My GPA wasnt the best in college . I was working for a horse trainer at a racetrack in the east training horses from 5 am to 10am then going to college full time and my grades showed it . I really do not think that a high GPA is the holy grail when applying at a regional . I got 5 job offers after 6 interviews over my aviation career .Ialso did not interview at 2 places that offered me interviews All were aware of my GPA .

 

So if you've got 2 applicants. One has 8000 hrs, ATP, couple of types and a 2.2 GPA from 13 years ago. The other is a wet ink commercial with a 3.8 and graduated 5 months ago.

Who are you going to hire?

I interviewed at ASA last year and got asked about my GPA. FWIW, I thought it was a stupid question to ask someone who's been out in the real world for over a decade.

 

Becoming a pilot requires vocational not professional training. You don't need to go to college and get a degree in golf course management to fly airplanes. Embry Riddle is an over priced joke. What an idiotic idea of shelling out 200k between the degree and ratings just so you can qualify to one day make 18k at a crap bag regional. You would be better off smoking pot all day and becoming a plumber. I know this because my plumber friend makes more than I do and he gets to smoke all the pot he wants.

I remember back when I was in high school,(early 1990's) the guidence counciler came to our class to show us charts on college grad pay vs high school only grad pay. The point of that pow wow was to convince everyone we must all go to college or become janitors. College was much less expensive then. It seems to me that too many people that didn't need to go to college went anyway. Many people that couldn't afford college financed themselves to the hilt with increasingly compliant banks help and went anyway.

My personal theory is this created two major problems. First, an increasing number of people paying for college (many with borrowed money) caused tuition to skyrocket. Why wouldn't it? If you are charging X amount and you get an increase in business no matter how much you increase prices year after year then you would be crazy not to keep jacking up prices.

The second problem created was the cheapening of a college diploma due to a couple of factors. It is my opinion that with private and public colleges competing for big piles of student cash that sometimes the curriculum gets watered down and standards get lowered. After all kicking out less qualified students doesn't pay the bills does it. Then there is the fact that there are many people whom graduate with useless degrees they have no intention of using professionally just because they thought they ought to go to school. Now you have increased the number of college grads in the marketplace needlessly. Jobs like being a pilot for example become more expensive to compete for because now a guy whom has all the neccesary vocational training and experience to be a pilot is competeing against people who wasted money on a African American studies degree then went to flight school when he realized he would never get a job in his degree field. Enough morons with useless degrees put here apps on a recruiters desk and viola, having any old diploma becomes the norm.

Cost of entry into the airline business has skyrocketed and the payoff has plummeted. In my opinion the juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore in this vocation. I am sure the market will sort it out eventually though.

 

I was denied an interview earlier this year with a 2.4 gpa. College was 7 years ago for me.....7 years. I had a full time job and flying all the way through, and since have worked in the industry for 5 years. I also had 3 internal recs.

I was a little irked but hey a rule is a rule. I was hired elsewhere and it is working out.

 

Are you sure the reason was your GPA and not something else? Dis they send you a letter sating "We would love to hire you, but your GPA was too low."?

 

I spoke with someone invloved in the process that I met through one of my internals recs.

 

What airline?

 

Affirmative. Not exactly payoff from attending ERAU, but having a degree in general. Most of my flying was off campus, and I was a local living at home, so I got off pretty easy with debt... and girls.

I'd only recommend ERAU for someone transferring in with an AA degree and then joining ROTC and getting a degree in something other than Aeronautics.

I admit I didn't do my homework before jumping into this industry, but as rough as things are, I still wouldn't do anything else. Nightmares of the food industry make me thankful for what I'm doing today.

 

Good enough.
No more posts in this vein please.

USMCFLYR

 

Then you haven't applied to a job yet that requires a degree.
I'm sure that somewhere in your aviation career that you are going to apply to a operator that requires you have a college degree. If that ONE job is a career destination, then it will have been worth it. Now expand that to ANY job, inside or outside of aviation, that requires a college degree and you have overcome that obstacle once again.
Now the fact that you went to what many consider an extremely overpriced 'aviation' college and spent many times the amount that you could have gotten a degree for with a variety of other institutions is a problem that you'll have to deal with while making a living and loan payments.

USMCFLYR