Kent State or Florida Inst of Technology?
 

My son is about to decide which College to attend and pursue a career as a Pilot. Please don't tell me about wasting his time, becoming a lawyer etc etc, I've heard them all. He has the choice of Kent State or FIT...Any opinions of either school will be appreciated, please tell me the pro's and con's of each. I know which one I want him to attend but I'd like to hear input from others.
Thanks in Advance,
Vito

Haha, those are the exact two colleges that I applied to. I visited both schools and looked into both extensively. Main things that were influential to me:
1. Which one is closer to home? Is that important?
2. Is the school/ campus environment important? Kent State-30,000 students, lots of other opportunities. FIT-4,000ish I believe

Those were the 2 main things that were important to me. In reality, any accredited school will give you a good education. The schools are less important in terms of leading to job opportunities in my opinion. Get the degree, hours, job.

I ended up choosing Kent State and I thought it was great.
-I loved being at a school that had more than just aviation/ engineering nerds...
-Kent has great staff and I felt my education was excellent
-The airplanes at Kent may not be as advanced as FIT, but honestly and airplane is an airplane and the newer the plane, the higher the cost.
-The weather has its ups and downs in NE Ohio which limits flying days sometimes but gives valuable experience as well.

I have to run but feel free to pm me with any more questions. I was also a flight instructor/ check instructor at Kent for 3 years so I can give you more insight. Good luck!

Why only these two schools?

I'm an alumni of FIT who graduated in 2005 and have been flying with the airlines since 2006. I really like FIT, the campus is being expanded at an amazing rate with beautiful new buildings. The aircraft were well maintained and new. The social life was a great. The weather was beautiful. The beach was close by. The professors were knowledgable and had many connections in the industry to help with internships and jobs. All in all, I loved my time at FIT and would send my son there! Feel free to PM me with any specific questions.

Thanks for the replies, the reason for choosing only these 2 schools was he has already been accepted to one, but on a recent trip to the other he has second thoughts. I'm favoring Kent State due to the tougher environment, I want him to be exposed to bad weather etc...We all love palm trees and beaches, he can have plenty of that after he gets a job..I am curious about FIT's program from some of you guys who attended the school.

Bad weather just means increased time to train (and more of your money). Florida isn't immune to it either. Spent many years instructing down there.

The better question, is which one has more women?

Airlines and most aviation employers don't care where you went to school as long as you have a degree. I don't know where you live but first I would look for a school in state for cheaper tuition....I like how you want him exposed to bad weather but as someone mentioned before it takes longer and eventually costs more if weather keeps you grounded.

Exactly what the last guy said... There is a reason that more flight training is done in Florida than anywhere else in the world. The weather is perfect for it. You will get some days where you get thunderstorms and get grounded, but the year round ability to fly is what you need in order to get trained in the time you have allotted, get your CFI by your junior year, and sped the last two years of college getting paid to fly rather than having mom pay for you to fly! It is all about consistency, the more often you fly, the less overall hours it will take you. Florida allows you to get good instrument time in winter as the incidence if in cloud icing is low. In Ohio, 5 months of the year, clouds=ice=can't fly.

FIT just opener a brand new flight center with state of the art simulators and Flight Training Devices (ways to save mom and dad a few bucks).

The flight program is Part 141 which allows you to get your licenses with less hours and prevents you from getting a pink slip in your permanent airman file if you fail a checkride.

You are exposed to international operations as you have the opportunity in some advanced flight courses to fly to the Bahamas, dealing with customs and immigration and such.

I loved the small college environment... Everyone knew everyone and it was like a big family. I joined (and became president of) a fraternity, sang in the acapella chorus, and played several intermural sports. FIT was the best 4 years of my life ( don't tell my wife that!)

I fly with all sorts of pilots at my airline, some have aviation degrees, some don't. I know that many discourage aviation degrees, I disagree with them. Study what you are passionate about and it isn't really work, it's fun! Besides that, there is a lot that you need to know that FAA flight training won't teach you (history of airline operations, in depth meteorology beyond what you need to pass a checkride, business, marketing, etc). FIT will.

Even though your son wants to be a pilot now, it is just a fact that about 60% of those who go to college to fly don't end up flying for a living. Many of my friends decided part way through that while the liked to fly, their real passion was _______. FIT's aviation management program really does a great job of preparing you for any aviation job. Many friends are Now doing airport planning and design (big money), airport operations, NTSB, etc. The aviation meteorology degree has seen a few friends through to high paying jobs with NOAA and the national weather service.

Hope this helps!

FIT of course!

Emb170man,
Thank You for your inputs! sounds like you really enjoyed your FIT experience