Dakota Student Opinion Article Bashes UND Aerospace

I agree with a lot of the points made. When I first came here I was pretty excited and liked it...quite a bit; as time progressed my stance on it has changed as well, it seems the program has changed quite a bit as well. At this point it is already too late for me, just gotta wrap it up and move on.

UND is WAY too airline oriented...I feel sorry for the new students coming in; there has been a big change since I started (which was like 2 years ago).

Another thing to keep in mind is we NEED the contract students to stay aloft. It is really what is keeping the whole thing in business. If the contract students were taken out of the picture UND would suffer alot.
 
i wont say whether i agree or disagree, but UND has always been airline orientated. if you want to get something non-airline orientated then you go to a place like the satellites and do cropdusting or law enforcement, etc. it was like this when i was a student here as well, and it hasn't changed. there are a few classes, but they don't offer much real world experience. i have flown away from here as well and it is night and day, that is all i can say, but i do wish UND offered more about corporate or 135 cargo, etc. a lot of the non-glamorous jobs that are out there in the aviation world, because most of the poeple don't even know they exist
 
i wont say whether i agree or disagree, but UND has always been airline orientated. if you want to get something non-airline orientated then you go to a place like the satellites and do cropdusting or law enforcement, etc. it was like this when i was a student here as well, and it hasn't changed. there are a few classes, but they don't offer much real world experience. i have flown away from here as well and it is night and day, that is all i can say, but i do wish UND offered more about corporate or 135 cargo, etc. a lot of the non-glamorous jobs that are out there in the aviation world, because most of the poeple don't even know they exist

Exactly, the more I think about it, the more I realize that it might have been just me who has changed. I realize that I might want to explore other options besides airlines. It took me a while to come to this conclusion and I realize that UND really is not the best environment for myself, or other people who have similar goals. I am still open to airlines but I do not like how specific UND is.

UND is great for people who want to go to an airline or do something similar, I just wish they had a little more diversity and focused on more areas of aviation. All in all, I don't regret coming here, since it has changed me quite a bit; but sometimes I just wonder what it would have been like if I took a different route.
 
I went to UND to prepare me for the airlines. During my ground school, i was really glad having to chose UND as my training university.
The guy who wrote this article i personally know him. He is bitter for his failures in the program, and has expressed his feelings by writing similar articles to this one.
 
An unhappy collegiate aviation student? NOOOOO! Heavens to murgatroid, NOOO! :)
 
I went to UND to prepare me for the airlines. During my ground school, i was really glad having to chose UND as my training university.
The guy who wrote this article i personally know him. He is bitter for his failures in the program, and has expressed his feelings by writing similar articles to this one.

You went for an airline job, that's why your opinion is so great. I went because I heard and researched it was one of the best aviation schools. Now I wouldn't change anything because my experience outside of aviation department was fantastic, and even though I think their programs are one sided, they have the tools and resources to make you a great pilot.

Instructing there was another story though. Always had someone looking over your shoulder, extremelly hard to teach real-world pilots without getting yelled at on a daily basis. You know once I was yelled at because I was too much of a "friend" to my students:confused:

=Jason-
 
I went to UND to prepare me for the airlines. During my ground school, i was really glad having to chose UND as my training university.
The guy who wrote this article i personally know him. He is bitter for his failures in the program, and has expressed his feelings by writing similar articles to this one.

Don't be a UND Aerospace cheerleader.
 
An unhappy collegiate aviation student? NOOOOO! Heavens to murgatroid, NOOO! :)

Do you have some sort of strange 80's reference daily calenders you flip through each day and bring into reply's? You're like a walking encyclopedia of far out references.
 
I went to UND to prepare me for the airlines. During my ground school, i was really glad having to chose UND as my training university.
The guy who wrote this article i personally know him. He is bitter for his failures in the program, and has expressed his feelings by writing similar articles to this one.

You would have been happier if you went to Riddle. *rimshot* OH no I didn't!
 
You would have been happier if you went to Riddle. *rimshot* OH no I didn't!

No i dont think i would have been happier at Riddle. I dint want to shell out the cash, and plus i wanted somewhat of a college experience.
Jace,
what makes me a cheerleader? The fact that i disagree with the article?
i dont mind someone having a different view than me, in fact that is what makes most topics interesting. But the author of this article never stopped crying ever since her had a little problem with one of the courses.
 
That guy is still there? Uhm... I mean I agree with his stuff but like.... get motivated and GTFO... like me :)
 
He makes some good points. And its been over 3 years since I've left so I can't really make an opinion now. I enjoyed reading the comments section also and I do agree that it was my money, I have every entitlement to an opinion, whether it be in the school paper or otherwise. I was very happy with my choice though and miss the college life there. Yet I also had my complaints and even expressed them to some of the aviation faculty over there. My complaint at the time was the bonus point system for getting your flying done earliest. Well in my experience it was 75% pure luck if you got your flight course done on time. Everyone told me to get involved in other activities, aviation and non-aviation. I did just that and was often busy during my free time. The others that didn't do anything else flew all the time and finished quickly and got bonus points while I kept getting weathered during my actual launch time. Then I had to stay in the summer to finish and even in to Christmas break to finish up. Then when I tried to get at least some points with the course manager, he said I couldn't because I should have flown on a nice weekend, instead of going on an aviation related trip. Oh well, that was my rant to them, and I don't know if it's since changed.

There are probably other tidbits but overall I was happy to attend there.
 
You know I think Martin was having the same thing I had when I was taking 414. I am sorry to say but when you are 250 pounds and cant fly in the decathalon you gotta go down to Fargo do your spins in a 152, then after you complete your Stage 33 you then have to take a Fed ride with a FAA Inspector, and if they are not avialable then they will appoint some APD near you to do it. It was one of the most hardest things I have ever done. My Fed ride for my airline wasnt as tough as John Vold himself. I wont tell you to much more than that, but I will say UND got into some hot water and well while my opinions over the leadership and administration for UND Flight Ops is certainly skewd and that UND should try to promote other facets of avaition, they are however willing to help you just have to ask the right people and do so with the upmost respect for said individuals, that means no butt kissing, just good ole fashioned, I want to get done what do I need to do.I did one thing that Martin did not. I learned to improvise and press on because, that is what will make you succeed but also make you a better pilot. You learn things arent fair but when they arent fair you dont give up. I got plenty of crap about when I was instructing there and had to deal with BS. But you know what I wouldnt change a thing as to why I went to UND. IT has provided to me a solid job for now and health insurance to my wife and kids.
-Farva
 
My complaint at the time was the bonus point system for getting your flying done earliest. Well in my experience it was 75% pure luck if you got your flight course done on time.

Well now finishing flying on-time is part of your grade. If you finish flying late and don't meet some of the other critera listed on the "flight template" then the highest grade you can get in most of the courses is a 90% and finishing flying on time is the other 10%.

Which is total crap because as you said a lot of times it is pure luck and the University also needs to understand that some of us also work full time jobs to support ourselves while we go to school and we don't have every evening free to catch up on flying if the weather is bad for a couple of weeks or something.
 
Well now finishing flying on-time is part of your grade. If you finish flying late and don't meet some of the other critera listed on the "flight template" then the highest grade you can get in most of the courses is a 90% and finishing flying on time is the other 10%.

Which is total crap because as you said a lot of times it is pure luck and the University also needs to understand that some of us also work full time jobs to support ourselves while we go to school and we don't have every evening free to catch up on flying if the weather is bad for a couple of weeks or something.

That's a bogus rule. Glad to see UND looking out for their students. :rolleyes:
 
Thats not bad that you lose 10 percent of your grade if your not done on time. In 414 and in 415 if your not on a certain lesson by a certain date you get an F. Thats bad.
 
Well now finishing flying on-time is part of your grade. If you finish flying late and don't meet some of the other critera listed on the "flight template" then the highest grade you can get in most of the courses is a 90% and finishing flying on time is the other 10%.

Which is total crap because as you said a lot of times it is pure luck and the University also needs to understand that some of us also work full time jobs to support ourselves while we go to school and we don't have every evening free to catch up on flying if the weather is bad for a couple of weeks or something.


That figures, not only is the grading scale different than the rest of the university, now they start pulling that bs. Since at least 50% of the time someone gets behind is either weather, running out of funds, or lack of aircraft available. Nice UND:banghead:

=Jason-
 
Thats not bad that you lose 10 percent of your grade if your not done on time. In 414 and in 415 if your not on a certain lesson by a certain date you get an F. Thats bad.

Same in 323, if your not done with all your flying by the end of the semester you get an F.

I remember when we had the bonus points and then they sent out a survey about the bonus points and decided to do make finishing flying on time 10% of your grade. Yes sometimes the bonus points were not fair to those people who couldn't finish on time due to scheduling, money or illness issues but at least it didn't penalize your grade like it does now. If you run out of money or are sick and don't finish flying and have perfect scores in your flight class the max you can get now is a 90% (which is not even considered an A because an A = 92% or higher).
 
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