I was there form '01 - '05. First 2 & 1/2 years as a student & then the rest instructing, building time, & finishing my Bachelor's degree.

I was there 4 & 1/2 years spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000 & left with all of my certificates and ratings, Bachelor's degree, 1500 TT & 150 ME.

Now, I did have to take out some additional 'unsubsidized' loans in order to finish more quickly because the way they set up their loan disbursements it’s easy to fly all of your money away well before there is another check in the mail. Disbursements follow your Ground-School schedule. (you have to finish X amount of classes to get another check in your account)

Also, keep in mind that while I was at Spartan we had over 200 international students there on contract to be finished in 9 months. That’s where 90% of my ME time came from. I know they have that multi in the syllabus now but I don’t know the details on how much time people are actually getting out of it.

If you don’t have your Private already, you might want to look into getting it at an FBO. This will help with a couple of things:

First off, it’ll help you decide if this really is what you want to spend a whole pile of money on & do for the rest of your life.
· If you decide not you’ve only spent X dollars and you’ve at least got your Private.
· If you decide yes then when you get to Spartan:
o You’ve saved a lot of money on the certificate that usually takes the longest there.
o The first disbursements I mentioned above can all be devoted to your Instrument & Commercial.
o The Ground-school to Flying timeline will be a bit more evened out. (most people finish ground-school before they finish their flying)

Could go either way but it’s something worth looking into. Check out http://www.riversideflightcenter.com/

They are at the exact same airport so you’d be just as far along on your terminal knowledge and familiarity. They’re great guys (mostly Spartan actually) The Private Pilot program is only 4 weeks long and costs $5,402. It’s a lot cheaper & A LOT quicker but when you get across the parking lot to SPARTAN you’ll have made a significant shortcut on your way to getting the rest of your certificates AND YOUR DEGREE (ß can’t get that at RVS Flight Center)

Holy crap I blab a lot. Anyway this is all just FYI. It’s not how I did it but looking back... well you know what they say about hindsight.