My son is accepted and ready to start flight training this fall. Is there any alumni out there that has any constructive feedback? There is a wait to get started, due to lack of flight instructors available.

Not an alumn but my understanding is that there is one heck of a wait. I know of at least several students that are training at other schools on Merrill.

Long way away, but no wait at Tarrant County College (TCC) in Ft. Worth, TX.

Two UAA aviation students take care of my 180. They have gone out of state to get training due to the back log. One is going to Prey Aviation in Kansas next month to complete the Instrument rating.
They are both trying to get their CFI's as fast as possible due to the instructor shortage.
Everybody is trying to hire instructors up here.
The academics at UAA seem strong by the general knowledge the two of them show.

two other schools to look at are angel aviation just down the road and land & sea across the field. He should consider getting his private at the other two and from my understanding UAA will accept a private certificate and he can continue from there. my suggestion is land & sea

Thank you for the kind feedback, keep it coming guys!

UAA is notorious right now for back up and slow training. With that said a lot of schools in Alaska are right now because everyone and there uncle is trying to become pilots. Id also give a nod to Angel Aviation and getting the private done. Good Luck.

They told the guys getting out of the private pilot ground school class right now (Spring 2018) not to expect to get thru the waitlist until late Fall 2018 or maybe even early 2019. They are (obviously) aware of the long wait times and are working to mitigate it. I think they are working on hiring some more CFIs or maybe already have. Also, they are trying to let people get their private pilot time outside the university with dean approval and still stay within the whole part 141 deal. Once you get to commercial flying and up it isn't as bad and it seems like the wait times generally are improving (or at least not getting worse).

You could call or swing by the flight ops office in the aviation bldg on Merrill Field there and get it straight from them if you want something better than hearsay, I don't think they'll sugarcoat it too much.