Question about college's in the Seattle/Olympia

[sjvirchow]

After thinking about it for quite a while, that's what I plan to do. I will rely on public transportation and a bike (fine with me) and as a real estate agent friend of mine said "there's always the perfect apartment for your price range, you just have to find it." University of Washington, here I come!

[wsugrad03]

Originally Posted by sjvirchow

After thinking about it for quite a while, that's what I plan to do. I will rely on public transportation and a bike (fine with me) and as a real estate agent friend of mine said "there's always the perfect apartment for your price range, you just have to find it." University of Washington, here I come!

Caveat Emptor. UW is a great school, but very hard to get into. If you have the scores to get in, I say go for it. Out of state tuition is really expensive, and because of a lack of educating funding in WA state, UW is taking more out of state candidates to pad the budget, so you may be able to skirt on in (depending on your scores).

What I did and was I went to CC first to get the grades I needed and transferred to UW. BCC is one of the most popular launch pads for students to transfer to UW. No need for a car here. You're right that bus and bike is all you need. Devoid yourself of unnecessary debt, because it's expensive to live here.

I would also echo other comments about avoid diploma mills like ITT/Devry/Phoenix/CityU. It's a dead end at Ivy League prices. Stay the course, and go with UW. It's a much harder route, and EE/CS is a tough curriculum, but totally work the effort.

[RentonGuy]

Bellevue Community Collage is near Microsoft and they offer best IT releated courses. However, Renton Technical Collage is also a good choice. Living around Bellevue is not cheap but you can find much cheaper if you are to live away but within commute area. Getting into UW computer science department is not an easy route.. again.. due to Microsoft around, they are one of top Computer science program in the nation and hard to get in.

I would get a job and wait for 1 yr before registering a class. There are big difference in tuition cost.

If you are only talking about getting MCSE certificate, you don't have to go to school. It can be done with selfstudy. In fact, a lot of IT related skills can be obtained by selfstudy including CISCO certificates.

Job market for IT related in Seattle area is very tight since there was too much of supply during dotcom bubble and a lot of layoffs from large corporations currently unless you are a skilled software developer which requires CS degrees.

[sjvirchow]

Originally Posted by RentonGuy

I would get a job and wait for 1 yr before registering a class. There are big difference in tuition cost.

Right, I would gain residency. No way would I pay out of state tuition.

[Inkpoe]

Bellevue Community College (BCC) has since become "Bellevue College".

[wutitiz]

Here's something for you to check out:
UWT Institute of Technology hasn’t yet realized creators’ dreams | Peter Callaghan - The News Tribune
Welcome! : UWT Institute of Technology

I don't know much about it but have seen it mentioned from time to time in the Tacoma newspaper.