I mean, have you seen rates for college these days? In-state tuition plus room and board for my Midwestern Big 10 university is now upwards of $30k per year. That’s about 2.5 times as much as when I started there 15 years ago. Out-of-state rates are next-level ridiculous.

2 years at community college to get all the core classes done…much cheaper than big name college.

Now that you have “found yourself” and know what you want to do with your life, transfer to big name college for years 3 and 4.

Part 61 flight school while doing college.

Much cheaper and checks all the boxes.

Don't worry. College will be free soon. It'll be "a right."

Friend of mine is a law professor in a university in Paris. She's very liberal. She dislikes the free college. Says it's detrimental to Higher Learning for the people who want it.

US college is a luxury good that’s primarily valuable as a class signaling tool.

Delta is doing a huge service by telling aspiring civilian-route Delta pilots that the “Propel” program is the way to go.

(A double major with a backup plan is always a good idea. Eggs in one basket and all that)

College teaches you self discipline, critical thinking skills, research, and other life skills in addition to the curriculum. It molds well rounded people. It’s a requirement that should be kept, and not discounted due to supply problems.


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Can potential New Hires expect an increased wait for training post-CJO with peak approaching?

Not anymore. Its usually just a semi-supervised 6 figure reading list of free material that often turns out resentful and entitled graduates with increasingly fewer and fewer marketable skills. Yes there are exceptions, but the unjustified massive cost creep (for something that is itself almost instant and free to anyone; knowledge) coupled with the educational/grade inflation that really took off in the 60's, and the wreckless sense of entitlement that yells at the working class to pay for their supposedly "worth it!" degrees tells a different story.

I'm not discounting it just due to (pilot) supply problems, but the current pilot supply path is woefully inadequate and unststainable. I'm merely predicting that more airlines will eventually start dropping that one requirement. You may be suprised at those who don't require it already, even if it is "preferred." A check-the-box busy work regimine is cool as long as you have an infinite supply of those who have it. But when supply is getting strained, and the cost of entry rivaling medical school, for degrees + ratings for the exact same education and qualifications of not that long ago (when a hard working blue collar student could work their way through both) then the low hanging fruit will be to cut the degree.

There's nothing special about simply being a college graduate anymore. In more and more cases, its a net negative. It teaches the complete opposite of "life skills" now. While there are real degrees in real fields that are still worth the investment despite the policy failures that result in unwarranted cost creep, the radically out of context "million dollars more over the course of a career" statistic that's reflexively parroted couldn't be a better example of how bad college as a whole is failing society. An average means nothing if it doesn't apply to you because your degree is worthless and you're only pulling the average that you'll never see down while others pull it up.

When and if the "pilot shortage" finally reaches critical mass, the puff piece degree requirement will be cut across the industry. And we better hope it will be. The alternatives at that point will be things like gutting supplimental crews, MPL scams and internal cabotage from dual subsidized foreign carriers and "Scab of Convenience" airlines where they can do to our profession what they did to the maritime industry.

I seriously doubt Delta will ever see a lack of qualified applicants. Even Delta management during the boom years a few years past stated they were surprised that the number of tier 1 applications on file never really dropped as the pool replenished itself as fast as they could hire.

Maybe 25 years ago.
Not true now