Price tag for the American dream: $130K a year

[PowerToThePeople]

108. Not to appear rude

But, with the problem solving skills that you exhibit in your above posts, you will not have great success as an engineer.

I am a degreed Mech E. who went in state JC, out of state for upper class work, after moving and establishing residency

It can be done. Maybe you have chosen the wrong major (something to possibly consider). NASA no longer has the shuttle program, Boeing has recently laid of many engineers, on and on. Maybe there are other industries up and coming which will need other engineering backgrounds. I think it is worth it to research.

You can take the pre-reqs at JC, and it may be best to. At larger universities, those course are often used as weed-out courses, stuffing 100+ into one physics or diff-eq class. At the JC, class size will be smaller and you will have a lot more access to the instructor, therefore a better support system. Now, you still want to be sure that the JC you are taking the courses at has a good reputation in those areas. This is also something you can research.

Out of state is tougher. Not sure where you are located, but Vancouver is basically a suburb of Portland metro, and you "could" find a place there to live for establishing residency. Heck, if you bend the rules a little bit, you could probably kick out all your JC in Portland while living in Vancouver working part time to pay for JC, and transfer to UW without even a taking a break from coursework.

I am not discounting how expensive education has become, it is much more that it was for me even 10 years ago. But as an engineer you will be expected, it is your primary job duty, to solve problems which appear insurmountable. Think of this as your first class.