I have been in thinking about many options in my aviation career. A little background, I am a sophomore-level student at the University of North Dakota studying Commercial Aviation. I do not really like the way things are going up here, (Full flight classes/slots). I already have my private license as well as a whopping 57.9 flight hours. I have been thinking about taking a semester off from college to pursue my flight training at ATP then picking up college later. Then, I have been thinking about finishing my college degree, which I am about halfway done, and then pursuing my flight training. Any insight would be fantastic!
At this point I would recommend finishing your degree, then doing your flight training. While you are currently in the school mode it is best to just stay there and finish things up. After college go to flight training, that way you can go straight into instructing afterwards. This is exactly the path that I took and it worked just fine for me.
I’m with Chris, finish your degree now. VERY difficult to dive back in later. Finish up, THEN complete the rest of your flight training full-time.
Only other option I’d consider would be if there’s some way to use your credits to get an Associate’s degree now, then go for the BA later online? Wouldn’t be my first choice. I just can’t see you 2 yrs in and bailing with nothing.
UND keeps accepting students into the aerospace program but doesn’t have enough airplanes or instructors for the new and current students. I didn’t even get a flight slot for my instrument training. So I decided to go else where.
I have looked into doing that but not all my credits would transfer yet setting me back which I didn’t want to do. Sure it’s nice to have the R-ATP but oh well.