Originally Posted by BoilerUP

You know what the best part of each of these schools is?

The networking opportunities that pay huge dividends in your career 3/5/10/20 years down the road. The amount of turbine PIC in your logbook isn't what gets people jobs these days...its the people they know that get them an interview that is the ultimate deciding factor.

I went to Purdue as an out-of-state student. I was one of 600 students in the aviation program, out of a university with an undergrad population exceeding 38,000. I met my wife there. I made lifelong friends there. I was under scholarship in AFROTC there until I couldn't pass the medical.

Yeah I flew airplanes, instructed, and was on the Flight Team in college...but I also did swing dancing and sports videography for the Athletic Department. I played intramural football and softball. I worked as many as 3 part-time jobs at the same time to pay my bills...and I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything.

A pilot doesn't NEED a college degree to drive an airplane, and if they have one it need not be focused specifically on aviation. That said, 1. there's a LOT more to college than the name on the diploma, 2. one need not go massively in debt to attend a big-name school, and 3. no matter what you do, never stop learning new skills and knowledge.

I do wish I had taken more management courses while in college, primarily accounting if not enough to get the offered Minor.