Where to fly?

[westy1]

I graduated from UND in 1997 and I hate to say it but if you don't like UND and the aviation program you are going to hate becomming an airline pilot. Suck it up and have some fun now. I was there for four years and I had a blast. I still keep in touch with a bunch of friends and we still laugh about some of the stupid things we did there. If you think for one minute when you get your dream airline job that being based in some crap town where you know nobody and have real responsibility will make it better YOUR WRONG. Enjoy your college life now. Transfering to another school will be the biggest mistake you could make right now. If you are going to run to mommy and daddy every time life sucks get out of aviation ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[THE Flying Ace]

I graduated in 1996 after 4.5 years there. Yes, the town isn't the best and you can watch your dog run away for three days because it is so flat, but I had a blast. All of my closest friends are from college and not a one of them was in aviation. Give it more time; you're only a freshman. My second year is when I really started to have fun. Get a job at any of the businesses there. You will meet a wide variety of people having a job. When I was there, I worked at Sam's Club and a few other places. Fun people and the pay was not bad. Also my degree was aeronautical studies and I never had to get my CFI. I busted out of there with only my commercial and multi.

If you are not sure about aviation right now; the fun begins after school. You'll have to beg, borrow, and steal to build up your flight time. I flew skydivers for free just to get time and got to know some owners of king airs to build up multi time. And then you get a paying flying job that doesn't even come close to paying back all of the debt.

But I love this life. Nothing better that flying. Well, almost nothing.

 

[BoilerUP]

You ladies should have gone to Purdue. West Lafayette, Indiana IS the "social mecca of the USA."

Word.

Plus, here in sunny, beautiful West Lafayette we believe in diversity. We feel our large international student population sets us apart from other universities, and we no doubt have the best student drivers in the countryhttp://tools.ecn.purdue.edu/~dkessler/dden2

I thought about UND and ERAU when I made my decision as well. UND has awesome facilities and the people are nice, along with a great fleet of airplanes, but GFK is like Purgatory. I've never seen land so flat and barren in my life.

ERAU is cool...sunny Flordia, nice weather, beaches - but the male/female ratio was just a little outta whack.

I went with Purdue cuz its a big school but small aviation program, 250 miles from home, and it was a good program. UND would have been much cheaper though, to the tune of 10-15K over four years. But one hour from Indy and two hours from Chi-town is hard to beat, even if we are in the middle of corn country.

My private instructor was from WA state and he went to ERAU-Prescott. Said he liked it alot, except Prescott was boring. Notice a trend developing here? If it comes down to it, go to college somewhere you enjoy and do your flying with ATP or FlightSafety or MAPD or somebody like that when you are done, or during the summers. Best of luck in whatever you do.

 

[labbats]

Let's not forget that you don't have to go to an aviation college to get your ratings. Go nearby your home and get your ratings from the local FBO.

 

[FADECtoBLACK]

Boiler,

I got half way through your first paragraph and I already knew what that link was gonna be.

Oh the drunken nights stumbling through the Discount Den trying to find the perfect mixer for that fifth of Skyy I had sitting at home. At least they didn't go through the front of Harry's... I couldn't imagine the backlash if that were to ever happen.

 

[roundout]

It makes more sense to me to make them optional

me too. i wish they were optional. the cost of training CFI part 141 is way too high. for commercial/multi/instrument training the part 141 was really beneficial because the total time requirement is 198 hours (where to apply for commercial part 61 you need 250TT). but for CFI it starts to get really expensive and drawn out. i know there are places where you get your CFI/II in 30 days for like 5 grand. i'm going to end up spending 5 grand over the course of an entire semester, wasting some time, just for the CFI. then in the fall it'll be another semester and another 5 grand to learn the ins and outs of the garmin 430 (could just read the manual, you know). hell, i'd rather teach IFR in airplanes with 2 navs and no GPS, but that's not the way we do it here. i know sure as sh*t i'll be doing me MEI elsewhere, in the hopes that if i train MEI somewhere i want to teach, perhaps i'll be able to salvage a CFI-ing job out of it.

 

[mudkow60]

Look into Airzona State University (ASU)... they have a pilot program, the city is loads of fun, and the chicks... nowhere finer!

 

[JJGMADDOG]

UND has got a great aviation program. But take this advice for what its worth.....screw the aviation degree....Get a degree in Business or something concrete to fall back on.....and get your ratings there or at an FBO . Why?? Because this career is filled with uncertainity, unstablity and setbacks.

How do I know?....Because I'm furloughed from the Majors wondering what the hell I"m going to do with an aviation degree.



UND class of 91'

 

[Dutch]

Look into Airzona State University (ASU)... they have a pilot program, the city is loads of fun, and the chicks... nowhere finer!

MMMMMMMM, ASU girls. Spent every weekend of my junior year in Tempe.

Dutch

 

[Lazy8]

Regarding UND and ERAU. I went to ERAU's Daytona Campus for two years before transferring out. I thought the classes were great, but the cost of the school isn't justified. I was riding mainly on student loans and if I had graduated from there I would have had $110,000 worth of debt for classes, housing, and flight training. I wish I had taken the time to figure that out before I started at ERAU, but as they say "live and learn". Anyway, my point is don't get caught up in the big name "aviation" schools. If I could have done it all over again I would have stayed at a in-state public University and got a degree in something else. You don't have to pay oodles of cash for your education to network yourself into the industry. Also, as far as finding a college with serious minded students who don't drink and party... good luck! All the Aerospace Science majors received a letter while I was attended ERAU stating 90% of alcohol related problems on campus were being caused by the pilot majors. What else do you do when you go to a school where there's about 12 guys for every girl....

Anyway, that's just my experience.

Grove

 

[pilotman2105]

Aren't 90% of the students at ERAU pilot majors? If not, I would think that a substantial portion of them are.

 

[pilotman2105]

I stand corrected.

According to here 1540 students are in the Aeronautical Science program. Same page also says that 4,518 are enrolled. That is only 34.08%.

For those people who are dying to know, this site says that there are 4657 men and 918 women. That is a men:women ratio of 5.07:1.

Still pretty sh*ty.

PM

 

[Lazy8]

When I attended ERAU there were roughly 1,000 pilot majors out of about 4,000 students. The rest are Aeronautical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Computer Science, Human Factors, Business, etc....

Looks like the guy/girl ratio has gotten better. Although there's quite a lot of room for improvement

G

 

[JB74]

Pilots I know are surprised when I tell them how many non aero sci guys there are at Riddle.

When I left DAB in '99, there were more engineering/business students than there were flight students. I always got the "why are you here if you don't fly", but you would be surprised how many Riddlites are out there in the non aviaton world.

Landed my first post college job (accounting) because of Riddle. Interviewer turned out to be a Riddlite...sweet..talk about easy interview.

Guess I am taking the backwards approach...
...big aviaton college....experience in backup career (accounting)...flight training....????

And yes, the girl/guy ratio definitely sucked then too.

 

[UND84]

Thank you everyone for your responses. If one got a degree at a state college in something other than aviation, what is the best method to obtain your ratings? FBO? a program like ATP? Thanks for all the info!