Collegiate route vs flight school

J

Jeffreymwesige

Active Member
Hello fellow aviators!
I’m a student pilot about to finish my PPL training as well as an associates degree with a concentration in aviation.
Came here to ask for advice on whether I should complete the rest of my flight training at a university (I was accepted to transfer to OU) or join an accelerated flight school to obtain the rest of my licenses and ratings and then complete my bachelors degree online while I work as a CFI building my time. I’m looking to do get to the airlines in the most efficient way possible by saving as much money and time as as I can. Would love to hear what y’all think. Thanks in advance!
 
Hey everyone,

I’m currently finishing my A.S. in Commercial Pilot at a community college and preparing to transfer for my bachelor’s. I’ve been accepted to the University of Oklahoma (OU), but I’m also considering going the accelerated flight school route (e.g., ATP, AFI, etc.) and then finishing my degree separately online.

I’m trying to figure out which option would save the most time and money overall — especially when it comes to getting all my ratings (PPL through CFI) and reaching airline minimums.

For those who’ve been through either route, what would you say makes the most sense long-term?

Thanks in advance for any insight!
 
I'd get a degree in a non-aviation major if possible, then get your ratings at a local airport. Build time flight instructing. CFI, CFII, MEI, AGI, IGI, Then go explore some of the more interesting corners of aviation. Fly in Alaska, fly pipeline patrol or forestry, tow banners, or try out some charter work (once you reach 135 minimums). Fly tail draggers and turboprops. Fly something with round dials.

Then, once you've done all that, go to the regionals or skip the regionals and go right to the majors. It will make you a more well rounded pilot than the pilot-mill schools, and make for more interesting interview stories.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
I'd get a degree in a non-aviation major if possible, then get your ratings at a local airport. Build time flight instructing. CFI, CFII, MEI, AGI, IGI, Then go explore some of the more interesting corners of aviation. Fly in Alaska, fly pipeline patrol or forestry, tow banners, or try out some charter work (once you reach 135 minimums). Fly tail draggers and turboprops. Fly something with round dials.

Then, once you've done all that, go to the regionals or skip the regionals and go right to the majors. It will make you a more well rounded pilot than the pilot-mill schools, and make for more interesting interview stories.
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Get the degree. The "continuing education" you receive afterwards will propel you to a diversified area of involvement related to your increased interest over time. I suppose the best example I can come up with is that of two professions. . .lawyers and doctors.

Yes, get your law degree; become a doctor. Whatever you wish to specialize in you'll be aware over time. It's a process in the journey of life.
 
Jeffreymwesige said:
Hello fellow aviators!
I’m a student pilot about to finish my PPL training as well as an associates degree with a concentration in aviation.
Came here to ask for advice on whether I should complete the rest of my flight training at a university (I was accepted to transfer to OU) or join an accelerated flight school to obtain the rest of my licenses and ratings and then complete my bachelors degree online while I work as a CFI building my time. I’m looking to do get to the airlines in the most efficient way possible by saving as much money and time as as I can. Would love to hear what y’all think. Thanks in advance!
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Welcome. Didn't we all, regarding the bolded bit, ha!

General aviation advice: if I were you and the money and time situation permits it, I would go get your instrument rating right away after finishing same regardless of where you are in your education, just because you're a much more "full participant" and safer in the system that way.

Career advice for what it's worth: Graduate-educated legacy airline airplane driver here. It must be pointed out that what the industry did from 2021-roughly 2023 was not normal hiring in any sort of 'historical' meaning of the word. Expect to have to have a bachelor's degree even if it's not the written requirement for career-destination jobs.

I'm with @ZapBrannigan above. Get yourself a non-aviation degree and study something that pushes your intellectual buttons. I'm not saying that flying airplanes does not push my intellectual buttons (far from it), but I'm very grateful for my non-aviation undergraduate education, and there's no denying that it ironically got me my first flying job with comparatively low flight time (a computer guy who happens to be able to fly was what they really needed; the fact that I got paid to fly was kinda great). My undergrad education also allowed me to freelance while I was a starving regional pilot, so I could be less starving.

In case it's not abundantly clear: I wouldn't trade my undergraduate education for much of anything even if finishing it arguably kept me out of the cockpit for a bit longer than dumping it and pursuing flying; my (subsequent) graduate education which I started during my time as a regional captain arguably also helped me get a job at an airline where (technically) not even an undergraduate education was required.

Get a degree, not in flying.
 
DE727UPS said:
Even skip the degree for now and see how far you can get without one.
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The one thing that I discovered going back to grad school ~10 years after finishing undergrad was that academic writing is (at least for me) a perishable skill, and it took a few classes for me to get back to the level of proficiency I had when I was in undergrad.

The other thing that tends to happen is that life tends to happen once you get out of "school mode," and that could constrain the OP from being able to go get the degree too.
 
I'm going to be the outlier here. Go to OU. Get the aviation degree. Here's why:
You can still go through your ratings as fast as your skill and money (and can get federal student loans instead of what the accelerated flight school has set up) will allow you. If you finish them before you graduate, you can flight instruct and build time while you finish.

Flight instructing is the best way to build time. There is no better way to learn than to teach. I have worked in a 121 training department. New hires that came from a 141 flight instructing background were consistently the best students.

You will enjoy your classes instead of them being a chore. You will be better at your craft because you spent time immersed in it. You will build relationships that will stick with you the rest of your career. On of my favorite things it do is run into a college buddy in an airport, and go "look at us now!" (Yes, I'm aware that can happen through other paths...).

If you get the back up degree, you will have just a degree. Let's say you lose your medical or get furloughed a decade or two down the road. You go and apply somewhere planning to use your "backup degree". They are going to ask you about work experience in the field. You will have a 10 year old degree (that, let's be honest, you've forgotten most of) and no work experience in the field. Your aviation degree will have the same value in that situation.

Finally your aviation degree will expose you to other sectors of aviation, so if you do have to find other work down the road, it can be in the field. To name a few: Airport management, Simulator instructing, Aircraft management, State (or federal)aviation regulation...

*Edit for my inability to write*
 
I would go to that college and major in aviation. Plenty of pilots say to major in something other than aviation, but I find this advice somewhat useless unless you're going to keep one foot in whatever you earn a degree in. If you need a skill set incase aviation doesn't pan out, you can get your CDL for cheap.

Its smart of you coming in with an associates. Student loans will probably be the cheapest money you can borrow and it allows you to focus solely on finishing your ratings and degree without having to worry about work. Another reason to go to that school is you can get into the various cadet programs that are going to be the most straight forward way to get to the regionals.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Then go explore some of the more interesting corners of aviation. Fly in Alaska, fly pipeline patrol or forestry, tow banners, or try out some charter work (once you reach 135 minimums).
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Having worked in a 121 training department at a regional airline for 10 years, I have seen pilots come from each of these disciplines. As a general rule, they typically weren't well prepared for an airline cockpit. I'll go even farther a say that specifically, banner towing is a complete waste of time. Your IFR skills atrophy, and you have no idea how to communicate in a cockpit. Sure, you can fly the wings off of a piper cub. But if you don't understand the importance of SOPs, and CRM, you aren't going to do well. I can teach you the airplane. I can't fix rusty IFR skills and a poor attitude about SOPs.
ZapBrannigan said:
Fly tail draggers and turboprops. Fly something with round dials.
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Love this, though.
 
IMHO, it depends on the person. If you're 100% certain that all you ever want to do with your life is fly airplanes, it makes sense to get that seniority number as quickly as you can. But do some self-reflection and be certain. I did it the other way, and got a degree in something I was interested in. Did it slow down my rise up "the ladder". Oh yeah, a lot. But I don't regret it at all. Even when I'm bidding and see where I "coulda" been if I'd rushed. I mean. Ok, maybe not "at all", but the vast majority of the time...
 
This Board is disproportionately made up of those for whom everything worked out well. There's a growing population of folks who rushed into it, paid the higher price for that, and are now struggling to pay off those loans with hiring in a much weaker state than when they started.

My vote is for a degree in something other than aviation, but something you're interested in. If you force yourself to study accounting when you hate it, you increase the risk of the worst scenario - paying for college and not finishing.

I work in airport management, and while you'll find aviation degrees among ops folks, just as many don't have them - and hardly anyone in other areas of the business have them.
 
If you want the college experience at the expense of seniority go for it. I sometimes wish I had the college experience and never got it.

If you want to be an airline pilot and willing to sacrifice the college experience, there’s not a better way to do it then go through an accelerated program and then finish your degree online as you CFI and regional pilot.

I mentor a lot of people in our pathway program and almost every one of them in a collegiate program are having issues. No checkride availability, and schools over saturating their programs irresponsibly. I can’t in good faith recommend a collegiate aviation program.

Finally I’ll address the backup degree pitch. This pitch has been in aviation for as long as I remember and while it’s a good idea in theory, I think it’s a poor realistic idea. Let’s say you get a degree in accounting and then become an airline pilot. 10 years down the road Covid-58 happens and mass layoffs occur. You try to get a job with your accounting degree you haven’t used in 10 years…not gonna happen.

Good luck and let me know if you have any further questions.
 
Hammertime said:
I'm going to be the outlier here. Go to OU. Get the aviation degree. Here's why:
You can still go through your ratings as fast as your skill and money (and can get federal student loans instead of what the accelerated flight school has set up) will allow you. If you finish them before you graduate, you can flight instruct and build time while you finish.

Flight instructing is the best way to build time. There is no better way to learn than to teach. I have worked in a 121 training department. New hires that came from a 141 flight instructing background were consistently the best students.

You will enjoy your classes instead of them being a chore. You will be better at your craft because you spent time immersed in it. You will build relationships that will stick with you the rest of your career. On of my favorite things it do is run into a college buddy in an airport, and go "look at us now!" (Yes, I'm aware that can happen through other paths...).

If you get the back up degree, you will have just a degree. Let's say you lose your medical or get furloughed a decade or two down the road. You go and apply somewhere planning to use your "backup degree". They are going to ask you about work experience in the field. You will have a 10 year old degree (that, let's be honest, you've forgotten most of) and no work experience in the field. Your aviation degree will have the same value in that situation.

Finally your aviation degree will expose you to other sectors of aviation, so if you do have to find other work down the road, it can be in the field. To name a few: Airport management, Simulator instructing, Aircraft management, State (or federal)aviation regulation...

*Edit for my inability to write*
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I endorse this methodology 100%.
 
I think that the notion of going through aviation in an accelerated program right to an airline and then spending the next 40 years doing it sounds positively boring.

You're young. The job can be a grind. You'll have plenty of money whether you get to the majors at 25 or at 35 or even 40. Go experience aviation! Go do a $100 hamburger! Go fly some cool airplanes, floatplanes, gyroplanes, biplanes! Go fly turboprops in Alaska. Go fly amphibians in the Caribbean! Do upset recovery training in an Extra 300! Fly a Kingair to Aspen and Telluride! Fly hunters to Falfurious! Get out there in the middle of the night and scare yourself a few times single pilot in a Caravan or better yet, a Metroliner!

You'll still have a terrific career. You'll also have great memories, stories, and a tool kit FILLED with real world experience.

Go to college. Fly some cool stuff. THEN, when you've done all the things, THEN go get a job with Greyhound Air.

PS - neither my degree nor my dispatcher certificate did a darned thing for me in any of my furloughs. But the fact that I flew turboprops and single pilot night freight sure did. And the network of friends I made in college did too.
 
Boris Badenov said:
IMHO, it depends on the person. If you're 100% certain that all you ever want to do with your life is fly airplanes, it makes sense to get that seniority number as quickly as you can. But do some self-reflection and be certain. I did it the other way, and got a degree in something I was interested in. Did it slow down my rise up "the ladder". Oh yeah, a lot. But I don't regret it at all. Even when I'm bidding and see where I "coulda" been if I'd rushed. I mean. Ok, maybe not "at all", but the vast majority of the time...
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My various career 'reroutes' have all been interesting (though also admittedly almost all upwards, by a combination of timing and the groan unprecedented groan intervention of the Federal Government circa 2020).

I wish the system rewarded channeled curiosity (which is what I would call college) better than it did.
 
I'd say go to a college that has an aviation program, but has majors outside of aviation so that you aren't constantly around people that aspire to be pilots for 4 years. Most will be buzz kills.

I also will say don't go get a basket weaving degree just because many of us believe in majoring in something outside of aviation. I could not see myself majoring in anything outside of aviation except for maybe a degree in music (which is rougher than aviation than with career progression) without failing out because if lack of interest amd boredom.

We all bag on the aviation industry and the lifestyle. But I've learned that many doctors hate doctoring and many lawyers hate lawyering.
 
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