(Giving advice is the purpose of Personal. Please don't try to condense the entire board into one thread lol As a thread for just your individual issue though, it's fine for now.)
A bit ramble-y, but w/e:
>>1 I think this comes down to what kind of work you want in the long run. Are you planning on working for yourself? (Freelancing, doing creative projects, taking commissions, selling products, etc.) Or are you planning on working for someone else? If so, would that be in a creative (art, animation, writing, design) or strict (marketing, business, science) setting?
If you're planning on working for yourself or doing something creative for someone else, don't worry about the degree. Focus on the classes that are going to give you the specific skills you need to build either 1) all the abilities and knowledge you need to work for yourself, or 2) the best portfolio you can to show a potential employer.
That's because your portfolio will mean a lot more than your certification does when applying to a creative job. However, the opposite will be true for strictly technical jobs. In those cases, the only way they can know you're qualified is by certification, work history, and word of mouth, so you need to be much more careful about building up a good reputation education history.
There are also some caveats for specific types of work / study that mimic the need for a portfolio. For example, your published papers mean a lot in the majority of science fields (especially theory-based sciences like psychology), so you could work on building those up in and outside classes.
Just do some research on the industries you're interested in; you'll see whether its responsibilities are something you can do on your own and/or if they would lose your interest too quickly in a school setting to pursue.
Imo don't go into full time work until you have enough skills built that "job A" isn't your only option, unless you're willing to spend extra hours outside work to gain the skills you need to pursue other / higher-level positions. (You can learn and go full-time together, it's just a lot harder to balance if you're susceptible to stress.)
The important thing is to not get stuck at one income level with no way of getting up, which is what happens when you pursue work you're not already growing skills for. Just be sure to build up some savings either way; that will let you come back to these decisions in the future.
(Anyone's free to correct me if I'm wrong. I don't have as much work experience as some of the other oldies here.)
