I have put two sons through flight schools. ATP sucks, in my opinion, because they lack standardization. Where he was at, their check ride preparation was horrible. He had started originally in Wisconsin, but his instructor bailed out to Brickyard. My other son went to Flight Safety, and that was a useless colonoscopy, until I sent him to a school across the street that was more professional and somewhat cheaper. I would recommend the smaller programs.
My disclaimer is that I was Navy trained, and only have about 250 hours of light airplane time in a total 18,000+ hours. Never the less, I am not enthralled with FLAP (**********g Light Airplane Pilot) community. But, we have to make the best of what is there.