<prompt> Human: Going to school to become a hairdresser was the worst mistake Ive ever made in my life. Ever since I was like, 12, my parents told me that would be wise to do since its only a year and you can be set with a career at a very young age. Im only 20, and Im in 20k in debt for something I cant even get a job doing and hate. I have fallen in love with computers and am starting to learn how to program though, and I really want to go to school for it. No one in my family has gone to college so I dont have anyone who can give me advice on this. Right now my hours have been cut at my shitty Subway job, and Im lucky to get 20 hours a week for example, next week I get 12 whopping hours. Im at a point where I have to get a new job either way. But I dont know whether to look for something full time so I can try to pay my loans off within three years or so and THEN go to school, or just get a better part time job now and go to college at the same time. Im not really thinking straight on this because I am fucking miserable with the situation Im in right now, I never thought I would feel like a stereotypical loser who never left their hometown after high school and isnt working towards becoming anything better. If I knew it truly was smarter to pay off these loans first, I might feel better about myself right now. I only have about 200month in bills to pay, so a part time job would suffice. I would make really good money once I actually get to the point of getting a cs degree, so thats not an issue at all. Any advice would be appreciated.TL; DR: Have 20k in loans. Unsure about going back to school and getting a computer science degree before paying off all my current debt. Only have 200 in monthly bills. Should I pile on more debt so I can be making more money MUCH more in five years or so?EDIT: Wow, I never expected to get replies from so many kind people with fantastic advice. I tried to reply to as many as you as I could, and I have been reading and rereading all of your comments. Im definitely going to to go the route of school, not only will it help me out of this miserable funk Ive been in, but it seems like it is clearly the smarter option. Ive gotten my feet wet with all this already, so theres not a worry that I will change my mind and regret this as well. I had the worst week ever at work and have been surrounded by so many people in poverty in my life lately, that I finally had a breakdown this morning because I was scared of becoming like them I work at a Subway in a Walmart, so thats a big part of where these thoughts came from. I posted this out of sheer desperation;I was expecting maybe two or three bits of general advice, so I am ecstatic at the response. It will definitely be at least a few months before I actually get everything all sorted out so I can actually start taking classes, so any advice on what to do with that time or where to turn next for resources would be fantastic. Thank you all so much, you have no idea how much it means to me. Assistant: I would say definitely go back to school. I went on a similar path and went to art school first, then didnt want to pursue professionally. I had student loan debt when I went back to school for CS, was the best decision I ever made. Especially if you are willing to move and, based on your username I am assuming you are female; companies, especially the big tech companies, are ALWAYS hiring women. The industry is so heavily skewed towards men that there is lots of incentives and tax reasons for companies to always be hiring qualified women. Also, the tech industry has its own type of ageism, its best to get in as early as you can. Your earnings from a programming job starting 1 or 2 years earlier rather than waiting to go back to school will dwarf any money you would lose by putting your loans on defermentpaying interest.Human: Wow, Im so happy to hear from someone who was in the same position as me. Thank you so much for this, seriously. Your earnings from a programming job starting 1 or 2 years earlier rather than waiting to go back to school will dwarf any money you would lose by putting your loans on defermentpaying interest. That really puts it into perspective for me, too. Im going to look into it more, but I think youve just helped me figure out what my next few years are going to look like. I live in the Seattle area, so I dont think it would be too hard to find something out here, but of course moving would be fine too. I didnt realize being female would possibly HELP me, so thats awesome to hear too. My boyfriend is a software developer so Ill have someone to help me study along the way as long as he sticks around. Again, thank you so much.  <response>: If you are in Seattle, once you start the CS program check out the Microsoft Explorers program, its an internship program we offer thats mostly for girls who are in their freshmansophomore years of college 