Searching for college
12-12-2007 | 08:13 PM
#11
Line Holder
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 259
Likes: 2
From: CA
There are many ways to skin a cat. Two things I will echo:
1) Major in something outside of the "professional pilot" arena. If you like aviation, you could study airport management, aviation business or something like that. A business, marketing degree will fit many bills, but the basic point is to make yourself well rounded, marketable outside of aviation and to give you a plan B. The airlines don't care what your degree is in, they just care that you HAVE a degree.
2) Look at the military academies and ROTC scholarships. Most ROTC scholarships cover full tuition, books and give you a non-taxable monthly stipend. With a full ride scholarship, you can pick almost any university in the nation to attend AND have a guaranteed job after college. The catch is that pilot allocations in the military are very competitive, and there are no guarantees (but show me a place in aviation where there are). Study hard, stay out of trouble, and get/stay in good physical shape and the military will offer you a great career.
2 keys to success in aviation:
1. be persistent
2. be flexible
Look at Purdue (I've gotta plug it, I'm an alumn). Great school, one of the best ROTC programs, GREAT for engineering if you're looking at that, and Rated by the Wall Street Journal as the #1 in school in the country for a business degree and MBA.
No matter what school you go to, enjoy it! College is the best 4 years of your life!
1) Major in something outside of the "professional pilot" arena. If you like aviation, you could study airport management, aviation business or something like that. A business, marketing degree will fit many bills, but the basic point is to make yourself well rounded, marketable outside of aviation and to give you a plan B. The airlines don't care what your degree is in, they just care that you HAVE a degree.
2) Look at the military academies and ROTC scholarships. Most ROTC scholarships cover full tuition, books and give you a non-taxable monthly stipend. With a full ride scholarship, you can pick almost any university in the nation to attend AND have a guaranteed job after college. The catch is that pilot allocations in the military are very competitive, and there are no guarantees (but show me a place in aviation where there are). Study hard, stay out of trouble, and get/stay in good physical shape and the military will offer you a great career.
2 keys to success in aviation:
1. be persistent
2. be flexible
Look at Purdue (I've gotta plug it, I'm an alumn). Great school, one of the best ROTC programs, GREAT for engineering if you're looking at that, and Rated by the Wall Street Journal as the #1 in school in the country for a business degree and MBA.
No matter what school you go to, enjoy it! College is the best 4 years of your life!
12-12-2007 | 09:07 PM
#12
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,934
Likes: 0
From: Retired
If you want to major in aviation, go for it. Just do some stuff outside of the field by getting a minor, a second major, or extracurriculars to diversify your portfolio.
I'll agree with the others that say go somewhere with girls and other activites. You don't learn much about how to get through life in class. You learn in college simply by being there.
This is a lot of the reason I went to Parks. Being at St. Louis U gave me a lot of chances to be involved outside of the program. I like airplanes and all, but it was nice to have friends that had nothing to do with them and didn't talk about them 24/7.
Oh, and the less it costs the more you get to have a life after you graduate.
I'll agree with the others that say go somewhere with girls and other activites. You don't learn much about how to get through life in class. You learn in college simply by being there.
This is a lot of the reason I went to Parks. Being at St. Louis U gave me a lot of chances to be involved outside of the program. I like airplanes and all, but it was nice to have friends that had nothing to do with them and didn't talk about them 24/7.
Oh, and the less it costs the more you get to have a life after you graduate.
01-19-2008 | 07:14 PM
#15
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,857
Likes: 0
Let's pretend I'm a private pilot who flies for recreational purposes. Am I a dork for reading AOPA Pilot?
Are CFIs dorks for reading Flying?
I'm just curious, that's all. Is everybody who reads aviation magazines a dork, or is it just airline pilots? What's the dork threshold?
01-22-2008 | 11:48 AM
#17
just enjoying the view.
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 114
Likes: 0
From: Boeing 717 FO
Western Michigan University has a Flight, Aviation Administration, Maintenace programs (I would suggest the flight and admin together you can do at the same time and get done in 4-5 years). We just got a CRJ200 sim and course that a lot of Regional airlines like to see and have lower time interview agreements with the University/College. Just go to www.wmich.edu/aviation
01-22-2008 | 05:42 PM
#18
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
I don't know if you're financing it by yourself or what, but a nice option for saving money is attending a good community college for the first couple years. I was going to a comm. college with an engineering program recognized by UW as rigorous, it saved me a lot of money and was a lot more work friendly than the university as far as scheduling went (which allowed me to get a flight line job and get some major networking going on).
It also allowed me to get some flight training in. My point is don't overlook community college, it's a good option if you don't want to pay a ton of money. On top of that, you have a lot smaller classes than at a university, so in your first two years if you shop around well you can actually get a BETTER education because it's more personal.
I was also doing aeronautical engineering though, any engineering is a great choice for a major and most of them follow the same path for the first couple years, so you can switch pretty easily. UW has a pretty sweet aero engineering program if you are interested in any out of state schools...
It also allowed me to get some flight training in. My point is don't overlook community college, it's a good option if you don't want to pay a ton of money. On top of that, you have a lot smaller classes than at a university, so in your first two years if you shop around well you can actually get a BETTER education because it's more personal.
I was also doing aeronautical engineering though, any engineering is a great choice for a major and most of them follow the same path for the first couple years, so you can switch pretty easily. UW has a pretty sweet aero engineering program if you are interested in any out of state schools...
01-24-2008 | 02:30 AM
#19
On Reserve
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: CFI-ASMEL/Ins - Both :)
Hey,
I'm a sophmore at University of North Dakota, I think you should give our school a look if you haven't, Especially if you're considering throwing your money away at Riddle. Not here to knock schools, I think you should make the right choice for you, however I personally haven't heard good things about their quality of pilots, however that said, I hear they have excellent aeronautical engineers. As for UND:
1. More aircraft then any of the other schools you're looking at, plane availability shouldn't be an issue.
2. Weather - all places have it but you'll get experience in all seasons and changing conditions then just flying around in sunny florida or arizona.
3. Cost - UND is cheaper then most, its the best value for the money.
4. UND has been compared to Harvard, with its respect to Aviation
5. Just check it out, everything from the brand new a/c we have that's a mix of gauges through glass to the extensive aviation back-round of the faculty who has or currently holds positions in pretty much any facet of aviation, to our altitude chamber to just the overal rep of our program, you'll be blown away, I promise.
I'm not one to preach so I hate to sound arrogant, but I did my research on where I wanted to end up just like your doing...Any school collegiate flight school can give you a BS in Aviation and a degree, UND can really shape your future..and it wont break your bank like some more private schools...check it out and hopefully it will work out, if not all those other schools are good ones to so I wouldn't sweat it, but visit as many schools as you can.
Best of Luck
I'm a sophmore at University of North Dakota, I think you should give our school a look if you haven't, Especially if you're considering throwing your money away at Riddle. Not here to knock schools, I think you should make the right choice for you, however I personally haven't heard good things about their quality of pilots, however that said, I hear they have excellent aeronautical engineers. As for UND:
1. More aircraft then any of the other schools you're looking at, plane availability shouldn't be an issue.
2. Weather - all places have it but you'll get experience in all seasons and changing conditions then just flying around in sunny florida or arizona.
3. Cost - UND is cheaper then most, its the best value for the money.
4. UND has been compared to Harvard, with its respect to Aviation
5. Just check it out, everything from the brand new a/c we have that's a mix of gauges through glass to the extensive aviation back-round of the faculty who has or currently holds positions in pretty much any facet of aviation, to our altitude chamber to just the overal rep of our program, you'll be blown away, I promise.
I'm not one to preach so I hate to sound arrogant, but I did my research on where I wanted to end up just like your doing...Any school collegiate flight school can give you a BS in Aviation and a degree, UND can really shape your future..and it wont break your bank like some more private schools...check it out and hopefully it will work out, if not all those other schools are good ones to so I wouldn't sweat it, but visit as many schools as you can.
Best of Luck
