Redundancy
An aero science degree is useless. It barely fills a line on an application. I realized that when I had flown 3 years as a CFI and had 1500+hours. Of course, I was better off than those pilots around me who had no degree, but when the market went flat and all airlines started to furlough instead of hire, I had absolutely no edu-mication to make a second income except to pump gas at the local FBO. That was it. I drove a tug from midnight to 8:00AM. WalMart didn't exist back then or I would have had a backup plan. I STRONGLY stress the importance of getting a degree outside of aviation. Unfortunately, sooooo many pilots I know are just like I was-- starry-eyed about winged thingies and don't want to pollute their resume with lines like BS Accounting or BS Management. Big mistake.