USMCFLYR

I know people that had never sat in an aircraft cockpit until FAM 101 (the very first flight) that are now flying in the military. I know people from mom and pop FBO flight schools flying at Majors. There are people from every corner of the aviation circle flying at some of the top corporate departments I'll wager. I'm not sure what some alumni list proves in the least except for they probably have greater debt.

So how many people have you run into advising you that it is a good idea to get a degree in aviation and what reasons do they give you for that advice?

JamesNoBrakes

No, you misunderstand. I'm sure we can find pilots flying for FedEx and American that have NO degree, so does that mean NO degree is the way to go? Course not. Find some recent grads and find out how long it took them to get to these major airlines? I'm betting the ones you just stated are prior military pilots and the reason they got hired where they did is because of their military flying experience, not their degree.

RBI73

PM me and we can talk more specifics. I got my degree in business and flew as a CFI for several years before joining the Air Force. They use a whole person concept (lucky for me because I transferred schools a few times and my GPA was not stellar). They definitely like people who played sports in high school. It is highly selective to get a pilots slot through OTS. On my board 6 out of 100 applicants were selected. With that said it sounds like you are preparing early which is good. Definitely check out the sight that T6pilot recommended and check out baseops.net.

A few cautions for you:

Some recruiters will lie to you, you need to work with an Officer Accession Recruiter. They are not located in every city. If you talk to a regular recruiter, he will likely try to get you to enlist and tell you that it's the normal way to become a pilot. Though it is possible, realize that you must be an officer to be a pilot. If you enlist you'll have no guarantee of becoming a pilot. If you work with an officer accession recruiter and are fortunate enough to be hired as a pilot then you will go to pilot training (provided you pass a few physicals).

You mentioned the army. I have nothing but respect for those guys and the flying would be awesome, but realize that airlines don't share my respect. They usually won't count much if any rotor time. So consider that if airlines are your goal.

Toonces

Plenty of regionals count rotor time. So do majors. The former OIC of our training unit is living proof (250+ hrs of green time in his logbook as a Navy H-60 driver, 757 pilot for UAL on the side).

Back to the original question though...study what you want. And study what will be a good back-up plan. The Navy (especially) could care less what you majored in during college before sending you to flight school. The only time it would matter is if you were applying to a test pilot position, at which point aviation science would still be on equal footing with political science.

If you pass flight school, the Navy stops caring if you are a good pilot; they expect you to be. At that point, they care if you are a good officer, which will ultimately lead to promotion and more flying opportunities.

dspilot

Zach, let me be the next in line to repeat "get a degree in something more marketable." I have a degree in "Commercial Aviation," (Aviation Science by another name) and while I have ultimately made it to where I wanted to be in my career, if I had it to do over, I would get a degree in something other than aviation. There were certainly some hairy times along the way where having something else to fall back on for a while would have been nice.

Also, let me second what RBI says. Make sure you are talking to an Officer Accesion Recruiter if you are looking to go to pilot training.