Hello,
I have found that site that you listed to be very interesting. I just finished up my first year at UND. And let me tell you, UND is full of fraud like business. I came to UND fairly excited to fly. I left 9 months later relieved. I earned my private certificate before attending.
UND's main goal is to take your money. But you may say this is true with any university. I found it amazing that parking police take student's schedules in order to figure out where they will be parking at on a particular day so that they may make some money for the general UND pot. Why must you have a CRJ simulator? Oh wait, MONEY! A good pilot in order to be hired by an airline DOES NOT need to spend 3000 on a special fancy simulator. What good does 60 percent of a type rating do? Nothing. It is one of UND's tactics to take your money. And why should they be getting glass cockpits in Warriors in a few years? How can a student learn to fly in a fancy cockpit. Can you teach the primary/secondary method of flying if you just have a big glass box in front of you?
The Aero-Lap Top program...useless. They make you spend 900 dollars, 1200 if you stay for the summer, to use a computer that supposedly has "special software." How many of the 1000 pilots actually use those programs? Not very many from what I observed. It is just another way for UND to make a buck.
Later in the schoolyear while attending a SAMA meeting, I was informed that each and every year, over a MILLION dollars from students flight accounts goes to help fund the general UND pot. I spend thousands and thousands of hard earned money so it can support this lame school? It is ridiculous. The instructors work hard day in and day out. Wouldn't you like to see them making a few bucks more? I sure would.
The academics at this school are piss poor. I thought I was going to college. UND is a glorified high school in my book. Any college that has a minimum gpa requirement of around 2.0 has major issues to work out. The teachers I had OTHER than aviation were pretty awful. There was mention about some teachers and I just took the aviation physics and let me tell you that Mr. Wagner is the worst physics teacher out there. It would be so easy to hire COMPETANT teachers. UND a third tier college? Barely?
You may be thinking that I am some angry student who could not handle the UND program. I earned A's in each and every aviation class that I have taken so far. I busted my butt day in and day out. They do produce good pilots but at a cost to one's sanity.
If you want to come to UND to get raped by UND's tactics then go right ahead. If you think you have to fly in fancy new planes with dual garmin 430's then go right ahead.
Before you go, you do not know how it feels to enter the pilot factory aka odegard hall. They need to get a smoke stack on top of that building because all students know it is nothing but a pilot factory.
Grand Forks is a dump. It is a boring town with very little to do. If you like to drink beer, shoot deer, and drive trucks, then you will fit in perfectly.
So to wrap this up, BEFORE you go to UND to fly airplanes, give it a a LOT of thought. When it is January 15 and -43F with a windchill of -75F at 8 am and you are going to a class you spend way too much money on for the quality of instruction, you too will start wondering why you are in the only state in the nation that continues to lose population.
UND does have some good qualities. But they are hard to find. If you care NOTHING about quality of life or a real education, then I would recommend attending. But if you wish to fly airplanes in a real environment, void of the UND bubble, enjoy it in the process, and earn an education that you will be PROUD of when you walk away from, then avoid UND at all costs.
