I personally hope more people have your same philosophy....for my own personal reasons.

I apologize sir but you have a loser mentality, I wish you good luck in your endeavors.

I hope your cousin is now a doctor or a lawyer. Otherwise, he just made a huge mistake that is going to cost him a long time working to fix.

You might get hired without one a few years out, but that is pure conjecture. In any case, the person with a degree is always going to have a leg up on the person without one when it comes to getting hired and in finding something else to do if their flying career comes to an end for reasons not in their control.

Not to be an alarmist, but we are currently in one of the longest economic expansions in history. In a timeframe of 3 to 5 years out, there is no guarantee that this will continue and a decent chance that we hit a rough patch, which might make that pilot shortage/lowered standards prediction a bit off. I've seen three major industry downturns that have swept a lot of predictions about hiring into the trash. Things have a way of seeming one way until suddenly they aren't and the fallout from these events can take years to go away. The Gulf War in 1990. 9/11 and the 2008 Great Recession should be constant reminders not to assume that the current situation will continue without interruption. Before that, there was the 1973 oil embargo, the 1979/80 recession and the 1982 recession.

Look at getting a degree as both an insurance policy and as a leg up on getting hired. There are ways to do it without incurring huge debt and cost.

You can't find fault with my analysis or a reason why this isn't a better, or at least an equal to the plan of pursuing a college degree first, so you resort to name calling. Nice. No need to apologize. Make sure to tell all the upcoming influx of non degreed flowthroughs that's coming your way that they have the loser mentality.

Public colleges used to be almost free, why cant it be now? Why does it have to be for profit these days?

Economic expansion? Where? What are you talking about? There has been no growth for the middle class since the 70's. Just hit after hit from manufactured downturns to take wages and pensions away. The news might be reporting one thing, but it isn't reality.

I agree it should be much cheaper. Administration and bureaucratic growth has driven up costs. It absolutely should not be that way. It shouldn't be for profit, at least not on the public side. It is a shame, but it is the self licking ice cream cone. Keep adding jobs that do nothing for education(except drive up costs), soon the middle class can't afford it and then it must be funded by tax dollars. Unfortunately it is probably only a matter of time.

One word--subsidies. College loans are subsidized by government guarantees increasing demand; colleges aren't going to charge the same tuition if they can take the implied subsidy in the loans.

GF

I wholeheartedly agree with this advice fwiw. I'm part of the circumstantial snail pace degree crowd. I haven't achieved the 4 yr(yet) due mainly to finances or more accurately yet the lack thereof. I completed a 2yr with what I could afford and managed to get hired at my desired Major(not legacy) with it. I have no burning desire to work for a legacy, all things considered in my own personal world, but you can bet I'm still slowly working on the 4yr for personal achievement reasons and more importantly as "Matt1" mentioned, my own insurance policy.

Just my two cents.

-2263