Should I finish my last two years of undergraduate education using private loans?

In my opinion, you should never use private loans for college. They are incredibly more expensive verses other means (Federal loans of course, as well as scholarships/grants/etc). Though you already moved/etc, I'd encourage you to look for a cheaper school if possible.

But in an overall sense, I think you really need to consider what you want to do. Going into $73k in debt is pretty huge if you're only going to be making about 35k a year. Considering that you will be paying to "live" after school, suppose you put 10% of your yearly income into your student loans (sounds small, but its $3,500 a year or ~$292 per month)... at 73k, that would take you 20.9 years to pay them off (without considering interest!). Is that something you want to do? In my mind, it is not worth while economically, thus you should not do it.

Also... You say that you make ~30k a year now, and that the university degree would give you an extra 5k a year eventually. But you then say is going 73k in debt worth a 55-60k job. These 2 statements do not match. Which is it? My numbers above are based on the "make 30k now, will make 35k later". Suppose however that you do make 55k a year after university, and you put 10% of your yearly income towards student debt ($5,500 a year, ~$458 a month)... it would take you ~13.3 years to pay off the principle of the debt (not considering interest).

Note that if you consider interest, it will increase the total cost of your debt over time as well as increase the amount of time it takes to pay it off.

So, what do you do? Think of the economics, does it make sense for YOU? Do you really, really want to BE this other job? If that is the case, go for it as long as you believe you can handle the debt. But if you are switching to this job just for higher income, you really need to consider the economics of it. It will take you a very long time to "break even".... is this acceptable to you? You also need to take into account other factors as you get older... buying a house? Buying a car? A lot of other things could increase your overall debt.

Now in the all in all, a lot of students walk out of college owing lots of money. It is somewhat normal. So you probably shouldn't freak out too much. But you should also keep in mind that many students spend a decade+ after school still paying off their student loans. I would encourage you to seek out scholarships and grants if you plan to attend college, they are incredibly helpful! Thanks to scholarships and grants I was awarded, I was able to walk out of my undergraduate with only ~10k in student loans.

Best of luck to you!

it is not worth taking out a private loan. no school is worth graduating 73K in debt, and that amount of debt will leave you living in poverty until you are middle aged because it will take forever to pay off. Could you go to school part time and put down more cash for your education?

Definitely Weve Got Mr T Absolutely awesome