Ack... Numbers? We don't need no stinkin numbers.
It shakes out like this. I based all my figures on how long it would take to get a source of income (ie get hired as a CFI).
Ari Ben costs about 31k for the whole program. As far as I know books, tests and examiner’s costs are not included so I added about 1000 in. I know that is probably high, but I was shading things that way. They cover the first three months of housing, but then you are on your own after that. Average completion time is around 6 month so that is about 1500 for housing. That brings the total cost of the program to around 33500. I'm not including in this figure food, insurance etc.
The program cost for ATP is 35k + 1000 for books and such. Housing is included for the full length of the program. So the total for atp is 36k.
Then I looked at the 3 extra months at Ari Ben and figured about $500 per month in expenses (food, gas, car insurance etc). This was a really rough number but I subtracted it out of the ATP costs because it was the differential between the two. That left me with ATP costing 34500 and Ari Ben 33500.
Then I looked the wages I could be making during those three months at ATP (assuming I got hired, hey I'm trying to think positivly
) Figure on the low side here and say 1000 a month (I know it is slightly higher, but taxes and such...) So then I took that 3000 and added it to Ari Ben's cost as an opportunity cost (lost opportunity). That put AB at 36500 and ATP still at 34500. So now ATP was about 2k cheaper.
Also something I didn't mention in my previous post was the fact that I hope to instruct after I get my ratings and although Ari Ben does pretty much guarantee that you will get hired and ATP doesn't, the benefits of having multiple locations to choose from, not to mention slightly better pay swayed my decision somewhat.
So there you have it. I know the numbers are pretty rough, but it was what I used. I am by no means saying that Ari Ben isn't as good as ATP. Also, the financials may not break down the same way for you. A lot of it is simply preception.
Ethan