What's interesting is the interaction between faculty and student at ERAU (I can't speak for UND, etc). The facility willfully expresses how much of an advantage the students have over almost everyone else when competing for airline jobs. The students soak it up like a sponge and continue to fork out thousands of dollars on classes and flight training. I'm a veteran using the 9/11 GI Bill, so my entire tuition and the remaining ratings I needed were completely covered and paid for, which is my only reason for attending ERAU. If I had to pay out of pocket I would have ran as far as a could from the school. You'd be surprised what a $3,500 3 credit class offers. The "technical" degree at ERAU isn't that difficult, although there a some difficult classes. I know of several people who are excellent pilots but are below average students, and I know some excellent students who have taken over 2 college years to complete their instrument rating.