I just graduated from the Riddle, Prescott campus. I'll be instructing here as well, my class date is in August. We've had a shortage of instructors here the beginning of last school year. Many freshmen were on the waiting list for an instructor up until November. Since I was a CFI student at the time, they [tried] giving me priority to get me finished as soon as possible but since instructors were loaded, it was difficult. Plus, I have had a part time job throughout my 4 years here, and will probably keep it as an instructor. I decided to instruct here simply because of the pretty much steady student load and the benefit package. You can't get that at a FBO where you might have 3 students (I'm talking part 61 FBO, not another 141) and no medical benefits. As far as students are concerned, you're always going to have those who's Mommys and Daddys are going to pay for everything. You'll also have those, like us here, who's having to do two jobs just to get the loans paid off.
When I visited the campus years ago, I was all about paying for the name on my degree. Now I realize it's really not that important. Sure when some people ask, "where do you go to school?" and you say, "Embry-Riddle" they say, "wow, good for you." There are people that say, "What's that, I've never heard of that place?" (I've had pilots even respond with that). I would agree in that you should consider getting a degree in something other than aviation, my minor was in math because I like math and it's something else I can fall back on. Although there are some classes that I found helpful in the Aeronautical Science program after doing an internship at American, i.e. the domestic and international navigation class, FMS class, turbine engines class, etc.
They never sold to me that i'd make a lot of money right out of school, it's more of a "well, if your heart is set on flying airplanes, we can help you here, especially if you're looking for an airline career." I came in with my private single, which took some more time because Riddle had me go through a "Standardization Course" to "Riddle-ize" my flying. My first year they gave me decent federal loans and grants, the second year not so much, but the third and fourth back to decent.
And BTW, I believe tuition is up to about $1200/credit now for new incoming freshmen.