Originally Posted by Macchi30 (Post 2757594)

So i was in the exact same situation as you a year ago. I was seriously considering ATP. But, I ended up just staying at my local small school. My thoughts over the past year

Small school:
Pros

-I saved about $15,000
-guaranteed CFI job (with medical and dental benefits)
-small school vibe, they actually seem to care about my progression

Negatives:
-slow. What I could have done in 6-7 months at ATP took me a year
-Our fleet isn’t as big as our demand for airplanes. So when an airplane goes into maintenance it messes up a lot of bookings

so I don’t really know. Sometimes I wish I did ATP because I would have finished a lot sooner. But at the same time, my school has some students who had previously been at ATP and most have horror stories

Originally Posted by msmarchin (Post 2790300)

I have ultimately decided against ATP as well. I found a local flying club to build time and a local flight school with an expanding 141 college program for after I get my CFI. The plane is simple, but it's IFR equipped and extremely economical.

In the end, I just could not justify paying ATP so much extra. Especially when I don't see much benefit to the extras (with the hiring situation as it currently stands...airline partnerships don't seem to be worth much). Plus I can keep working full-time and save some money.

Originally Posted by UberPilot (Post 2744613)

I loved my time at ATP. I was motivated and finished the whole program from zero time in just under 8 months. I went to MMU in New Jersey.

12 months from the day I started I landed a job as a FO for a cargo company.

I was switching careers. 29 when I started. I didn’t want to wait around.

Originally Posted by Excargodog (Post 2749209)

A regional? No. Piece of cake. Get your ATP mins, avoid DUIs and speeding tickets and their recruiters will be on you like stink on.....

A lower tier major? You can do it but you’ll be at a slight disadvantage to those who have one. Even a two year degree would help though. Although some may prefer you without a four year degree since it rather dramatically decreases the likelihood of losing you to a top tier place that pays better.

A legacy or top tier major? Not impossible, maybe 3-4% of their pilots DON’T have degrees. That may change by the time you get the numbers to be otherwise competitive, but I doubt if it will change much.

You really have to ask yourself if you want to compete for ALL the legacy jobs, or maybe - at best - 10% of them.

It shouldn’t be a hard choice.