Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illinois.

CProtocol

New Member
I'm a senior in HS at the moment and I am making the big choice of what college I want to pursue for my aviation degree. I have a couple choices, so any advise given would be extremely appreciated. Here are the main three:

1)Go to Lewis University in romeoville. Got accepted(who can't) and it strikes me as a very nice school and has some nice facilities. Airport is on campus and pretty close to home. Will cost a boat load of money. Offers a full B.D program in aviation flight.

2) Attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Have visited the campus on some "trips" over weekends, but haven't seen the aviation facilities. Supposedly, it doesn't have the the most advanced aircraft or simulators, but the instructors are brilliant and fantastic teachers. Airport is a couple miles off of campus. It's MUCH cheaper, better college "life",etc. One thing that turns me off is they only offer an A.D in aviation flight, than you transfer over to a "aviation administration" major to get a B.D. Can someone shed some light on this?

3) Go the unorthodox way like someone I know did. He got most of his ratings through a local airport and through American Flyers, and started instructing. Than got his B.D through ERAU online for a small fraction of the normal price of attending ERAU. 4 years out of high school, he has a BD from ERAU, makes a decent amount of money instruction, and has over 1400 hours flight hours. This would be much cheaper than all the other choices.


There you have it. Keep in mind, by the time I attend, I plan on having my PPL and instruments rating. Any help is appreciated.
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Hey there, SIU '06 Alum here. I wouldn't go so far as to say the instructors are "brilliant" but I had some good ones in there. One thing they WON'T do is hold your hand. If you don't wanna go fly, you won't, and you won't get done.

It's supposed to be a 2 year program, it took me 4ish for the flight portion (I'm a slacker) i finished with my CSEL, CFI, and instrument. I started the multi-engine course in the 310's but then realized that it wasn't worth the money and the time considering I could do it in a weekend for 1/2 the money. (I got my private there too.) It's a fun town, but SIU has a way of sucking the fun out of the flying. For instance, you get your private, then go on to do local commercial timebuilding (a whole lotta flying around the practice areas), the next course is commercial x-cty's in the 172's. WITHOUT your instrument rating. It's not that it's a big deal, but you end up getting out of there with all of .4 of actual (i had the most of my friends that did the instrument there) and you miss out on the fun part of IFR; going somewhere in the system and learning from your mistakes on relatively light IFR days.

That said, there is one loophole that they don't advertise. If you get your ratings (PSEL, CSEL, CMEL through CFI) they will give you college credit for them! You don't have to do the program at the school in order to get the Associates degree from there. Also, you will be taking management courses (or courses that qualify for the management curriculum) the entire time you're there, from freshman to super senior (5th year senior, that was me). So you don't actually "switch over" to a management degree, rather you can get dual credit for the associates and the bachelors with certain classes.

Personally, I needed the structure of having a set flight slot time. I'm not a very good student (not for lack of aptitude, but lack of effort, they actually gave me an academic scholarship that I kept for all of 2 semesters!) and I still managed to get out of there with the associates and a bachelors in Aviation Management, albeit 5 hard partying years later...

The management courses are pretty fun! The teachers are good, Dr. Ruiz, Dr. Worrelles, and Dinah Siebart (I believe she has retired, but I really liked her classes) were all good instructors. Many people really like Dr. Kaps, and I'm sure he's a great teacher to many people, but I wasn't one of the ones who really cared for him. I'm pretty sure he wasn't very fond of me either though. (I had long hair and didn't have a stellar attendance record).

All in all, it's a good school, fun people, a 5 hour drive from Chicago, St. Louis is near, the age to get into the bars is 19, the chicks are drunk (read: easy, but watch out, they get bigger FAST!) If you need any other info I'm sure there are several other former saluki's on here who would help you out. Feel free to PM me if you like (I don't know if I have the requisite number of posts yet).

Did it work out for me? Well armed with my fancy degree I got a flight instructing job in Lexington KY right after finishing, did that for 6 months, bought a block of multi-time, got hired at XJT in May '07, furloughed Oct. '08, and am now a Captain (if you could call it that) on a Caravan flying around Georgia and making all of the approach controllers lives in ATL miserable!

Disclaimer: Other people SIUC experience were definantly different from mine! Some may have had a better time, some worse, some people may have done better for themselves, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Edit: Skipped over one of your paragraphs.
Overall, would you recommend it? How far away is the airport from campus and how often were they having you fly a week?
Was there any other schools you were looking at before attending SIU? What turned you away from these schools?
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

No need for the edit! Let me know what you're thinking!

The school is about 5 miles from the airport. It was a bit easier for me because I knew this was what I was going to do. I didn't have to sacrifice much, and I grew up around aviation. (My dad is an ACP at UPS, my grandpa used to have a 140, my dad had a 140 and a 172, all my uncles fly and I've been flying since I was in a car seat. Seriously.)

So for me it was college, with aviation as a bonus. I would recommend SIU, however, I would get the private out of the way, and if you can, get the instrument. The commercial curriculum will let you fly IFR IF you can convince the powers that be that you can do it (i.e. no approaches down to mins.)

David Jaynes was the man to talk to if you were doing aviation flight when I was there, he may still be around. Check out aviation.siu.edu and see if you can find him. He was the "guidance counselor" of the time that I was there. He's a good guy and doesn't lie, however, due to weather and other circumstances you may go over on your lab fees. (All flying is billed as lab fees, not as classes).

If you need to take out loans for flight training you can do it through the bursars/student loan dept. so it's actually easier to get money to be able to get the ratings that you want/need regardless of income. Thats the major plus, you can get a student loan to fly! Plus, when you add it on to the amount you're paying for tuition and your other classes you can take enough to not work for the year, but REMEBER, YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY IT BACK!!!!

I did look at other schools. Embry-Riddle, UND, Purdue, what it came down to was that I could get the same thing from another school that was cheaper, and they gave me a scholarship based on my ACT score. Either way, SIU really is a good school and it doesn't matter which school you choose. I would recommend that you visit all of the schools that you're planning on attending and see which one seems to fit you best. Then find the middle ground, because you REALLY don't wanna be hanging around a bunch of people that talk about airplanes incessantly when there is so much more to college!!! Go out, get laid, make bad decisions (when it comes to your standards for women), and LIVE! Remember though, when you're out there living it up, that everything you do has consequences. Sometimes you get lucky and it only burns when you pee, sometimes, you get arrested and have to explain it for the rest of your life.

Anyway, good luck in your decision! Make sure you're happy no matter what you do! And, for the love of all thats holy, don't make aviation your sole pursuit in life!!! It will happen, and you will be OK even when companies furlough, even when you think you'll never get a job. It WILL work out! If you can survive 4 years in c-dale, you can make it!

Jonny
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Thanks for the abundance of information! I was pretty focused on going to Lewis, but it just didn't seem for me. I need to write the essay for "aviation applicant" and hopefully it isn't too late to get accepted, but I could always postpone college for a semester and get some more flight experience if it comes down to it! I'm just hoping I could get a scholarship as well, not to toot my own horn, but I have a stellar GPA and a 31 ACT score. Thanks for the info, but if anyone else has some stories/opinions about some of my choices, please tell.
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Dude, I got in with a 29 ACT score and a full tuition scholarship as long as I had a 3.0 GPA. (2 whole semesters!) Enjoy the time, grow as a person, do some things you aren't proud of and realize that it's just a part of life to grow up. It's a fun school, but like anywhere, it will eat you alive if you don't realize which parts are important and which ones aren't, it's all a part of skills you will use for the rest of your adult life!

P.S. I'm still dating the president of the tri sigma sorority 3 years later. You don't hear too many stories about that from Embry-Riddle. Even the online version! :sarcasm:
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Dude, I got in with a 29 ACT score and a full tuition scholarship as long as I had a 3.0 GPA. (2 whole semesters!) Enjoy the time, grow as a person, do some things you aren't proud of and realize that it's just a part of life to grow up. It's a fun school, but like anywhere, it will eat you alive if you don't realize which parts are important and which ones aren't, it's all a part of skills you will use for the rest of your adult life!

P.S. I'm still dating the president of the tri sigma sorority 3 years later. You don't hear too many stories about that from Embry-Riddle. Even the online version! :sarcasm:


Now this is getting slightly off topic, but how did you go about getting the scholarship? Did they tell you you got it with the acceptance letter?
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

I don't really know how I got the scholarship. I. Never applied for it, one day a letter came in the mail that said congrats, here's some money. Kinda strange now that I think about it.
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Hey, I am currently freshman at Lewis, majoring in Aviation flight. Going to Lewis has its pros and cons:

Pros:

1. Airport is on campus.
2. Instructors are helpful.
3. Teachers know you by your name.

Cons:

1. It is really expensive. it costs to fly around 180 dollars per flight block in the old C172. And you fly 3 days a week. Do the math.
2. Half of the profesors seem underqualified. They don't know what they are talking about.
3. While you are doing a preflight inspection and your instructor is sitting inside you are getting charged.
4. When you get accepted Frank gives you a call and tells you that you got a scholarship, that 10000 scholarship is nothing compared to tuition and flight fees.
4. Living on Campus sucks. RAs bust every party.

If I was you I would go to SIU Carbondale, or U of I. Go to Lewis if you have money to burn.
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

I'm an '08 SIU grad...

"Jonny" (still trying to figure out who you are....) pretty much told it how it is.

You'll end up coming out of both SIU and Lewis with the same aviation experience. I think SIU offers a little more of that "social experience" that is everyone's right of passage when they go through college. Just know where your priorities are at. Know how to manage your time between flying and partying. That's what will make or break you at SIU....

Yes, the airplanes are older but I honestly think that's a good thing. Every new student pilot should be required to know how to fly "steam gauges". Glass cockpits are great but they don't belong in a student pilot course, IMO. The transition is much easier going from steam to glass than vice versa. However, they did just get a brand new Frasca Advanced Training Device...you know the ones with the full wrap-around view...which I think is modeled off of a G1000 glass cockpit. I think it is being used in the instrument and commercial pilot course as ain intro to glass cockpits.

Ultimately, you reap what you sew at SIU. Or in other words, what you put in is what you'll get out of it. I'd say I went at an above average pace through the program. My 1st semester of my junior year I started flight instructing for the school part time and did that until I graduated. It was a great opportunity, albeit the pay sucked, to get experience and build a resume. Another thing I want to point out is that make sure you get involved. I was heavily involved in the student groups. I had a blast, made some great friends and I ended up in some leadership positions towards the end of my college career with these same groups. It's a great way to get yourself noticed and get some scholarships too! Show that you care and the rewards will come in due time. I can honestly say that if it weren't for my close relationships with some of the top guys in the aviation department, I wouldn't have gotten my corporate aviation job right out of college.

Looking back, would I choose to go to SIU all over again? Absolutely.

Good Luck!
 
Re: Would like some input from anyone from the midwest/illin

Thanks for all the info guys, I'm pretty set on going to SIUC now. Seems like a much more rounded college experience, and I should be able to keep myself from slacking off. Plus, insanely cheaper.
 
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