I understand about how the running the debt throught the roof while you try to go to college, but running up 300k in school debt is a little outragous. If you want a career in something you research, plan, and find the best possible means to achieve that goal cheaply. There is not very many jobs out there today that you can walk into paying for school loans, new house, and new family. Most jobs will hire you at 40-50k a year and it will take time to move up. I have been researching airline pilot stuff for three years now and I have been planning for the 20k first year. And what is suprising is you guys talk about how good it use to be. I read a book a few years back titled "How to become an Airline Pilot" written in 1981. The author was explaining about his experience of starting from no time and working up to a pan am FO job in the end. He even stated that his first year at pan am was less then 20k a year. My question to you is how does that differ from now with the first year FO at a major. If I remeber correctly it is around 40k. My ten year plan is to live very modest with my two kids and wife until I get enough time in the airline industry to make better money. In five years I should be able to make more then my last job which took three years to get up to the 45k mark. If you subtract training time it is the same amount of time to move up, but i am doing something i enjoy so that when i come home to my family I am smiling. People who come into an airline "career" that plan on becoming rich in five years have no idea what there getting into. Being young I have talked to many people who have been through different industries and they all, I say all, told me when you change careers expect to take a pay cut. I guess the sum of my long babbling is that you can and will be disappointed in this industry while it takes it first serious down turn if you come into it and plan on making 200k in the first few years.