45K? Wow! CC is a good way to reduce that bit. I graduated as an LPN last year and paid 4k more or less, and will hopefully be doing transition program in January, took all my prereqs few at a time...
Don't drop out. I graduated with my LPN last year, and we did an 18 month program in one year. Our professors pretty much read directly from the book without explaining things more, so we had to read...