I plan on attending Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago this fall. $42,000 before living costs. Is the school worth that kind of money? Are there better schools out there for less. I have worked the past 2 years as a prep cook at a Marriott and want to stay in the food industry and grow. Is community college good enough? What should I do. The money debt is hard

Get a job, skip school at that price!!!!!

Have you looking into the programs that Marriott run, I work for them here in Australia and I know that they have programs set up for apprentice chefs and so on, you might want to check them out.

what kind of email address is charter.net ?

heres what you do.
Screw the French School.
Move down to Texas and go to the Lenotre Cooking school.
google it.
do that and learn everything they teach you and then you can get yourself a good job when you graduate.
you can only trust a few community college schools, and those few are all full up, for years to come.
Now, go !, and don't come back here until your signed up.
Or............... you could join the Army and get into their cooking school.(google this too)
great benifits ! (I'm not kidding)
good luck funman.