"Not being able to finish?" You have no idea what my situation is, yet you think you know that I "couldn't" finish? Sorry, but not the case. I was working towards the degree when AirTran hired me, and a little bit during my probationary year, but I decided during that year that if I lost my job at AirTran, I wasn't interested in starting over at another airline, so I decided not to finish the degree. My backup plan has always been the family business, which requires no degree, so continuing with the degree was a waste of money for me at the time. Now that I've got more disposable income, I've considered going back to finish it just to say I have it, but I haven't had the time yet. Maybe someday.
It was 2010, and we had roughly 15,000 applications on file, all of whom met the Part 121 PIC minimums.