You're correct in the fact that ERAU is (was when I was there) extremely standardized. You could fly with any instructor and expect the same techniques, answers, etc. Then there were instructors like myself who were sent the problem students. Guys and girls that couldn't seem to master the over complication of bullsht that Riddle puts out. I would teach these studs one on one, to what they needed to pass, no regurgitating the same standardization crap. In the three years there, I only ever had 1 student that just couldn't get to PTS standards. Not to say in anyway they wern't good pilots. Several are now 3000 hour CFI's, Airline pilots, USAF and USMC pilots. They just couldn't learn that way. A fundamental point in the CFI learning process is the different way people learn. ERAU threw that right out the window. Conform or fail.

My opinion was that the school is trying to railroad kids to a commerical way of thinking. A 172 is not a 737, but they try and get kids thinking that way right off the bat and it can be overwhelming. 0-50 hours is not the time to be making stupid altitude callouts, V speeds, etc. Nor is the instrument rating.

The whole process is over the top. the students suffer because the basic fundamentals of good airmanship frequently fall through the cracks amidst the requirements to do freakin stupid crew managment, in a 172 or Seminole. The instructors suffer because they are basically told what to teach. A lot of them never fully understood themselves what it was they were teaching they were just spewing out the standardization.

What use to be a credible University that had a decent rep in the industry has be come a 4 year accredited puppy mill. It cranks out over eductaed, under experienced entry level CFI's that think they deserve to be in the right seat of an RJ, not knowing what they don't know. There is no substitute for 1500 hours. Period dot.

/rant

Wow I really went off on a tangent there, answer your question USMC?