I spent a good amount of my 20s at Riddle. I had no clue what I was getting into...I knew no one in the industry, and had no family in it. Got my Bachelors there, all of my ratings, and I instructed there for 3 years. As a full-time employee, they paid for my MBA, as well as my wife's, though neither of us have had an opportunity to use it. I will say the training and equipment was top-notch. I started a lot of life-long friendships there, and a lot of my friends and colleagues that I met there helped my career progression later.

That being said, if I had a chance to do it over again, I'd say get to your first 121 job with the least amount of debt possible. Period. That most likely means get a useful degree at a state school, and get your ratings at a mom and pop school, a flying club, or even planeshare with some others looking to do the same thing. I enjoyed my time at Riddle, but it just wasn't worth the first few years of crushing debt while trying to get this career started.