I am interested in potentially attending ATP at one of the ATL locations. Right now (early on in my search), I am leaning towards the PDK location. Does anyone have any insight on any of the ATL locations and their size (in terms of number of students)? It would be even more helpful if anyone knew an approximate gender breakdown at these locations (although I know that is very specific!).
If anyone has attended training at one of these locations in the last year or so who could give me an idea, that would be great. Or if there is a thread elsewhere that I should look into, I’m happy to do that as well.
The thing about each one of ATP’s locations is that the size often fluctuates based on enrollment. When I taught at SAC we had no more than 4 Cessnas at a time. Shortly after I left the training center doubled. I see now they have 10. I know this doesn’t compare to some of the larger locations like IWA with 38, but the point is that virtually all of the students in the program now will be done by the time you enroll. So take the stats with a grain of salt.
No matter the size of the program ATP also staffs each location accordingly. I don’t have exact numbers but I see that LZU has the largest fleet (of the Atlanta locations). I would guess there are at least 35 students at LZU (or at least the training center could operate at that capacity).
On your question about demographics, again that changes so often it’s not worth taking into consideration in my opinion. ATP teaches the same program at every location and every Instructor follows the same syllabus. We recommend choosing the location nearest you.
As Tory said the numbers can and do change often. Who’s there today may very well be gone by the time you’re there. I am curious as to why this would be “helpful”? If right now the majority of students at the location were female would that be a good thing or bad? If when you enrolled and started the numbers flipped and there were none would that affect your training? Approx only 7% of all the pilots in the US are women. With that in mind you can probably expect a comparable percent of students. Regardless I’m curious again while that would be “helpful”?
Kayce,
Things change often… LZU used to be the biggest ATL location but just in the last year, that changed. From the last batch of info I got, FFC or PDK were the two bigger locations and LZU and RYY were the smaller locations. LZU has CFI academy so that is nice to potentially do all your training at one location. No matter which location you choose, your program will be the same. The curriculum is the same, the planes you’ll use is the same (all archers and seminoles) and even instructor ratios are the same. ATP allocates planes and instructors based on student load. So with that being said, a bigger location doesn’t mean you’ll have greater student to Instructor ratios than say a smaller location would. Also all the locations are tucked under ATL class bravo so you’ll get great airspace training and IFR practice going in and out of there no matter which location you choose. If I were you, I’d pick the location that is most convenient for you.
As for demographics, can’t really answer that. It changes so frequently. But as a female in the industry, I’m going to tell you the sooner you get used to being the only girl in the room, the better. It’s just the way it is…
Thanks for your quick reply, Tory. I assumed the number fluctuated too much to have any kind of solid answer, but figured I would ask. This is all helpful information and it’s nice to have an idea of maybe how many students would be at the location. I had an assumption that there were 20-30 students at each location (not sure why I thought that - for some reason just something I assumed) but as I’ve been learning more, I realized I had no real grounds for determining that number.
I trust that each location is staffed well-enough - I more ask about size because of housing and determining if living outside of ATP housing would be an option/is utilized by students. Either way, thank you again!
Thanks, Adam. I have no problem being one of the only (if not the only) woman at whichever location I end up. As I just mentioned in my reply to Tory, it’s more about figuring out housing. I was told that if I choose ATP housing, they wouldn’t put a man and woman in the same bedroom (although maybe they would share an apartment) but then it got me wondering if there are even many women to have options for roommates.
In short, it’s just a question to get me an idea of what my living situation may look like. I know very few pilots in the U.S. are women, and I fully expect those statistics to look similar to ATP.
The number of students at a specific location changes frequently as we have start dates every Monday. That being said, we do strive to keep a 4 to 1 student to instructor ratio at all ATP locations.
ATP housing is on a first-come, first-serve basis, and you are placed in housing once you have a class date. You are correct in saying that a man and a woman will not be in the same bedroom, but they may share an apartment. We can always set up a tour for you at the different facilities so that you can get a feel for which would be the best fit.
Feel free to reach out to our admissions office at 904-595-7950 and we would be happy to go over the current availability for housing for the locations that you are considering.