Back in the days when I was at Riddle (almost 4 long years ago), the school offered a great BOOK education at a relatively low price. The academic staff at ERAU has a lot to offer, if you are willing to go to class and stay awake. I learned more in the classroom at Riddle than I ever did in the airplane. Riddle's downfall is it's flight operations program. Instruction and aircraft rates are rediculous, and the instuctors are the worst kind...a bunch of recent grads with barely 1000 hours who are looking to use you and your training to inflate their logbook totals. I suggest anyone who is interested in attending Riddle should get their private before beginning flight at Riddle. Get it at some airport far away from Daytona, and find an instructor who seems like they enjoy teaching.
As for Riddle's street cred...it is real. My degree has gotten my resume noticed, and gotten me calls for interviews numerous times over, and I certainly was minimally qualified in terms of logged time. Whether or not you like the school, it will benefit you to have ERAU on your resume. But beware, because the person who interviews you may have a grudge against Riddle grads.
O please, the same old stuff. With a college degree of that type you still have to take English/math 101, etc. There are MANY jobs out there in the industry that you can have WITHOUT your medical, and WITH your BA in Aviation. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I've heard I'm right, so bring the corrections on.
I considered going to Embry Riddle, but I decided it was much more expensive to get the same degree. I wound up going to the University of Colorado (We're ranked in the top 10 for aerospace). I will get the same degree for much cheaper, from an equally good school, and I can do my flight training on my own for much cheaper.
I must brag that the University of Colorado has 17 astronaut alums, and ERAU only has 6.
I go to MTSU (Middle Tennessee) and I am getting the same education that ERAU students are getting. I am close to home, being from Knoxville, and I am getting very high quality training here. I am also paying significantly less than ERAU, I guess it's just a matter of preference.
When I was looking at schools, the only choices seemed were UND and ERAU (those were the top schools that i knew about). Now reading this post i wish i would have done more research. I love UND, but the weather and the small town is killing me. Also i wish i could be closer to home.
Just as it is in any field, networking and connections are everything. Also, just like it is with any school, there are good students and some bad students. Flight training is regemented by the FAA so you will see much of the same things wherever you go and you will have the opportunity to make of it what you will. I did a lot of research before going to ER (after attending and earning ratings from another unnamed school) and there are a lot of great schools out there. Are all the stats and hype true? That's for you to decide. As for *********s in the industry--sorry guys (and gals) that's a pretty good generalization for our whole (or should I say "hole") industry. There are a lot of cocky, arrogant pilots who believe they are God's gift to flying and they don't all go to ER. I'm convinced that ER attracts a fair amount of them simply because ER trains a large quantity of students and ER has such high esteem in the industry. There are an awful lot of people outside (and inside) ER that are frustrated by the preferential treatment that these *********s seem to get. Also, ER gets a lot of attention because the university if always doing something--the training environment around here is very dynamic as it is constantly under review to meet the needs of the students and the industry. This dynamic state is what qualifies the school as an (notice I don't say "the) industry leader on many levels. Bottom line, your education is what you make of it no matter where you go and, regardless of where they trained, the people that make the best career pilot are the ones who are well rounded and don't lose sight of the world over the nose of their airplane.
Yes, there's a lot of bungholes in this industry for sure. They come from everywhere. There's more cool people than bungholes in my opinion. I can tell you WAY back in the day (early 90's) that American Eagle threw away all resumes of ERAU grads, belive it or not. That was just part of the filing system then. It was more of a good ol' boy network and the good ol' boys didn't like ERAU grad for some reason. Go figure.
Graduated from Riddle in 1999. The program was good it gave me some good knowledge about advanced aircraft systems and operations, as well as airline ops and general theory that I find that a lot of the people I meet don't have a real good grasp on until much later in their careers. Not really very useful til you get further along in your career but a good solid base to start from.
The biggest thing I got from riddle were connections. I come from farm country and no one I knew until I went to school had any connection with aviation. After graduating my first job was line up by career services there. Three of my subsequent employers were run by people that I met there or I was recommended by a person from riddle, in fact my current chief pilot was my next door neighbor in the dorms there.
That being said Riddle has a good reputation. A lot of guys come out of there arrogant but a lot keep their mouths shut and get taken down a notch after a few years of hard work. The guy to girl ratio leaves a lot to be desired. It is kind of pricey but they do have some resources that are worth it.
My advice is this, if you have some ins in the aviation world you can probably get away with not going to an aviation specific school. If not get an aviation specific degree, but not necessarily flight concentrated. In the end just pick the school that most suits you.
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