I understand that its frustrating to see people with better connections than others. Some guys get great breaks, but life is all about risk and our industry is no different. Are you willing to pay more tuition at Riddle, UND, Purdue or others for a chance at a great internship? I know quite a few friends who got to a major before they were 25. I also have friends who who went to aviation schools and are still flight instructing in their home towns. Its not better or worse than any other path, its just a different mix of risk and reward.

I respect guys who took the part 61 route at a local school. I think its great when guys at ATP get great results. Some folks choose the aviation university route. It may not be for you, and some of them might not be very humble, but by looking down on them aren't you just as bad as they are?

 

College was the best time of my life!

Why would I tell other people to go to a school like Embry Riddle (with their 1 to 9 girl to guy ratio) when they can go to a normal college (save lots of money) and have the best time of their life.
No thank you Embry Riddle.

Why would someone want to go to school in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. North Dakota has less than 1 million residents. I don't even think it deserves to be a state. My college life was full of adventures in the mountains, rivers, the great outdoors, large cities, cool towns.... There was always something to do. Can you say that about UND? No. You can't. Trust me, I have 2 good friends who went there. One regretted it and left after the first year, the second stayed with it but always b*tched about North Dakota.

Purdue, I can't really knock them. They are a regular, D1 school, with a very NORMAL campus and student population outside of aviation. I think majoring in aviation is a mistake.

 

i majored in aviation....man, i made a huge mistake....all those MTV parties on the beach...wet t-shirt contests...penrods...the oyster pub...sugar shack...yearround sunshine.....and then to top it all off when i retire at 60 i'll have 25 years as a widebody captain at FDX...
HUGE MISTAKE!

 

I agree with that as well. I am about to graduate from Texas Tech with an Agricultural Economics degree and I have had a rediculously awesome time in college. Also when you go to a big school you can get all of your flying done on the side. You don't have to have a degree before you start flight instructing. I have about 2000TT and 500ME and I'm not graduating from school until may then I'm going to RAH. Join a frat, go on some road trips, go to mexico on a whim, get black listed from at least one sorority (just kidding), I have known a couple of guys that went to riddle and they weren't happy. You don't get any contacts or anything and plus an aviation science degree is worthless. If you go to an aviation school, you will probably be instructing after college for a while instead of going straight to a jet.

 

I went to Purdue. We have a bar called Harry's. It's always packed because it's cold outside 8 mos., and you have to drink a lot to make the chicks pretty. In fact "Go Ugly Early" isn't a marketing slogan, it's a way of life.

On the upside, IND and ORD are short drives, and since IN doesn't sell liquor on sunday, rent a 152 fly to IL and buy some cases (since you probably drank your "Sunday Reserve" Saturday)

 

What Springer said...but Jake's > Harry's.

Can't go wrong at a school with 38,000 undergrads and only 600ish total in the whole aviation program.

 

Wow dude, got a complex against UND? Why go to UND? Turn to ESPN 2 RIGHT NOW and that is one reason. There are 13,000 students at UND, 11,000 that are NOT AVIATION. Grand Forks is a good time. Aviation ended the minute class ended for me. Have you ever been to ND? Didn't think so......so what all mighty school did you go to?

 

Big-arse skeeters up there in Grand Forks...plus its too damn cold and windy for my south-of-the-Mason/Dixon line behind!

PS - Nobody from a temperate climate cares about hockey...is it football season yet?

 

There's nothing the experience of going to a big twelve school.

 

I would absolutely agree with all that. It is cold, and the damn skeeters. However, I would rather deal with them then the damn spiders and snaked in the south. I lived in NC for a year, finding brown recluse spiders, black widows in the doorway, and water moccasins slithering across the FBO ramp was too much for me. BTW, coldest I ever say in ND was -42 straight temp, with -80 wind chill...