Rascal

We all know that Embry Ridiculous is way overpriced. Back in the days of the 300K salaries ERAU had a good recruiting pitch for their over priced program. One could spent a lot cash for the school but high paying jobs were there and there was potential of return on the investment. With todays airline pay and QOL how do the manage to get students to pay 150K for 20K job?

de727ups

Moved to flight school section.

ERAUdude

Last I heard, instructors were struggling because they have too many students.

UnlimitedAkro

its because the people at ERAU think they are going to make a ton of money and they arent smart enough to realize they will have thousands in student loans and tiny paychecks. Im a 3rd year airline pilot that is pretty much on welfare who graduated from ERAU. Not worth 100,000 in student loans at all (and I have over 100,000 in grants and scholarships that paid for nearly half).

It wont be long until the students get smart enough to realize they wont make any money for 5 years. And with airlines cutting pay in these times, they might not make any money for 10 years by the time they graduate. Airlines cut pay after Sept 11th, but it never went back up. Now they are cutting pay for fuel. It wont go back up. This industry is going down the crapper and if you think you should pay a ton of money to go to riddle or UND or some school to put you ahead of the game, you are nuts.

Become a doctor and buy your own airplane.

SeatMeat

Wow- A little bitter, are we?

I also graduated from ERAU. I enjoyed the experience and am happy I made the investment, even if I'm not flying for a living. My student loans run a total of $60k. It hurts- that's for sure.

After 9/11 we all thought that Riddle would fold. I mean, who would go to an aviation school with all that was going on in the world at that time? Things dropped off in the summer of '02 (I was furloughed as a Riddle CFI) and then the following September I had a full load of students. What I'm getting at here is that even if things are slowing down at Riddle for the moment, they will be busy in the near future.

I was on the "fixed price" system. I got everything from private through Multi for $26k. Tuition was, I think, around $450 per credit hour. Not sure I would pay what they are charging now.

Cheer up, man! You have a job, you are free to come and go as you please, and you live in the greatest country in the world. Things could be much, much worse.

afterburn81

Amen to that! They will only charge what people will pay. And they know you won't pay a lot unless they tell you that you will be paid "very well" when you graduate. They never tell you about all the sacrifices you have to make in order to get to the well paying flying job. I wish I could go back in time and kick my self in the arse to knock some sense into the decisions I made.

FNG1

We have 600 freshmen register for flying this coming fall, that is 200 more than last fall. Last fall we had a waiting list because there weren't enough instructors to cover them all. Right now in the summer things are OK, the part timers are struggling a little bit but the full timers are OK. Fall is going to be busy busy busy.

Remember that the industry is cyclical. But students come to school for 4 years. So if the industry is bad this year, still the guy that is a sophomore in school needs to fly. I definitely thank god that this industry melt down caught me here in riddle and not in an airline, here I know I'll be ok.

UnlimitedAkro

Im so sick and tired of hearing the industry is on a cycle. "Up and down up and down" they all say. Any 4 year old with half a brain knows the airline industry is on a cycle.

But guess what is not on a cycle. OUR PAY. The industry takes a crap and our pay goes down. Then things in the industry get better, and our pay stays the same. Then things get worse and our pay goes down again. I listened to the whole "airline industry will always bounce back" speech in college, and I believed it. But one thing they never taught anyone is our pay will never go up again. And they sure as hell didnt teach us that I'll have to file taxes for less than 30,000 my first 3 years in the airline industry flying jets.

Hey, I love my job, I could be doing thousands of worse jobs and I know that. But I remember several professors giving the "you are all going to be worth 10 million dollars by the time you are 50 years old" speech "BECAUSE you attended this great college". Every single one of us should be ashamed for not standing up and challenging that speech.

And dont even get me started on the University calling me from time to time asking for alumni donations. I'll be more than happy to donate money if they want to pay off my student loans.

Its easy to believe in this airline dream because we all want it to come true. This job is fun, but dont come to it for the money. Dont believe the hogwash that you have to attend ERAU or any other great aviation university to make it in this industry.

The best way to find out about this career is to talk to someone 3-5 years ahead of you. Dont listen to the old professors who did this 30 years ago. Guess what Professor Grandpa, things arent the same anymore.

Rant over.

cfii2007

All I can say is ........DAYUM!!!

FNG1

I just graduated from Riddle, I've been here for 2 years now. I've been a flight student, an ROTC cadet, an student assistant, a flight instructor and now a master's student. I feel I can talk with some degree of knowledge about the school.

So this is what I see.

1. Students dont think that they will get a high paying job when they are done with school (it was a surprise for example the program with spirit airlines). Everybody that I know is aware that they will have to move their way up from the bottom.---to give you an idea, we had a huge lost of flight instructors last year when the regionals were hiring like crazy.

2. Professors don't create the illusion that you will be in a major airline right after school. Most of our professors didnt retire 30 years ago from the airlines, in fact we have a big mix of backgrounds (military, airline, corporate, CFIs who stayed in the school for all these years). And the guys from the airlines are a mix too, some of them came after the 9/11 debacle. Others just didnt want to continue the airline life-----what it is common among the ex-airline guys is the FURLOUGH word.

3. The school is a business, like any other business they will rise prises as far as people are willing to pay. I see some people in these forums saying that the school trick them into think that they would do a lot of money after graduating. And to be honest with you I haven't heard that yet......but if it happen like that.......they were stupid to believe it......how can you embark yourself in a 4 year education with out doing a good research of what you are getting into.

To conclude, anybody who comes to Riddle with out knowing that is going to spend 45K a year as a flight student or thinking that is going to jump from Riddle to Delta, is smoking.----in which case, I will understand his/her frustration in these forums.