I know this post is a little late.

I was accepted at Mesa, however, when I arrived they told me that many of my courses from my bachelors degree from a major university wouldnt transfer and I would still have to go through their AA degree program. This is a joke! I left.

If you need part 141 for loan purposes then Pan Am would be a better choice of the two, since you will have your cfi and you are required to teach anyway. One little caveat though. If you have 3 failed checkrides from students you will be fired. I know this because a flight instructer gave me letter to read that he got after 2 students of his each failed a check ride, stating that one more failure would result in termination.

I prefer the local fbo route. When I was first learning to fly at VNY in 1989 my instructer was getting $20 hr (all for him) and 100-120 hrs a month. Time builds fast.

My opinion: build hours as a cfi then apply to a quality airline with descent pay and good union