Choosing ATP

Hi everyone my name is Supreeth. I wanted to become Pilot from 4th grade and I started to pursue my dream right after graduating my high school. On July 4 2022 I started PPL training at nearby flight school evrerything was good cause my parents said they would pay for my PPL training and I got to phase 5 my paresnts said they can’t pay anymore cause budget is tight.
My initial plan was to get PPL here in my local flight school and transfer to Embry-Riddle(my dream school to attend) and complete rest of my training there; but Riddle became too very expensive and I would not be able to pay my student debts off so I gave up on attending Riddle.
After giving up on Riddle I applied to a private loan lender that my flight school is partnered up with and after waiting for almost 4 moths they got back to me yesterday saying they will approve the loan but intrest rate is 20% and the payment starts from month after I take out the loan. I am very scared to take out this loan because intrest is ridiculous.
So right now I am thinking to attend ATP since they offer better loan options and better training. So anyone who has ATP experience can you pls tell me what can I expect as a student, how is the student and instructor community and experience because I talked to a instructor couple months back and he said ATP is really draining and he said ATP is place if you want to become Pilot soon rather then having fun and getting good experience.
So can anyone pls help me with my issue? Thak you very much to everyone who took time to read my long question, I learn lot of information from here and I didnt know where else to share my question.

Supreeth,

I respectfully disagree with your instructor that ATP isn’t “fun”. That said fun is not what you’re paying for and if you struggle and can’t handle the pressure then yes I suppose it would be far less enjoyable.

Thing is it always makes me smile when someone is concerned with the rigors of ATPs accelerated program. I think there’s a misconception that ATP is hard just to be hard. It isn’t. The program was created by airline pilots to train airline pilots. People get scared off when they hear its tough and my response is always “do you think actual airline training is easy?”. Despite recent common belief not everyone can or should be a pilot. If however you’re willing to put in the work I actually think the program is a blast.

Adam

Ok thank you very much for your information

Supreeth,

Your experience isn’t unique. Flight training is incredibly expensive and the path to becoming an airline pilot isn’t easy. You should be thrilled to get approved for the loan to begin with because many people give up the dream there without the money to pay for training. The interest rate is high but thats the cost of a large, unsecured loan. You either need to commit to being successful at all costs because your financial health depends on it or walk away.

You may or may not be approved for a Sallie Mae loan. If you are, the interest rates are still hovering around 12% for these kinds of loans. You don’t mention any professional work experience or college degree so make sure you review the program prerequisites. You may have trouble getting admitted without any of those boxes checked.

Regardless of where you pursue training, flight training is difficult. It’s meant to be because you’re earning a huge responsibility protecting the lives of all those you transport. I recommend college first to better prepare you for the rigors of the program since it is such a huge financial risk. Then apply to ATP with more flexible loan repayment options.

Hannah

Supreeth,

I’m not sure what “phase 5” is, is that checkride preparation, solo, solo cross country? If you ran into a problem with financial, many individuals have been in that situation. It seems that your instructor has a negative bias against ATP, I think they may be upset they aren’t here? ATP is a great school, offers a great program, connections and networks across the industry. I had a flight attendant on a previous trip start bashing ATP and talking how they had friends that didn’t like ATP, they hated it, blah blah blah… I asked them, did they drop out, fail, pass? The response I got; I knew they dropped out because the program was not for them. It is ironic to hear stories from those that have been successful and then heard from unsuccessful and see the differences. If you do what ATP asks of you, you will do fine. ATP is going on 40 years in business, if they didn’t provide a successful program, do you think they would still be operating today?

I have to say, 20% interest rate, that is EXTREME. The highest mine has ever been 12%, when I first entered ATP. Did you apply to Sallie Mae for ATP’s program?

As the others mentioned, flight training is not easy, but one thing you can do to make things better is by taking the time to have a well thought out brief and debrief after the flight. That is one thing I love about ATP, before every lesson, you meet with your instructor and brief what is to be expected. You have time to ask questions and take the time to understand what is to be completed. Then when you complete the lesson, you have time to debrief. The other benefit to a school like ATP is that the simulator is your best friend, you can practice and chair fly anytime it is open.

Please let us know if you have any other questions, we’re here to help.

Brady

Thank you very much all your great information

Hi, thank you for explaining things in detail now it makes more sense to what to expect.
Phase 5 is getting ready to do solo and solo cross country.
I applied to Sallie Mae, and just now I got accepted to their loan and they offered me 16% interest with $25 monthly payments while in school and 17% interest rate without any payments while in school and I still think its very high, my biggest regret to taking out these high intrest loans in not being able to pay them off after becoming CFI and until getting to major airlines.
I am going to ATP tomorrow to talk with an instructor and to get a feel what ATP is like and what I can expect, I will asks them more questions if everything works out good and if Im confident that I can pay off the loan I will join ATP.
Thank you very much for your great explanation in detail.

Supreeth,

I would not just show up to the ATP training center. You need to call ahead and schedule a visit. Typically this is in the form of an admissions flight. If you just show up, there is a very good possibility that nobody will be available to speak with you as they have other obligations.

Chris

And if you’re accepted into the program…

Adam

I did contact ATP admissions department and yhey scheduled me to go to ATP today and talk with an instructor and tour the facility

I already sent in all the documents and did the phone interview everything went good, only thing I havent done is intro flight

How did the tour go?

So unfortunately we had tornado warning today and weather was very bad so my tour is scheduled for next Wednesday also Sallie Mae accepted me for loan to pay for ATP but they offered me 16% interest with $25 monthly payments while in school and 18% without any payments while in school but I have applied to different loan lender hoping to get cheper intrest rate then Sallie Mae still waiting to hear back from them.
Thank you for reaching back to me and helping me out I’m very very thankful to everyone here, you all have helped me so much; if I did not take a look at this foarm and ask questions I would’ve quit my flight traing 5 months ago.

I think you might find that it will be difficult to get an interest rate much lower than what Sallie Mae offers. Rates are higher these days these are unsecured loans, so they will always be higher than mortgages, car loans, etc.

And mortgage rates are the highest they’ve been in 23yrs sooooo…

Adam

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Supreeth,

I did the $25 per month monthly installments while I was attending ATP, it wasn’t the end of the world because I was able to even use some of my extended funds from living expenses to help cover. The other thing you need to realize is once you’re in the real world of airline flying (maybe even instructing), you can refinance lower your payment or interest rate. That is what the majority of folks do when they get to the regional, I did, I believe Hannah did the same. I took my interest rate of nearly 12.5% down to the mid 7’s. I’ll plan to refinance later on after a few years and shoot for a lower interest rate to pay off quicker!

Brady

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Oh ok i did not know about this thanks for letting me know