think the 1700 bux would go better into splitting multi time than an RJ course, but that's just me (you don't need it to pass training, nor get an interview) and typically the university individuals who push for these things do so to ensure that their hard efforts will pay off and there will be "butts in the seats" when the training events take place.

I can remember having discussion after discussion with the chief and assistant chief pilots at my university about glass trainers and how they're "not" needed, this of course well before I was hired at a regional. They would try to sell glass trainers as "great for getting you glass experience before you leave for an RJ, something future employees will like to see"...The real reason the school now sold 4 skyhawks to replace w/ 2 glass skyhawks isn't to help their students get regional jobs, it's so they can say "look at my pretty airplane, it's just like university's B airplane over there, but we'll do it for 5/hr cheaper than they will"...