How is everyone paying for their degrees, especially if you've taken actual classes?

[burbuja0512]

Get a job with tuition reimbursement. It's the easiest way to get $$ for school. You'll just need to check to see what the "catch" is. At my last company, you had to stay for at least a year after your last reimbursement and you had to pass each classwith a C. They also wouldn't cover any college not on the ACE list. They would pay up to $5200 a year so it was a pretty good deal.

Many companies will also require that the major has something to do with your career. My last company did too, but you could get around it relatively easy by providing a creative explanation or saying that your career goal was a different position within the company. For example, let's say you're in finance and you're studying marketing. You say that you want to work in the marketing department and you're ok. Also, keep in mind that EVERYONE employed by the company is eligible, so if you land work as a janitor for example, you could study about anything that could relate to any job that the company offers and just say that once you get your degree you plan on applying to that department.

My current company has very similar policies.. almost like they were written by the same person.

I think that most people do pay for quite a bit out of pocket and end up with a bunch of debt. I actually have a friend who just got her associates degree and has 20k of loans.