Horizons about enrollment. The problem is, I'm only given until tomorrow to make a final decision on enrolling or not enrolling into the course. It's expensive, so I can't screw this up.

We had a talk about MCSA/MCAD courses. Last meeting, who knows how many months ago, I was headed towards MCAD. This time around, I've changed my mind and wanted to go more towards networking/systems and was presented with MCSA. I was told that it is much easier to find a job for MCSA as opposed to MCAD.

It's a really expensive course and.. basically what I want to know is:
Is it worth it? - strong emphasis on this particular question
What kind of material would I be going through for an MCSA cert? I know A+, Network+ is in there. I was told that's the easy stuff... what's the hard stuff?
I was told that it is easier to find a job/career for MCSA rather than MCAD and that MCSA/MCSE was a growing field and that MCAD can be outsourced easily, to what extent is this true?
How is it finding a job/career with these certs? Are they decent paying jobs?

Keep in mind that I am only 17 and a high school senior.

Thanks for your time! I hope this'll help clear things up for me.

Lurk

Thread on Neowin

[Wayne Luke]

I am guessing that you mean the Technical School and not NASA's trip to Pluto by the same name.

Anyway, A technical school is a good way to get into the workforce fast. You will learn good hands-on training and they usually help with job placement.

The bad thing is that what you learn is not transferrable to a four-year college or university. With more and more companies requiring a Bachelor's or Master's degree to advance beyond a certain point, you might stifle your career with the diploma. They also cost about the same as going four 4 years to a CSU.

You can find decent jobs with the certificates. Not sure how far companies will let you advance on the certificates alone. Some companies won't even hire you without a Bachelor's degree in hand.

[Dilly]

How expensive is expensive, and what sort of timeframe are we talking about?

I don't have any idea how your schooling system is set up, but would it be feasible to do that now, get a foot-in-the-door head start, and then do a bachelor's degree through correspondance when you have a job?

I just know that's how i've done it - I hold a handful of certificates that helped me when i left school at 17, and i'm now doing a university degree through correspondance whilst working full time.