re: Is there anything that I should know before trade school?

This is going to be buried six pages back, but maybe you luck up and see this.

I'm not sure of all the schools that offer the program, but get an Associates's in Process Technology from somewhere like Nunez. It's cheap, only 2 years, and worth more than a lot of Master's. You will have a decent shot at 60k to 70k by the time you can drink and probably clearing 100k by 25.