A/C assignment is after the 1st week. That first week is all Gen Operations, which is common to each "airline." Freedom, Mesa, and Air Midwest are all considered "different" for this purpose, but they have the same senority list. If you go to Kansas City, that will be Air Midwest, and the 1900.

I wouldn't study that much ahead of time, but make sure that your life is together for the next couple months. Bills paid, dog taken care of, whatever. You don't need "at home" stress while you're in class. Remember that if you're pretty senior in class, you may not get a break for 2 months or more.

If you get the CRJ, I recommend crj2.com. No matter what, make sure you actually LOOK at the training maneuvers tab in your CFM before you get to the sim. It has all your callouts and flows. My sim partner didn't. He had a REALLY hard time, and that's before they throw double engine failures and rapid decompressions at you.

I was in the Sept CRJ class, so if you have questions, I'll answer what I can.