Normally, I'd be opposed to spending 25% of the original cost of a 3-4 year old laptop on repairing it. It depends on your budget situation though. If you have the $200 plus whatever it takes to buy a new one and it won't put you in a bind financially I'd do that.
But first, if there are any local repair shops (not many of those around anymore) I'd check with them for a repair estimate. $200 to replace a jack seems steep to me. I know Staples where I live has a repair division as does Best Buy with its Geek Squad. I'm sure both of those places ship the computer to some central repair facility so you'll lose the use of it for a while. And if you go that route, make sure you remove any personal information from the system like credit card numbers or bank account numbers before you turn it over to a repair service. Also remove any naughty pics you may have made for your significant other. 
You don't want to find these online later. If you use a password on your laptop and it's the password you also use for online accounts either change it or remove it before giving your laptop to a repair service. Do not give them your actual password.
Good luck.
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