I'm not sure if this goes here or in the school forum, but if you could go back to school full time for a year and a half (the last half is more or less and internship sort of thing) in order to get your dream job and get paid three times (or more) as much now, would you do it? The only catch is you have to quit your day job. You still have your night/weekend job and maybe you can ask for more hours but that isn't guaranteed. And it's barely over minimum wage.

Financially, you'll have a little bit of savings and can get some financial support from family, so you could get through this with anywhere from no debt to maybe a few thousand in debt? Maybe loans could be forgiven, but if they're not, it would cost more than just paying out of pocket (right? I've never used student loans).

It's just dealing with the stigma of being a loser who doesn't have a full time job. Although my full time job pays less than $13K after retirement is taken out. (Luckily, I live in a place with a very low standard of living and have a part time job and do little things on contract so get a $50 or a $100+ here and there.) And with the additional school, I would make over $50K starting out (before retirement is taken out, so it would probably be $40 some thousand). But would you think someone who quits their full time job to become a full time student is a loser? Going back to the local university with the level of education I have would be humiliating enough (and they didn't treat me that well before), but I could suck it up if I didn't already have such low self-esteem and confidence in the first place. The program is good and thorough and with such a high turnover rate (people quitting and/or getting a job somewhere else) in my field in this area, I should have a decent chance to get a permanent job. I would probably be highly sought after for temporary jobs.

Another thing about my current job: it's incredibly dangerous and dirty. I'm working off a minor back injury and am on a round of antibiotics for an infection the doctors finally caught. I get more exposures (to bacteria/viruses in bodily fluids) than some of my coworkers because I have a pretty strong immune system. I'm less concerned about the grossness of the job (at this point, it takes quite a bit to bother me), but I'm concerned about getting a concussion, a broken bone, or an infection that won't go away.

I do like the job though and my coworkers will make me feel terrible if I leave. It's difficult to find people who do a good job at what I do especially at the pay and the little to no job security at most places (there is where I work, fortunately).

TLDR: Would you respect someone who quit a low paying dangerous job to go back to being a full time student in their early 30s for a year plus a half a year internship to get a much less dangerous and much higher paying job (that they should have completed the degree for in the first place but stupidly didn't) or would you think they were a loser because:

• they have too high a degree to be a student again?
  
• should have completed that degree in the first place and deserve to live with that mistake?
  
• they're too old to be a full time student?
  
• don't have a full time (40+ hour a week job) because that many hours would be too much with the hours required by the program?