Thank God I didnt Go to.....

abrutus

abrutus

Well-Known Member
ERAU to get an aviation Degree!! ..
I mean.. ERAU was at some point my dream!! I Went, applied and Got accepted...
But at the end by ¨acts of God¨.. I ended up in another route wich led me to go to medical school.. (btw ...graduating in may :) )
So Why did I say Im glad I didnt go to ERAU for a degree? Prices!
Back then (around 7-8 years ago) I was looking at 20K per year for tuition plus 10K for flight fees per year. (around 120K total for the degree).. wich i tought It was unreasonable but my passion for aviation and all the fancy things they had up there in daytona beach blinded me and I was looking at all posible ways to finance my dream (or should I have said nightmare... had I gone with it) mainly with loans..
I just went in today to their website and saw ther updated prices..
Total, non-flight students***$40,302 per year (multiply that for 4 years and take into consideration that each year it will increase)

Add to that around 51K in flight fees (the minimum) Granted you want to get all the way to CFII-ME
Thats Over $200,000 Dollars for a ¨¨degree¨¨ and 250 hrs of flight time?!?! to go out and start earning 24k per year??!!..
Dont get me wrong. I know what education Costs. Medical school its not cheap at all. But At the end, as a physician u start earning well above 100K (meaning paying back loans its not much of a deal in most cases).
So This is what struck me..
Medical school Cost : 150K dollars (I know.. it Varies) But just giving an exaple.
Starting salary: North of 100K
ERAU flight degree cost: Over 200K
Starting Salary : Realistically or the average will not be over 30k for the first year... or am I wrong?

I dont wanna sound like Im against EARU or any other flight university for that matter..
I am just trying to justify such a great ¨investment¨ and I cannot find enough reasons to justify paying that much money granting your main goal is to end up getting hired as a professional pilot at X Airline or corporate department.
If u have the money..... I guess you can do whatever you want and its not gonna matter..
but for a poor guy with a family like me.. it makes more sence to get a non aviation related Degree and to go to your local flight school and pay 30-40k for your ratings..
or okey.. I love the tought of being trained at a flight academy. So let say.. you got 50K laying around and can go and train in Flight safety or pan am academy or so...
Great.. you´ve spent the best 50K you could have spent..
but Spending 200 thousand Dollars for the same ratings?? :S ...
I think Being a physician with Ratings from a ¨local FBO¨ doesnt make me any less competent than somebody who has a flight degree..... or does it? ..lol.. I dont wanna create a controversy over this..
My sole point being I guess to vent some of my admiration for the lucky ones who dare to pay those grate amounts of money for flight traninig! Their love for aviation and their wallets must be huge!
PD: Im not rich.. so I dont know if my point of view would change if I had millions in my pocket :p..
Just my 2 cents..
 
You've got some really, really good points in that post. I would 100% agree that in some ways the place is over rated. Especially in their flight areas. ERAU is not for everyone.

That said, I wouldn't trade the time I spent there for college anywhere else.
 
What residency are you going to do?
I can see if you get a military scholarship... But otherwise that is a lot of bean to throw down for that much flight time.
 
This post rubs me the wrong way. I don't know if it's the fact that the OP is just riddled with errors, or the whole notion of "I don't want to create a problem, but here's a 5 gallon bucket of gas to add to the camp fire."

Anyway... where did you get the figure of starting salary of a medical school grad? I thought it was more around $50-60k. Maybe that is a very arbitrary figure either way. If you consider how long it takes to get through medical school, a pilot could get pretty far in that amount of time. Nothing stellar, but better than $24k a year.
 
You know, I didn't go to Embry Riddle, but I'm sure that aviation degree has worked out for some people, and I'm sure there are people who feel the exact opposite that you do.

Not exactly sure what the point of this post is.
 
Eh, I went in '99-03 when it was still cheaper than state school in MA and the flight program was 60 bucks a flight hour for a brand new 172. I was even grandfathered into the old rates with the '03 people started coming in with credit hour cost more than double mine (IF I remember the math correctly).

Riddle used to be a great school, the internships (if you took advantage of them) placed a lot of our grads including me when the economy was crap. While I don't agree with their direction today, I can't argue with the fact the classes are packed and the college never calls me wanting my money to fund their next monstrosity of a dorm or educational wing.
 
jynxyjoe said:
Eh, I went in '99-03 when it was still cheaper than state school in MA and the flight program was 60 bucks a flight hour for a brand new 172. I was even grandfathered into the old rates with the '03 people started coming in with credit hour cost more than double mine (IF I remember the math correctly).

Riddle used to be a great school, the internships (if you took advantage of them) placed a lot of our grads including me when the economy was crap. While I don't agree with their direction today, I can't argue with the fact the classes are packed and the college never calls me wanting my money to fund their next monstrosity of a dorm or educational wing.
Click to expand...

Another Riddle Rat!
 
grkero said:
This post rubs me the wrong way. I don't know if it's the fact that the OP is just riddled with errors, or the whole notion of "I don't want to create a problem, but here's a 5 gallon bucket of gas to add to the camp fire."

Anyway... where did you get the figure of starting salary of a medical school grad? I thought it was more around $50-60k. Maybe that is a very arbitrary figure either way. If you consider how long it takes to get through medical school, a pilot could get pretty far in that amount of time. Nothing stellar, but better than $24k a year.
Click to expand...
Many places less than that for residency unless it recently changed. Once you are done with residency, however, many specialties put you into the "evil rich person" class.
Frankly as long as someone does not come to me as a taxpayer with an open hand asking for me to reimburse them for the mistake they made in funding their education I don't care what you study as long as you are happy in life. I know several doctors who make big bucks and hate their jobs. I told my niece she was a fool for studying photography at school but she has actually been mildly successful in that career and loves her job.
So as long as someone understands the financial ramifications of ERAU and pays off their own student loans I'm fine with it.
 
ERAU is indeed very expensive, but I'm sure it's worked for some people and not others. Nevertheless, people are going to do what makes them happy, and if spending 200K in loans to get some ratings and a degree is their wish, then all the more power to them!
 
I went 2000-2003, like above it was cheap at first. I was paying $79/hr for an OLD 172 back home where I did my private and DAB campus was $65/hr IIRC for their new 172's.

Every year the credit cost increased but it really took off in 2003-2004 time frame, but damn I sure as hell wouldn't go now

I instructed at MAPD and the credit cost per hour was around $30 IIRC and wet Bonanzas were only a few $$ more than ERAU's 172's. Compare that to what, $800 per credit hour at ERAU? IMO the quality of product at MAPD was significantly better than ERAU as well.
 
Cool story bro! We had no idea Riddle was expensive, thanks for letting us out into the light.

First, I think the term "aviation university" should only apply to Riddle. Most University Aviation programs are at normal state schools where a majority of the students have nothing to do with the program (and they are called girls). I think those places seem to have a more "normal college experience." In my opinion, this allows a chance to be a slightly more well rounded individual. Granted, we still had our share of flying team geeks who did nothing in their free time but play flight sim and surf Airliners.net. But there are also quite a few guys I played hockey with or hung out with elsewhere that I have run into out in the industry who I had no idea they were aviation majors.

This and the costs associated are why I didn't go to Riddle. It is very easy to get residency in ND, so the tuition I paid was cheaper than many state schools that I looked at. At the time, the flight costs were also quite reasonable. More expensive than your local FBO, but not by much.

All things considered, these are the reasons I did what I did. In hindsight, there are things I would change, but in the end it gave me the tools I needed to succeed. If someone else thinks Riddle is where they would succeed the most, then good for them. There are infinite ways to get where you want to go. If anyone stands up and says their way is the only way, they are just stroking their ego.

One large plus I see in the aviation university setting is an emphasis of quality over speed. The few advertisements you see from these places say nothing about how quickly they can have you in an epaulette sweater and ray bans. Instead they talk about how they have the resources to help make you better. While an aviation degree is certainly not required for this industry (not should it be), I don't see how 4 years of study in the field in which you will work the rest of your career is a bad thing. Provided it is used on someone with a good attitude and work ethic, it can make for a pretty sharp pilot.

There are certainly downsides. UND gave out a lot of kool aide. It was a good school, but it didn't result in airlines busting my door down. It doesn't work miracles, but of you are willing to put in the time and put up with a little bit of BS (still less than you will deal with at a regional) it will get you where you want to go. There is also a lot of inbreeding. Instructors who were hired right after graduation and have slowly worked up the food chain without any outside experience. This can result in focusing a bit too much on things that don't matter as much. No matter where you go to school, when you finish, figure out what experiences you missed out on, then go instruct somewhere that will help you gain that. For me it was busy airspace. By chance I ended up instructing in the DC area and quickly learned where my shortcomings were.
 
wheelsup said:
Compare that to what, $800 per credit hour at ERAU?.
Click to expand...

Honestly, its closer to like $1000 a credit hour. If you're in good academic standing, the cost comes down, as you can take 18 hours for the same price, but the $29,852 they list as tuition is for roughly 30 credit hours.

That said, I know 100% that I would not have the job I have without having been there and the career services department they offer. I used to think that career services there was a joke, but there are a lot of things they do to help people.
 
wheelsup said:
I went 2000-2003, like above it was cheap at first. I was paying $79/hr for an OLD 172 back home where I did my private and DAB campus was $65/hr IIRC for their new 172's.
Click to expand...

I believe it jumped from 60 to 64.75 IIRC and we almost had a riot. Seems silly compared to the $120 an hour for a 172. I think I completed my multi at 130 or 140 an hour?

Our 172's had the 180 horse and the skylights in the wing. mmmmm donuts.
 
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