4 Year College vs Technical School.

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To whom it may concern,I am currently in the military and actively looking at the prospective idea of a career in welding. My question would be what are the advantages/disadvantages of going to say a 9 month technical school vs a 4 year school for welding. Furthermore, if anyone has any insights on the best schools then that would be a bonus. Thanks everyone!
Reply:Originally Posted by Curt21To whom it may concern,I am currently in the military and actively looking at the prospective idea of a career in welding. My question would be what are the advantages/disadvantages of going to say a 9 month technical school vs a 4 year school for welding. Furthermore, if anyone has any insights on the best schools then that would be a bonus. Thanks everyone!
Reply:Originally Posted by shovelonWelcome.Depends on what you want to do. Seems if I had my education bankrolled I would do as much school as possible. You could start of in Community college to earn a transfer degree, while earning certificates in welding. Then transfer to a 4 year and study engineering, or in my kids case earn an bachelor degree in Industrial Technology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. 4 months after graduating, he accepted a position at SpaceX as a friction stir weld tech. Has been promoted to lead tech with a nice bump in pay. His job is 50% scheduling, and 50% welding seams on fuel cells and first and second stage boosters. They even bought him his own Tig rig to knock up tooling and fixtures. He is one of only a few that can weld alum and has AWS D1.2, and AWS D17.1 alum certs under his belt there. Anyway I would get a good grasp on basic blueprint reading, technical(high school) math, intrduction to metalurgy, and NDT. I just don't know how in depth a 9 month trade school can go into these. I also hear these trade schools charge an arm and a leg. I myself studied under the Johnson team and Los Angeles Pierce College in their 2 year program. But back then L.A. was an aerospace mecca, and leaned in that direction. I paid for it welding backpack frames for an outdoor gear company.If I was 40 years younger knowing what I know now, I could also study bridge building, and in particular repair and refurbish of steel bridges. We have thousands in this country that are ready to tumble. I would like to study semi-auto implementation and documentation.  Just a few local ones could keep me employed for years and be home for dinner I hope. I love the thought and design that go into them.