I’m currently junior in high school approaching senior year. I’m at the point where will have to make a decision on how I want to do my degree and my flight training.
I have considered the following routes
The community college I live next to has a 2 year aviation degree/ flight program with very affordable pricing and a newer, standardized fleet. Also, if I come into the program with my private pilot’s license, the program is only 1.5 years. After completing the program, I would be 18.5-19 and the school offers flight instructor jobs to most, if not all graduates. This route would put me at the regional airlines at the age of 21, which is the minimum age for an R-ATP.
The problem with this route is my options to finish my degree are pretty limited and I would have to earn an aviation degree. Most of the graduates of this program go on to finish their degree online, which I am not fond of.
Go to my local state university while doing flight training (part 61) on the side. I am not too fond of this plan because it will be hard to balance flight training and my degree. Also, I would probably have to instruct much longer because it will be part time and the instructors in my city log very little flight time. Though, it will allow me to get a useful degree and have an actual college experience.
Do my degree at my local state university then go to ATP when I graduate. The benefit to this is I get a useful degree and I don’t have to balance it with college. The major disadvantage I see to this plan is it will take at least a year longer than my other options.
I would love your guy’s opinions on what you think would be best.
I would lean toward the third option. I wouldn’t throw community college out the window though. Your first two years of college are pretty much the same no matter which college you go to. If you want to save some money, CC is a good place to start. I also like option three because you would be focusing on one thing at a time. Also, I think it’s important to get a non-aviation degree.
Getting my bachelor’s degree done before coming to ATP. I’ll graduate college at 21 and be off to the regionals by 23.
2.Getting just my associates degree done before coming to ATP. Then, I will finish my bachelor’s degree later on. I have heard it is common for airline pilots to finish their degree online. This option will get me to the regionals by 21.
Obviously option number 2 will get me to the regionals much sooner. Though, is it worth it to do option 1?
I generally recommend once people
start their secondary educations they continue. Most people find that simply easier. You’re in “school mode” and you can just stay there. I also like having a degree in something other than aviation as a backup in case flying doesn’t work out (by choice or circumstance). Most pilots that finish their degrees online at Regionals end up getting an aviation degree because you can get credit for your licenses and ratings saving you time and money. The only other issue I’ve seen is it takes a fair amount of discipline to finish your degree online as a new airline pilot. Some get caught up in the social aspects of the job and telling the crew you won’t be joining them when they’re all going out because you have to study can be challenging.
Ultimately it’s your decision. I recommend you do some self assessment of what works best for you. There is no wrong answer.
Both options would work out just fine. In my opinion, I would just finish the 4 year degree before flight training, but you can finish it online once at a regional if you want. For me, once I get out of “school mode,” it’s hard to get back in it. At your young age, the 2 year difference isn’t something I would worry about.
I would definitely completely finish school first like Tory and Adam suggested. Also, like Tory suggested I would do community college for first two years. You can save a lot of money and community college is more like high school so your transition would be so much easier. As long as you have a decent GPA you will easily get into the state school after that and once you get the bachelors it will look like you did all four years at that school anyways. Get it all done while you’re in school mode. Finishing something later is so much easier said than done. Completely focus on your degree now and then completely focus on ATP after graduation. You will do much better at both.
As to your second set of questions, option two will get you to the Airlines sooner and in this industry, seniority is everything. That being said, you have to make sure that you will have the dedication to go back and finish your degree later.
I completed all of my college, then went to ATP. It might have cost me a year or so, but I liked going straight through college and completing it, then focusing on flight training.
I’d also vote for option three here, and that’s what I did myself. Except, I went to community college first, got my associate’s degree and transfered all of my gen-ed classes and finished my bachelor’s in two years. I ended up saving around $20k or more this way. Community college is a cheap alternative to your first two years in college. I’d highly recommend it if you’re going to be taking out student loans.
If you research even just a little bit on the forums, you’ll see plenty of people advising against an aviation degree. But also don’t make the mistake I made by getting a useless degree. I have a degree in Psychology, and you really can’t do much with it unless you go to grad school. So my fall-back plan isn’t really the best, but at least it will satisfy the 4-year degree requirement of the major airlines when the time comes.
I understand the whole get the useful degree thing. But, as Adam mentioned earlier, most pilot’s get a degree in aviation because the licenses/ratings are transferable and worth about 30 credits. Therefore, I can save a whole year’s worth of classes. If I came to ATP with 60 credits, then I get all my licenses I would have about 90 credits total. At that point, I would be 30 credits shy of my bachelor’s. Whereas, if I got a degree in something else I would be 60 credits short because I wouldn’t be able to transfer my ratings towards it. So, is it really worth the extra 30 credits in order to get a degree is something like business rather than aviation?
Let’s say you do get an aviation degree. If flying doesn’t work out, is that degree going to help you when searching for a new job? Maybe. Maybe not. So, is it worth it? It depends on the individual.
In a perfect world no but we don’t live in a perfect world. Things happen. The airlines are doing well but they were also doing well on Sept 10, 2001. The next day the industry collapsed. I know pilots who’ve gone for routine checkups and were grounded the next day. I also know a few pilots who simply decided after a few years they wanted to do something else. Not trying to be negative I’m just big on having options. Totally your call.
Most pilots do not get a degree in aviation. The degrees that I see are spread across the spectrum, but I would say that most fall into the business category.
If you follow the path you suggested, I think that an aviation degree makes perfect sense for you. You could always apply that year you save to a higher level degree, like a Master’s degree.
Majors might not care about your masters but if you decide that the pilot lifestyle isn’t for you, then having maybe an MBA on top of that aviation degree could possibly land you an office job but I wouldn’t count on it.
The point is to have options, don’t lock yourself into a single path.
A master’s degree will not actually do you much good when applying for the majors. Sure, it will look nice, but it isn’t a requirement and won’t get you to the front of the line. The majors want to see flight time and plenty of it.