Reality of taking online classes while flying
 

Has anyone done online higher education while flying full time at a regional? Schedule would play a big part obviously, but how many semester hours did/would you be able to handle on your current schedule?

I finished my bachelors degree while deployed to Afghanistan. I did it working 14-16 hours days, zero days off, for 9 months straight. I did all the classwork in the evenings (or mornings if I was on a night schedule) after shift and with crappy internet connection. As far as workload goes, I was doing 6 or 9 credit hours at a time.

You can 100% handle it as a regional pilot. Start easy, one or two classes, and scale up if you’re able to handle it without burning yourself out.

Doing it online right now as a regional FO. It's doable. Just don't take too many classes at once. Maybe 2-3 and just set aside some time on your days off and overnights.

I’m taking between 6-12 credits per semester and it is easily manageable, so long as you are self motivated.

I'm finishing up. Two classes to go.. I've done 2 classes a semester for past couple years and it's totally doable. 3 classes is feasible too but don't expect to have much a life and expect to donate majority of your overnight time to homework if you do 3. Don't be like me and wait so long. Get it dome asap. Contrary to popular belief majors will probably never need to hire without degree as they are forming many alliances with graduates of 4 year institutions.

I finished my bachelors online while working at a regional.
I was a big time slam clicker for a couple of years but the crew understood.
I should have done it sooner. I spent years of overnights wasting time channel surfing. It was nice to have a couple of productive years. Now I can channel surf guilt free.
It's very do-able.

Just curious, where are you guys going to school? What is your degree in? Who do you think offers the most credit for ratings and experience? I was thinking of going back myself. Think I was like 36 hours short of my degree. Did any of you clep for credit?

I did Thomas Edison State University. It's accredited. I used CLEP for some credits. I chose that school because of the flexibility.

I did this for years and years as a part time student at a large university eventually earning a degree in the sciences - got stuck in the lost generation of the 2000s, had plenty of time to indulge. It was a pain and my GPA took a hit due to scheduling conflicts but it was worth every penny. I took as many T-Th classes as possible so I could just fly 4 days F-M. When classes were MWF or MTWTh I would try to bid 4 day trips that started late on Friday afternoons and then hope to be able to drop the Sunday night overnight allowing me to make the Monday am class after which I'd rally back to the airport to finish the last victory lap of the original pairing. Th-Sn pairings with a later show time also worked well and the benefit of bidding weekend trips is that you gain a little pseudo senority as most guys wanted weekends off.

Downsides: it didn't look good on my applications (to the majors) since it wasn't a clean and pretty 4 year degree done in 4 years or less. GPA took a hit due to difficulty of the degree and missed classes. As other guys posted, and especially because I chose a tough degree, I gave up most of my social life, spent every free minute getting in study time (flash cards on airport parking bus, reading during airport appreciation time), and was often running back and forth between the airport and university. It was a stressful time.

Upsides to how I did it: besides all the obvious benefits of quality education, having a non aviation degree offers alternate career options if needed. I also didn't feel that online degrees were worth the time and $$ nor did I find them to be given much respect from people in general.

So yeah, you can totally do your degree while working at a regional. Obviously the online route with a degree in aviation is the fastest and most convenient route but if you wanted to go to an actual campus and do something different - where there is a will there is a way.

Best of luck.

I did it working two full time jobs up hill both ways


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