My sister went to FlightSafety back in 2006 and loved it. I, on the other hand, did my ratings at an FBO. I have never actually run any numbers, but I am positive that I spent a bunch more money since she was able to get each rating in the minimum amount of time, and I did not. She got her private in around 40 hours and it probably took me about twice that long since I was working full-time and not flying consistently. So I wouldn't necessarily listen to everything that everyone says about all of those schools just stealing your money. Sure, some of them do (DCA), but I don't think they all do. In any event, the training is outstanding. I was lucky that my sister's instructor from FlightSafety ended up moving to the city where I live after he left FlightSafety and did my instrument rating. I bet I learned more in that 40 hours with him (yep, even I was able to do a rating in the minimum amount of time) than I learned in all of the hours before that. I know that some people that my sister was at school with had some complaints (like having to wait way too long for their checkrides), but that was not her experience at all.