Exactly what the last guy said... There is a reason that more flight training is done in Florida than anywhere else in the world. The weather is perfect for it. You will get some days where you get thunderstorms and get grounded, but the year round ability to fly is what you need in order to get trained in the time you have allotted, get your CFI by your junior year, and sped the last two years of college getting paid to fly rather than having mom pay for you to fly! It is all about consistency, the more often you fly, the less overall hours it will take you. Florida allows you to get good instrument time in winter as the incidence if in cloud icing is low. In Ohio, 5 months of the year, clouds=ice=can't fly.

FIT just opener a brand new flight center with state of the art simulators and Flight Training Devices (ways to save mom and dad a few bucks).

The flight program is Part 141 which allows you to get your licenses with less hours and prevents you from getting a pink slip in your permanent airman file if you fail a checkride.

You are exposed to international operations as you have the opportunity in some advanced flight courses to fly to the Bahamas, dealing with customs and immigration and such.

I loved the small college environment... Everyone knew everyone and it was like a big family. I joined (and became president of) a fraternity, sang in the acapella chorus, and played several intermural sports. FIT was the best 4 years of my life ( don't tell my wife that!)

I fly with all sorts of pilots at my airline, some have aviation degrees, some don't. I know that many discourage aviation degrees, I disagree with them. Study what you are passionate about and it isn't really work, it's fun! Besides that, there is a lot that you need to know that FAA flight training won't teach you (history of airline operations, in depth meteorology beyond what you need to pass a checkride, business, marketing, etc). FIT will.

Even though your son wants to be a pilot now, it is just a fact that about 60% of those who go to college to fly don't end up flying for a living. Many of my friends decided part way through that while the liked to fly, their real passion was _______. FIT's aviation management program really does a great job of preparing you for any aviation job. Many friends are Now doing airport planning and design (big money), airport operations, NTSB, etc. The aviation meteorology degree has seen a few friends through to high paying jobs with NOAA and the national weather service.

Hope this helps!