Ultralight

Define education. Someone who's a check airman with thousands of hours PIC, international experience and speaks 2 languages fluently, or someone who dicked around at college for 4 years learning about the history of Africa? I know which one I would rather have representing the company in the left seat of my big Airbus.

The whole college degree argument gets my blood boiling. Yes it should be advantageous to have on a resume, but no way should it be a deal breaker.

Just ask Richard Branson or Bill Gates if their lack of education held them back in life.

CBreezy

If you were Bill Gates or Einstein, you wouldn't be working at a regional airline. Using geniuses as an example of why you don't need a college education is a ridiculous and comical argument. Are many college degrees a joke (looking at you Riddle)? Yes. Even so, most decent colleges help students develop critical thought that can be seen as advantageous in the flying world.

Another argument would deal with the flying public. I think many people would be unnerved if their international flight was being flown by two pilots barely holding high school degrees. They don't care about your incredible amount of jet time and how awesome that makes you think you are. They perceive you as not being smart enough to go to college and thus not worthy to pilot their hollow metal tube filled with people and jet fuel.

Ftrooppilot

The general public has no idea of the crews education level. if I could ask pilot qualifications for my next airline flight, the questions would be.

1. age
2. total flight time
3. flight time in acft being flown
4. accident history
4. Medical waivers
5. currency (last 30 days)
6. check ride failures

I could care less what (if any) college was attended and what fraternity / sorority membership they had. You don't have to be smart to go to college; it just takes money to get a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving.

One of the best pilots I know never graduated from High School.

CBreezy

Your point is irrelevant because you are looking at this like a pilot. I would hope a pilot could ask the right question to another pilot to determine credibility. The same could be said for doctors, lawyers, engineers, or even computer programmers. A Stanford trained programmer is no more qualified than a high school drop out, but invariably the first question an uninformed consumer is going to ask is where they went to school. The consumer doesn't know what a checkride is and or how time equates to experience. Just look at the Asiana crash. The public and media were horrified that it was the Captain's first ever landing in a 777 at SFO when every pilot knows that this and other things are commonplace in aviation.

Instead of spending hours of mindless research, the questions a guy is going to ask a pilot sitting in the terminal are going to be variations of how they would generally judge experience for any occupation: how long have you been flying, where do you fly to, where did you go to school? And yes, they are going to judge you and the airline based on those answers.

tomgoodman

Something to think about: Would expanding the pool of eligible applicants put further downward pressure on wages, which are already too low?

MrMustache

Great point but, you see, that doesn't matter to these guys. They don't understand the importance of continuing education. They are used to the thought of the quick gains in life by skipping important steps in a professionals development.

High school > RJ FO > RJ CA > vote in horrendous contract = Don't need to meet Delta's long lasting requirement of having a degree.

And Ftroop if I understand correctly you were in the AF so you of all people should appreciate the importance of a degree.

madeinUSA

What a ridiculous thread. A ****ing match about who has a college degree and who doesn't??? Really. Why don't we all pull out rulers! The bottom line is that Delta will hire who Delta wants to hire. If you want to get rich like Bill Gates without a college degree than start your own genius business. The majority of 6 figure jobs in this country require at least a 4 year degree, regardless of experience. Furthermore as the post above states, the greater barrier to entry into part 121 positions the better for all of us. Raise standards and wages should follow. If you don't have a degree and want to compete with people that do, than that is absolutely your choice. Unfortunately you will be discriminated against at the Major level.

Ultralight

What part of flying requires you to have a college degree? "Must be able to read and understand the English language." Do you really need a 4 year degree for that? Or to calculate your decent rate when you're not RNAV equipped? I never handed the dispatch release to my F.O. and asked him to look over it because he had a degree in social studies and I didn't.

College is big business and they are very successful in convincing young people that their lives will amount to nothing if they don't take out a huge student loan and hand it over.

If you want to be a doctor, go to med school, if you want to be a lawyer, go to law school, if you want to be a pilot and work for Delta, go to whichever college offers the cheapest worthless piece of paper available in order to check the box.

Ultralight

No one is pointing fingers at who has a degree and who doesn't, simply raising the issue of whether its really a necessity in the airline industry. Unless you are designing the actual airframe and powerplant, is it really needed? Delta says yes, most airlines say no.

AlaskaBound

Age? Check ride failures? Medical wavers? What??

How about how much sleep he got last night...if he felt good enough to fly that day. How about if he got enough to eat that day. Wasn't so rushed that he didn't get a meal break. How about asking if he isn't over stressed from things going on at home... that his mind is in the game.