If myself had this dilema and got the book SAMS VB6 in 24 hours. Not that great a book but it came with VB6 Working Model Editon on CD. Working model is basically standard except you cant export to .exe (you can only run in debug mode from the ide). The book+software was very cheap (under $50 max)

vb dotnet is nothing like vb6. For one it is truly object orientated not like its counterpart. Learn it as a new language me thinks.

so will learning vb6 not screw me over is learning .net?

not really

think of the difference between VB6 and .NET like the difference between C and C++
I leanrt VB6 first and it was just fine for me

Oh ok, but am I wasting my time learning VB6 if I know I will eventually be learning .net?

Should I not just go ahead and start with .net?

Personally I would forget learning vb6, Everything seems to be driven by dotnet this dotnet that. That is the direction it appears to be heading.

vb.net has made a lot of additions under the hood so that it is now considered to be truly object orientated - unlike vb6. That's why I think there is no point learning vb6.

Sure some of the things will be similar but elements, especially true OOP, will be rendered absolutely useless.

yeah, basically all the big stuff (getting system details, processes, graphics, networking, databases) is totally different under .NET

It depends on the course. If it is a course on programing concepts rather than the language then the language is secondary. Don't let that stop you from taking the course. I see a lot of people trying to program with out a knowledge of programing concepts.
There is, in my opion, not a problem going from vb6 to vb net. I used vb6 for 5 years and was able to convert to vb net in a few days. People tell you it is hard to convert and if you believe them then it is hard.
Again, in my opion, if it is your only choice then take it.

yeah, if you are just going to be learning forms, iterations, loops, functions etc... then VB6 is not all that different