It is a mystery to me, but the DAL ran just fine for 50+ years with high school grads. How can that be???

I don't have loans. I'm just saying th system is designed to suck money in. It used to be colleges and companies could could work together and ensure jobs would be available, on campus interviews, etc. But now, that's not the case. The cost of colleges has gone up tremendously recently yet the chances of gettin a good job have fallen dramatically. 1 trillion is no joke! Higher education is becoming a scam, with many highly educated people having nothing to show for their degrees except very high debt.

With college costs increasing and flight training costs just as expensive. I can see airlines waiving the college degree so new pilots only have flight training costs to deal with instead of both. A degree is just a hoop and doesn't prove a person to be a good leader. How many NCO's have been outstanding leaders and never attended a day of college?

I'm happy I went to college, even though I'm not utilizing my degree. It certainly taught me some valuable lessons about responsibility and time management, especially considering all the fun 'distractions'.

That said, I know my degree has nothing to do with how well I fly an airplane. But if you're Delta and have thousands upon thousands of applicants with degrees, why lower the requirement? Same thing with internal recs, TPIC, only grabbing guys without busts - that sort of thing. There's no reason to lower the bar unless you're having trouble filling interview spots.

Why make a high school diploma a requirement? 8th grade graduates are just as capable.

^this. If everyone has a degree then there's no excuse not to have one if you want to work for delta, AA, swa, FedEx etc. shoot, im pretty sure everyone behind the counter at Starbucks this morning had a college degree.

A degree is one aspect of how you evaluate someone. Over the years the airlines have used many hiring models and they know what works for them. They see the results of who they hire and the costs associated with that. Pilots with a degree have worked better overall. A degree is one aspect among several of how a individual might turn out. In general when they hire with a degree they get a better product.

Pure genius...why didn't I think of that?

I know of one FO who put all his flight training on CCs back in the days where they were handed out like candy. In Arizona he said there is something like a 3 year limit that they have to pursue bad debt. After 7 years it is completely wiped out. He ended up not paying a dime on his loans, took the 7 year hit and does quite well today.

He learned this from someone else so more than a few people have done it successfully from what he told me. Now how someone would get over 100k for a line of credit in todays environment I have no idea. I know of one other guy who took a 2nd mortgage during the housing boom to pay off all his student debt(almost 150k worth). He figured the value of his house would keep going up so he would come out ahead. The market tanked and he walked away and just let it foreclose. Today he is debt free. If you are creative there are ways to get rid of student loans. Now as far as the ethics go, I personally believe you should pay your debts but I also do not weep for the crooked bankers either.

It is truly amazing how much the cost of an education has gone up. I only paid about 20K for my flight training and about 10K for my 4 year degree. Granted this was in 1997/98ish when gas was much cheaper. I got a 152 for $40/hr and a 172 for $55/hr. Those were the days.

Why stop there? A monkey is perfectly trainable.

These guys griping about a degree are hilarious. "Waaah! Why does Delta require a degree?" Because they feel like it.