[wisty]

Yep. I doubt a job that pays $25k will give you the kind of development you want. "Executive assistants" (secretaries) don't learn to be executives. Your salary is so low, no-one will care about your career path. Sorry.

It's great that you want to beef up your skills at Khan Academy, Udacity, etc. That will help you weather the bullshit of brick-and-mortar college. Ideally, you should also connect with other students (and even have a chat with staff) who are also interested in learning for its own sake - that's one redeeming feature of college.

Anyway. $30k of student debt (plus a year's lost salary at $25k) kind of sucks, but it's not serious debt given how much it will pay off. People borrow more for cars.