I'm 37 and have worked in an unrelated field for the past 15 years and am finally taking the first steps towards a nursing degree. I live in CA where you can, 1.) pay over $40k for a private, for-profit vocational school, or 2.) try my luck in the lottery system. I'm a 4.0 student but that doesn't give me any kind of edge over the 2.5 students because the schools here are all on the lottery system...I don't have years to wait around! But I also don't have $44k to spend on the private vocational school. Which is the better route? Go into debt for the rest of my life but get my degree sooner or spend years waiting for my number to come up in the lottery system? Any advice?