I'm kind of in a tough spot. My current living conditions require that I work a full-time job while attending school. I've attended a UC in the past but had to withdraw my junior year due to financial issues at home. I currently work an entry-level IT corp job but I'm looking to further my salary/skills by getting a degree, or a programming certificate like this one:

http://www.lavc.edu/voced1/CSITCertCSP/CSITCertFrameCSP.htm

Herein lies the problem. I prefer getting a CS degree from an accredited university but I looked at the schedules for classes and it is impossible to work around my current 40/hr work week. There are random morning classes, with the occasional evening class, but the times get even more construed as I move my way up to the upper divisions. So what I guess I'm trying to get at is, can anyone lay out the pros and cons of obtaining a certificate vs. the degree (besides obvious points like the latter being 100x better)?

I'm aware that having a degree is always going to be a better route, but...is the programming certificate useless? Should I not even bother?