Yes, I am from meridian. Meridian doesn't have a starbucks or a target but it is a great place to help get to delta, or SWA, or AA, or United. By GPA X Major, I mean that I was a 2.8 in mechanical engineering from Purdue and that is probably on par, in the airlines eyes, to a 3.1 in romantic poetry from "small state obscure college". I put my app in a few years ago, but didn't get "serious" about it until about 18 months ago. I had 9 internal rec's and 3 of the "extra" emails to the pilotselection.somethingATdelta.com rec's. And I was a NWA-DAL legacy. So I fully admit my resume doesn't quite stack up to about 80% of the people in my class. I am just happy to be here. For AA, I had 0 rec's or references, but got the call and a job offer pretty quick, so the only thing I can think is either IP time, or awards/medals, or the safety officer thing. I also got a call to interview from UPS within a week of putting my app in, again I think it was the IP time or safety, no rec's for UPS either. I have a "other" type family member that worked at UPS, but not a pilot or anything like that, so I have no idea how to crack this code. I also had a widebody line check airman hand walk my resume in to "the hiring" lady at united(his words) and never got a call at all from them. I put my app in at FedEx about a decade ago and never heard anything from them. I do believe that not all apps get screened, so you could be a 25 year old mandrin speaking space shuttle pilot that trains llamas to help disabled people cure cancer in your spare time, with 17,000 hours, all IP PiC time, but if they don't look at your resume, you won't get a call. That is where the job fairs, and finding a sugar daddy/momma to write the extra rec really plays a factor. I know it is not a conciliation, but I think, if you have even barely the minimums right now, you will definitely get the call in the next year or two to interview. The guys in the classes right now have REALLY impressive resumes both on the military and civilian side. A "higher up" manager of some flying operation stuff at a major airline that talked to us mentioned community service is a factor, so if you don't have that, go volunteer for something tomorrow, anything, f>>>ing donate an old coat somewhere and fancy it up on your resume.