College Aviation Programs

[surfnole]

My son is a senior in high school and is interested in aviation as a career. What college options are out there where he could get a degree and ratings? I know Embry Riddle, but that's too expensive.

Should he go to college anywhere and work on ratings on the side?

 

[pilotyip]

The country needs all the college-educated citizens it can have, its raises the level of knowledge to keep this as the greatest country in the world. Real degrees in business, engineering, the sciences, math, and medicine provide a graduate with marketable skills. If you are going to go to college, get a real degree from a real university. But it is not needed for a successful start of your aviation career. This following example in the model of success in pursing flying job. We hired a 20 year old pilot a few years ago, 1 year of on-line college credit completed, started working the ramp pumping gas in high school, got hired hauling cargo in SA-227 as an F/O, at 18, got promoted to 208 Capt. at age 20, he has 1600 TT, 1100 MEL, 350 Turbine PIC, 1450 total turbine, he is started as a DA-20 F/O at $33K, he was a DA-20 Capt. the day he turned 23, he had his degree completed by the time he was 26 years old. At that time he should had 5200 TT, 4700 MEL, 5050 Turbine, 3200 hours 121 time, 1200 121 Turbo Jet PIC. He had his on-line BS degree in Aviation Management that our company helped pay for through the tuition assistance program, and no debt. He will be interviewing with the 4 or 5 year traditional college graduate for his first airline job, The traditional 4 yr. degree guy who has TT 1200 350 MEL 15 Turbine. Who is the more competitive? For the There are many ways to skin a cat; many have the idea that the only way is 4 years of college followed by your first job. This they feel is the only way anyone should do things is, "The way I did it”. If anyone asks me about college and pursuing a flying career, I will recommend he not go to college full time, but follow the other time tested path where I have seen too many people succeed. That is fly full time, do your degree on the side, build time, build your resume. I will not debate the fall back value of a college degree, as I have stated many times it is nearly worthless after not being used for 20 years. The degree is only needed at the last step. Pilots get hired because they have TJ PIC. The full time college guy at age 25 has 0 TJ PIC, the non-traditional path guy has 1000 TJ PIC, both have 4 yr. degrees who gets hired?

 

[kf4amu]

Full time flying, degree on the side. Even a ERAU online degree is 30,000 which is 1/4 the cost of full time attendance on campus.

 

[neonflyer]

College depends on how you value education. As for programs, there are many other than Embry Riddle. There is Ohio State University, Purdue, Daniel Webster College in NH, Arizona State, and the University of North Dakota, which has very cold winters.
Even All ATP now has an agreement with Mountain State University.

All programs are different and it starts with how often a person has access to aircraft. UND for example owns the aircraft and schedules a flight lab 3x/wk similar to a chemistry lab. Some of the other programs do not own the aircraft and scheduling is first come, first served.

Think about the education you want, see if the school also has flying and tour facilities to make sure it meets your satisfaction. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[JohnDoe]

Should he go to college anywhere and work on ratings on the side?

^^^ This

Do not get duped into spending crazy amounts of money getting ratings at an aviation college. It doesn't matter where he gets his ratings from. Myself and thousands of others are proof of that.

Don't let him get saddled with student loan debt to have hanging around his neck while he is making the meager earnings of entry-level pilot positions.

I have to disagree about the "college on the side" statements. Putting it off often results in it never getting done, as something always ends up getting in the way (work schedule, lack of money, eventual family, you name it.)

The simple fact of the matter is that some companies require a 4 year degree. You could have 5000 hours of turbojet pic, but if you don't have the degree it doesn't matter.

You also need to take pilotyip's posts with a grain of salt as the devil is in the details that he leaves out of his posts. That "airline" he refers to or "airline interview" the pilot's in his examples have are often the 121 "airline" UsaJet.... an on-demand freight hauler and charter-like passenger operation.

 

[DieselDragRacer]

I agree with the above and offer this. Not all kids graduate HS and are ready to go off to college and take a full load of classes at 18yo. If your son isn't exactly a scholastic achiever and could use a year to mature, you might let him get his ratings while working at the local FBO then let him go off to school a year later.

 

[pilotyip]

^^^ This

Don't let him get saddled with student loan debt to have hanging around his neck while he is making the meager earnings of entry-level pilot positions.

I have to disagree about the "college on the side" statements. Putting it off often results in it never getting done, as something always ends up getting in the way (work schedule, lack of money, eventual family, you name it.)

The simple fact of the matter is that some companies require a 4 year degree. You could have 5000 hours of turbojet pic, but if you don't have the degree it doesn't matter.

You also need to take pilotyip's posts with a grain of salt as the devil is in the details that he leaves out of his posts. That "airline" he refers to or "airline interview" the pilot's in his examples have are often the 121 "airline" UsaJet.... an on-demand freight hauler and charter-like passenger operation.

Agree with most of what you say, but if you do not have the discipline to stick with the 4-yr. degree program on the side, then I guess you will need the support of a full time 4- yr. degree college. BTW the interview I was referring to was a major airline interview, where my example pilot was offered a job. At JUS we don't even ask about a degree, because we know it has nothing to do with being a good pilot. We have hired too many 4-yr. degree pilots and non 4-yr. degree pilots who can not fly, and have hired too many 4-yr. degree pilots and non-degreed pilots who can fly. There is no correlation between the degree and skills and ability.

 

[paulsalem]

Have him get a degree or technical skill in something other than aviation.

Buy a C-150 or something similar for him to do most of his ratings in, he then can use it to instruct when he gets a CFI. You could also put it on leaseback with the local FBO.

 

[BEfly]

Spartan in Tulsa is another option along with the others mentioned. All good schools. I think the 141 training is valueable, it incorporates ground school with the flying progress as well as meteorology and systems and he gets college credit for all. All in all, half of the college credits are coming from flying related classes. The problem there is the money! Better start applying for loans, grants and scholorships now! I got 8K in that stuff by applying and writing a few essays. I'm 60K in the hole versus 68K. I pay $120/month....easily managable.

 

[no1pilot2000]

Why do some airlines require or prefer a pilot to have a 4 year college degree in order to work for them?