Advice for an up-and-coming pilot

tlove482 said:
I do understand that people want something to fall back on, but I think that you will be just fine with an aviation degree.
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If you or anyone were to get furloughed with only an aerospace science degree, what exactly are you qualified for? Besides manning a fast food counter?
 
tlove482 said:
Am I qualified for anything more with a 15 year old degree and no experience in that field?
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I don't know you or your background. I'm going to be getting my BA and MS in Social Work, I'll always have a job. But someone with no prior skills and only a AS degree isn't really qualified for much else. Not only that I believe the majors don't always rate an AS degree that highly, in comparison to others. The same could be said with online degrees. They seem to want to hire people with more diverse backgrounds, who can not just fly their planes. That seems to be why the emphasis is placed more on secondary things like community service.
 
My 2 cents...

There's no such thing as a 'back up degree'. If you get a degree in something and don't begin accumulating experience or contacts in the field, it's pretty much just paper behind glass. That being said, I would try to major in something that you truly enjoy that you could pursue on the side. You want to be balanced, both in education and on a professional level.

Aviation is amazing. Try to network from day 1 and try to get some experience outside of the pilot mills. Go learn to fly a glider or go get some aerobatic training. Go to EAA meetings and grass field pancake fly-ins. Fly in to the pancake fly-ins.

Don't listen to pilots for financial advice.

That's it for now. Enjoying my beer.
 
mastermags said:
My 2 cents...

There's no such thing as a 'back up degree'. If you get a degree in something and don't begin accumulating experience or contacts in the field, it's pretty much just paper behind glass. That being said, I would try to major in something that you truly enjoy that you could pursue on the side. You want to be balanced, both in education and on a professional level.

Aviation is amazing. Try to network from day 1 and try to get some experience outside of the pilot mills. Go learn to fly a glider or go get some aerobatic training. Go to EAA meetings and grass field pancake fly-ins. Fly in to the pancake fly-ins.

Don't listen to pilots for financial advice.

That's it for now. Enjoying my beer.
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Lock the thread. Tier 1, has spoken! :)
 
Yup, I was in your spot 4 years ago. Was set on going to a major university for an aviation degree that would give me a semi-useless degree (outside of the industry at least) and my ratings for around $200k w/ out of state tuition and fees. Fortunately was talked out of that idea by some people on this forum and I'll be graduating next May with an equally useless degree from an in-state university and a CMEL/SEL without owing a dime to anyone. I lived at home my first few years and applied for every scholarship I was eligible for to help drive down the (already significantly lower) tuition costs and worked as a ramper throwing bags on the night shift (10p-2a isn't terrible when your young stupid and in college and probably going to be up that late anyways) to pay for my flying costs. Got my PPL sophomore year and IR junior year at the local airport pt61 and am currently time building for commercial, all while still managing a full course load, doing the whole "college" thing, partying, getting a communications degree, meeting hot sorority girls, going to SEC football games and taking road trips with friends to watch basketball games in the winter, taking friends and said hot chicks flying on the weekends, and flying around to find some of the best food in the south east, among other things I doubt I would have gotten to do had I elected to go with my original plan.

With that, I've also been able to make some awesome connections in the industry between working for an airline and just hanging out at a pt61 school. I've had the opportunity to right seat a King Air and Pilatus a couple times, meet and stay in contact with some local corporate pilots, take them flying for a $100 hamburger because they haven't been in a piston single since 'Nam, and get to meet and talk with some of the airline guys at work, (on the few occasions they aren't just trying to GTFO and get to the hotel van) get advice from them, talk about their paths, what they wish they knew as a 200 hour pilot, etc..

What I'm getting at is, I could have taken the "easy route" to the right seat of a shiny jet by spending money I didn't have but instead listened to some dudes on here and went against what I thought was my better judgement at the time. It's been an awesome ride and I've had waaaay more fun than I deserve by doing the whole college thing full time and flight training on the side. Yeah I won't have all my CFI ratings when I graduate like I would have had with the aviation degree, but I won't be spending the next 20 years of my career repaying loans from school and flight training, and if I decide I need to go that route to be marketable I can always pick them up.

I don't say all this to discount ERAU, UND, ASU, etc.. and their respective programs at all. The only experiences I have with them are visiting their campuses and the emails I still receive from them 4 years later.. I've had several friends do their training through these college programs over the past several years and end up with pretty sweet pt121/135/91 gigs. I just decided it wouldn't be the best route for me and looking back on it now 4 years later I'm happy with my decision and if I had to do it all over again I probably wouldn't change a thing, and I'm definitely not a rare case or anything special!

Good luck with whichever route you choose man. Hope my extremely limited perspective on everything was somewhat of a help!

If you have any other questions feel free to PM me!
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
I don't know you or your background. I'm going to be getting my BA and MS in Social Work, I'll always have a job. But someone with no prior skills and only a AS degree isn't really qualified for much else. Not only that I believe the majors don't always rate an AS degree that highly, in comparison to others. The same could be said with online degrees. They seem to want to hire people with more diverse backgrounds, who can not just fly their planes. That seems to be why the emphasis is placed more on secondary things like community service.
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I went to a small university with an aviation program. The aviation major has a minor in aviation management tied to it. I'm not sure how useful it is though. I have no plans to go to the majors. I never heard that the majors didn't like aviation degrees much. Most of our older alumni are at majors.
 
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AlecL said:
Hi all!
I have been interested in aviation for a long time, and now that I am in high school, I have begun flying. I want to go to ERAU (Daytona Beach), get my degree in something, and then fly for the airlines. This has probably been asked a million times, but do you have any advice? Should I look at other colleges? What airline connection programs are there, aside from ERAU/KAP/JBU?
Thank you very much for your input.
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I would highly recommend that you do not go to ERAU. Go to a state college and enjoy the lower cost of in-state tuition. Do your flight training at a Part 61 or small Part 141 school at a local airport. You will save so much money.

I went to UND and while I don't regret the decision too much it was much cheaper when I graduated in 2007. I was only around $90k in student loan debt with a Business degree in Aviation Management.

Get a degree you can fall back in in the event that you lose your medical, get furloughed, or for some reason decide aviation is not for you.
 
JaceTheAce said:
I would highly recommend that you do not go to ERAU. Go to a state college and enjoy the lower cost of in-state tuition. Do your flight training at a Part 61 or small Part 141 school at a local airport. You will save so much money.

I went to UND and while I don't regret the decision too much it was much cheaper when I graduated in 2007. I was only around $90k in student loan debt with a Business degree in Aviation Management.

Get a degree you can fall back in in the event that you lose your medical, get furloughed, or for some reason decide aviation is not for you.
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Keep in mind that that degree "to fall back on" probably won't be bringing in any income anywhere close to what you'd most likely be making as a pilot if you lost your medical at age 40. It might still be just as worthless as Commercial aviation, to be honest. If aviation is something you decide not to do while you're still in your 20s, great! Our management degrees may or may not get us assistant manager positions at Target, @JaceTheAce

If aviation is what interests you, study that. Don't study something that will bore you to tears or burn you out. @JaceTheAce probably got an A in accounting with Proffessor Ness at UND. I did not... haha

There are a lot of jobs out there that don't require a specific degree either, and depending on what you do in aviation, you may be able to use that even more than a degree to get a job outside of it. A management position as a pilot will probably transfer well for example.
 
JaceTheAce said:
Do your flight training at a Part 61 or small Part 141 school at a local airport. You will save so much money.

I went to UND and while I don't regret the decision too much it was much cheaper when I graduated in 2007. I was only around $90k in student loan debt with a Business degree in Aviation Management.
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Out of state, private school, and a degree in aero science with $0 paid out of pocket from me or any family member and I still had less debt then that. If you had $90k student debt for a business degree then someone clearly screwed you over....or your FAFSA EFC was extremely high. That's a flat out joke.

If you can find a way to fund ERAU and like their campus then go to ERAU, it's an awesome school with great connections and with a rATP people can't complain that it's "useless". If you lose your medical, you'll still find a job. Aviation isn't the only field in the country where we take people with other degrees...it's about being college educated and having that degree. You'll fork out money to the nicer schools but from what I've seen at ERAU compared to any other college, I can see how they get away with charging that much. At Daytona, you'll have an awesome college life (outside of all the men) and their school is top notch.

I mean I'm happy I avoided Riddle for how much I fell in love with their campus but nonetheless, it was an awesome school.
 
As an ERAU alum, it is my duty to advise you NOT to go to ERAU. I transferred in with a free AA, had credits for previous flying, had scholarships, and still ended up with nearly 100k in debt. The flying at ERAU is no better than anywhere else.

My advice is do it as fast and cheap as you can. There is a difference between a degree and an education. Everything I have ever learned in a classroom, I could have learned at home, for free, using the internet.
 
ERAU is good if you learn well with structure and deadlines. Getting you ratings at a mom and pop FBO can be challenging if you're not self motivated or like to procrastinate. If you have any interest in any degree outside of aviation then go do that. If your only passion is aviation and you don't want to suffer through an accounting degree just to have a good backup then don't.

LeonPhelps said:
As an ERAU alum, it is my duty to advise you NOT to go to ERAU. I transferred in with a free AA, had credits for previous flying, had scholarships, and still ended up with nearly 100k in debt. The flying at ERAU is no better than anywhere else.

My advice is do it as fast and cheap as you can. There is a difference between a degree and an education. Everything I have ever learned in a classroom, I could have learned at home, for free, using the internet.
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I agree, that actually applies to almost all college degrees, which partially explains why 1 in 4 billionaire dropped out of college. With that being said, I would never give up the best years of my life in college if I could go back in time.
 
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