It's just a bit more pricey these days.

I paid about $2000 for 20 credits at my local community college this quarter, and right now the 4 year college I want to go to charges about $4000 for 12 to 18 credits.

So yeah, I'm not interested in their deal.

Would you ban laptops at work for the same reason?

If your aid is being reduced because of the money you already are earning, but you want to take full time classes at the community college during the day; you may try writing an appeal to your financial aid office. You can tell them that you're going to be ending your job, and they will adjust your EFC accordingly. I'd imagine it'd be zero.

I know the community college in my area gives out about $5600 per quarter when you've got a zero EFC

then we would have low crime?

There are a number of places that sell solar panels for half that price.

I can find solar panels at $0.82 a watt, and sometimes lower. Is that what you mean by "crazy expensive"?

Those are very outdated prices

http://www.dmsolar.com/solar-module-1141.html

Now that would be a scary product to beta test

According to the Datalinks; Not until we research "Doctrine: Air Power" and "Neural Grafting"

Maybe you should get whatever you took analyzed by one of these labs?

If space is an issue I could see the efficiency rating being important, but in most cases the cost per watt is the most important element. Especially for utility scale solar projects.

I'd say a 70% drop in prices over 5 years is quite a "trickle" of progress. The number of new solar installations is growing at an almost parabolic rate. Take a look,

http://www.seia.org/sites/default/files/2012q3-PV-Installations-by-Market-Segment2.gif

The US has installed in a single quarter, in both 2011 and 2012, what took an entire year to install back in 2010. I think you aren't giving solar proper credit.

$17K for a 3 Kilowatt system? Those are very old prices. Here's a 5.75 Kilowatt system advertised at only $9300

http://www.dmsolar.com/spbuy5grwien.html

What sized installation would that have been? That quote looks ridiculously high

The price has fallen that much. DMsolar for instance sells panels as low as $0.82 per watt, and sells panels with grid tie systems as low as $1.63 per watt. The only other costs are labor and code compliance costs.

The price of solar is truly falling like a rock

http://www.dmsolar.com/solar-module-1141.html