Elvis,

I would make sure that wherever you consider doing your ratings, you sit down and look at total costs from each school. No matter what the promises are, you either have the ratings or you don't, and right now the regional airlines are so desperate for pilots that you likely don't need the "guaranteed interview" that DCC and the like promise. The guarantee is worth about as much as the guarantee on the brake pad box in Tommy Boy. (If you haven't seen the movie, rent it this weekend, you will get the joke.) It DOES NOT MATTER what your degree is in, but you need a four year degree. I would suggest finishing your current degree as inexpensively as possible. For instance, if you are going to a private or out-of-state school, enroll in a state school to finish the degree. Since it seems that you are doing flight training concurrently with your college education, continue building your ratings and time where you are, saving maybe the advanced ratings for when you are done. Ratings and time are good anywhere; “direct tracks” and other marketing schemes often are limited to one or two places.

A school that might be worth looking into would be: http://www.falconaviationacademy.com/home/home.asp

The guy who runs the school just retired from ASA because his business is booming. He even took the best Chief Pilot's secretary with him! I had a flight attendant the other day that was getting ready to start training with them, and from what she told me it seemed much more reasonable than any of the pilot puppy mills in FL. Since they are in ATL and from what I can tell, have a relationship with an ASA guy, I think that it would be just as good as going to FSI at a fraction of the cost. Also, it doesn't look like ASA is the only airline that they have had success sending people to. Nonetheless, don't worry so much right now what regional you want to work for, the landscape will likely be completely different by the time you finish.

Since you are an English major and likely have to do book reviews, read this one ASAP:
http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Landing-C.../dp/0812928350

This book will teach you more about this profession than all of the Flight Info's and APC's, etc... ever will. If we had more people at your stage of the game understand some of the things that got us to where we are today, we would all be a lot better off in my opinion. Start repeating this to yourself now...”The amount of my paycheck and number of days at home is far more important than how big, new, or fancy my airplane is.”

Good luck!

Gorditas