F-90 Driver

Louisiana Tech University

Emb170man

Florida Tech 2005 grad....been at the regionals since mid 06....loved FIT.

lakehouse

Rutgers, which does not have an aviation program, but is a state school so was nice to have the lower tuition, and did the flying 61.

slumav505

Saint Louis University - Parks College
No additional flight fees my first two years, then that gravy train finally ended and classes got a LOT smaller. Great instructors. They seem to have reorganized well and have gotten all new aircraft in the past 10 years or so. For not getting state dollars that's big. I had no flow throw or easy interview set up to get where I am. They were working on something with TSA as I was leaving but at that time with the time they were hiring at I wouldn't have needed it. You are able to fly a lot there and if you can stay for a summer you can get everything done in 2 years then change majors to a fall back plan. I left with my aviation science degree and a minor in aviation education.

Side note:
Hopefully the Majors never let up on requiring that degree. I gave up 4 years of my time to get that thing done early, I could have gone part 61 at age 18 and gotten my ratings done quicker and would be a Regional Captain now, but the degree was important and should allow me to jump some people in the race because they didn't do the degree first. (military guys who leave with honorable discharge are different, ideally as long as they are actively pursuing a degree is good enough for me)

GodOfBiscuits

I'm about to graduate from FIT. Its got a pretty good flight program. There are a lot of really cool professors in the College of Aeronautics as well with tons of experience in various aspects of the aviation world, from old airline and military pilots to lawyers and airport planners.

The only warning I have about the flight program is I personally feel it is managed poorly. The instructors are mostly really cool, but the guys running the show don't do a great job. As the days go on they care less about the actual students who attend FIT and more about the students from Turkish Airways and from the Pilot Training College which brings in students from Ireland mostly. There are a ton of these guys and it makes it very difficult and frustrating at times to get an airplane when you need one. Nothing against them personally, I just think FIT has way too many students and not nearly enough airplanes at the moment.

I don't blame FIT for bringing in these other students though because of all the people I started out with in the flight program my freshman year, I would guess about 85% of them dropped out of it at some point along the way. Some right away, most after they got their private. Its not the flight program, just the cost that drove these people away. If you don't have rich parents or a lot of scholarships, be careful because you will easily need about 60 grand to do all the flight training and then tuition/room and board on top of that.

I don't want to sound too discouraging, I just want you to have the reality of the situation before you make a decision. FIT really is a great school, and the flight training is great. The campus is growing like crazy as well. In the past few years since I have been attending they have built a new dining hall, two new pools, a huge parking garage, new dorms, and a new engineering building, amongst other things (this is all on a campus you can walk from one side to the other in about 15-20 minutes).

I don't know how recognized in the industry they are though. Maybe someone else out there has a better idea on that than me. Hope I helped, I know this was a long winded response, sorry about that.

DirectTo

Yeah, I kicked myself for doing aviation to begin with as a major and wasting a few years at it. If I could do it over again, I'd hammer through a four year degree in three and do the flying part 61.

I've yet to hear of a place that cared what type of degree you had, everyone just wants a degree. I didn't get asked at any of the interviews that I did for regionals why I picked business or why I switched in the middle. Nobody cares. It's a piece of paper that means nothing in the grand scheme of what they care about - can you fly an airplane?

Of course, this is my opinion, and I'm sure someone will come along claiming that their degree is all that mattered for whatever job they got (no offense to any ERAU guys on here, but I've worked with several alumni from there who thought they were god's gift to aviation because they had gone there).

jheath

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

higney85

Middle Tennessee State University.

JRJ57

Henderson State University
Arkadelphia, Arkansas

donrumsey

Central Washington University. BIOLOGY, 1999