For the love of all that is holy, this.

I would be willing to bet, if airlines care about major at all (I doubt they do), they would look more favorably on something challenging like STEM, etc than a BS in runway maintenance. Being well-rounded is good, too.

Plus, it gives you options when the aviation industry decides to **** its pants again.

Most of them care a lot more that you have a degree than what it's in. But STEM will probably get you at least a little extra credit at top-tier majors... STEM is relevant to what we do, and they like people who seek challenges.

Also go to Harvard if you can.

Just don’t expect it to get you a non aviation job once you’ve been at the airlines for awhile, especially if you never used the degree. Buddy of mine with an aero engineering degree took a job at a car manufacturer 10 months after college even though he wanted to work in aerospace, his reasoning was that if he was using his degree for something he’d remain competitive, but after about a year of not doing engineering work he said your chances of getting employed as an engineer somewhere start to plummet dramatically. In a bad job market, why would someone hire a furloughed airline pilot who got a degree a decade ago and never used it, over someone fresh out of college?

there are also a lot of jobs (especially for the government) that don't really care what degree you have as long as you have one. I've seen so many job postings on USAJobs that just say "accredited Bachelors degree" with no specific major listed. I knew of a guy who had a bachelors in Media and worked for a media company, and then got hired to be a Federal Air Marshal.

Pffft, Oxford or gtfo

Sure, but then you might as well just get a degree in whatever interests you. I just see this engineering/STEM degree obsession and I don't see that as a field you can really just hop back into without practical experience.

Yeah, just get the degree in something that interests you other than aviation. You may have to do 'something' to make yourself hirable if you decide to use it a few years down the road but it's probably going to be lot less of a hassle that starting without the degree at all.

As far as the reference to someone hiring a furloughed pilot, there are other reasons to need to use that degree someday. Like health issues, family responsibilities, or simply finding that the dream flying job isn't really what you thought it was going to be.

The fact that nobody in aviation cares what your degree is in, or where you got it as long as it's accredited, really is all you need to know to NOT get an aviation degree.

An Aviation Degree plus Pilot experience will make you more hirable at any management position than anything else. I had 10 offers to manage offices. Most offices know that pilots have good judgmental skills. Don't get a Finance Degree and never use it lol, same for IT, you'll never get hired....

This...is wrong. All wrong.