Taking the First Step

I know I said I was going to talk about the Do's and Don't next, but I will get to that in a minute.
Ok the first thing you need to do is decide on a college that would be in your best interest to attend. If you are like me and in your 40's and working a full time job a local community college would probably be your best choice. Simply because the tuition is cheaper and the academic requirements to attend are at a minimum. Basically all the requirements are that you finished High School or have a GED.
Of course if you did make good grades in high school and live close to a university you might just want to check them out and completely skip the community college, but rest assure the tuition is going to be higher.
Ok, notice I have been emphasizing attending a college within your own state. The reason being is that out-of-state tuition is going to be higher and even if you take classes online you will probably have to drive to the other state just to take a proctored test at least 2 or 3 times a semester.
Another mistake I almost made was doing a search of online colleges and seeing what they offered. The colleges you find online through search engines are mostly money-making machines or as they call them degree mills, or at least most of them are. The ones that are not, are probably good colleges but you are going to pay an over-inflated cost to attend these Universities simply because they have recruiters that earn a commission for every person that they get to sign up. If you call them or email them don't be surprised to hear from them the same day. They are looking for the money. My recommendation would be to steer clear of these online colleges. Going to one of these colleges would be a huge mistake unless you have plenty of money and money is no object to you. Otherwise forget about these places. I almost signed up to attend one of these colleges and after doing more research believe me I know what I am talking about.
Ok I have told you what to do. Check out the local colleges and Universites in your own state, but don't mess with these online colleges. You will be just wasting good money you could use for something else if you attend one of these online colleges. Now the Universities and local community colleges in your own state probably have online classes and you will probably be able to take many, if not all of your classes online if you desire to. So stick to your own state and support your local community since it will benefit you the most and if you have a problem you can always drive right down there to the college to discuss the matter.
Now go online and check out that local college you want to attend and see what they have to offer in way of classes and degrees. Decide where you want to go and commit to going to that college. Like I said before, a local community college will be the best bet if you have not attended school in many years and will be the cheapest option to boot. Next I will be discussing what you need to do to start attendance of the college of your choice.