Is it ok to go to a flight school instead of college?

Maher,

As always we recommend you take a look at our FAQ section as there’s tons of useful info there.

Short answer is if you already have a degree there’s zero reason to go to a university program. The Majors want to see a 4yr degree but care little as to the field of study. You simply need to get trained and build you time. This is ATPs forum so obviously we’re a little biased since all the mentors on this forum did their training their and were successful. Short answer right now the school name makes no difference at all. What does matter is that you’re a well trained pilot who’s capable of not just getting hired by an airline (that’s the easy part) but also getting through training. ATP has been training pilots for the airlines for over 30yrs and has placed over 600 pilots with the airlines in the last 12 mos.

If you want to fly do some research, choose a school and start flying.

Adam

Maher,

The school name does not matter, and it does. All schools send their students for the exact same FAA checkrides, so your licenses will be the same no matter which school you go to. What matters is if the school is able to properly prepare you for the checkrides. You should look for a school with a proven record of students going through their program and becoming airline pilots.

Chris

Adam! Thank you for the details. I went through FAQ and it helped!

Chris!
Thats what I am struggling with. I live in Chicago and there are very limited flight school and honestly, non of them has a clear record, so its kind of confusing to choose the best one. I think the main key is to have a good instructor and to do the study.

Hello Everyone,

I’m hoping I could get some advice as I’m currently trying to make the biggest decision of my life. After going on a discovery flight at the age of 16, I began training at a local flight school in the DC area to receive my PPL. As I began to look at colleges to attend I had a lot of stress because it’s never been clear to me what I want to study. Because I was working on my PPL and loving it, I decided to pursue a career in aviation and applied to numerous colleges that offer Commercial Aviation degrees.

I received my PPL towards the end of my senior year of high school, and I am now a Freshman at the University of North Dakota studying Commercial Aviation. I have now begun to think that flying for the airlines isn’t for me because the part of aviation I love is flying small planes and exploring remote areas of the world. Furthermore, I’ve realized the passion I have for cinematography.

Here’s the idea. My high school friend and I are thinking of moving to Santa Barbara where I will pursue a 2-year degree at Santa Barbra Community College in either film or business. Meanwhile, we will work on film projects together in hopes of others seeing our projects, and leading to other opportunities. I know that becoming successful in the film business can be a hit or miss so I’m hoping to have aviation as a back-up plan. I will continue training at a near-by flight school in hopes of receiving my Instrument, Multi-Engine, Commercial, and possibly CFI rating.

My question is, if the film route ended up not working out for whatever reason, would there still be a chance for me to be accepted into the Airlines?
I know this is a lot so hopefully I’m making sense. If you need me to clarify anything, just let me know.

Hope to hear from you all soon, thanks!

Ryan

Ryan,

Yes, you could fall back on your flying education, but keep in mind that flying skills become stale rather quickly and that you will need to spend some time resharpening those skills if you get back into flying. Also, you will need to find a way to get to 1,500 for the airlines.

Chris

Thanks for the reply Chris.

I would still be flying a few times a week so I’m not too worried about keeping my skills up, and I would love to be a CFI to gain the 1,500 hours. In this day of age with the pilot shortage, how much do you think the airlines prefer a 4-year degree vs a 2-year degree vs no degree at all?

Ryan

Ryan,

The regionals are not concerned with a degree at all. The majors absolutely want a four year degree. Even if they don’t specifically state so, I can tell you that I do not know any pilots at the majors that do not have degrees.

Chris

Chris,

Okay, that’s what I’ve heard from others as well. If I were to have a 4-year degree in film would that mean anything to the majors, or would they much prefer to see a degree in something else? Again, I really appreciate your quick responses. I’ve seen you all over this forum and think it’s great that you’re so willing to give advice to young pilots.

Ryan

Ryan,

Short answer is no, the Majors want a degree from a reputable school but care little as to the field of study.

I recommend you visit the FAQ section as it has the answer to this and many other common questions.

Adam

I’m just confused, all the mentors say you need a degree to get a job with a major. Then ATP tells you, you don’t need a degree to get on with certain majors, America’s being one of those, if you go through the Flow through program under Americans airlines.

Keaton,

If you read closely, we do not say that you will positively need a degree for the majors, we generally mention the American Airlines exception. Read our FAQ post to see exactly what we say: Do I Need A College Degree To Be An Airline Pilot?

However, American is currently the only major that I know of to hire pilots without college degrees, and that is only if the pilots go through their flow through programs. As a prospective new pilot, I would not want to limit myself solely to one major airline, hence why we recommend that all pilots have degrees if they would like to someday work for the majors.

Chris

Keaton,

No confusion. IF you get through your training without excessive busts and IF you get accepted into an AA or Envoy Cadet program after and IF you don’t suffer any accidents, incidents or violations while instructing and IF you then get hired by one of AAs Regionals and IF you’re a model Regional pilot and IF AA doesn’t cancel or slow the flow and IF AA doesn’t change the terms of the flow then yes you’re correct you don’t need a degree.

For me that’s a few too many IFs, particularly if you’re there and you find all your friends with degrees are getting hired by Delta while you’re waiting for your number to come up.

Adam

Makes since, I was just asking. I told ATP I would rather get a degree in order to have more options. I’m in middle of of my aa already anyhow. So I think the plan will be to finish it up, go to ATP. Get hired by regional an then finish up Bachelor. One quick question, why do y’all say it’s nearly impossible to do a class or two while flight instructing?

Keaton,

The program is expensive and requires students to commit fulltime with little or no distractions. ATP expects the same from the instructors providing the training.

How would you feel if you invested $85k+ into your training, had a checkride coming up, needed some additional work and your instructor told you sorry but I’ve got a paper due and I’m not available?

Adam

Keaton,

ATP’s program is very intense. The reality is that you probably could do a class or two while in training, but something is going to suffer, either your college classes or your flying. Likely it will be the flying that suffers, which can lead to check ride failures that you will need to explain in airline interviews.

It is only a nine month program, the college classes can wait.

Chris

One more quick question, what is the life like when Having multiple flights in a day, and waiting in between each flight? Or staying over night at a airport, and leaving the following morning. What do you do in the off time while waiting on a flight? Obviously when it’s a couple hours or longer, not just 30 minutes. And ofcourse you sleep if it’s over night, really just wandering about when it’s 2 or 3 hours. Y’all may have answered this question somewhere, I just haven’t came across it. I understand all cases are different, and company’s are different, but for in general, what’s it the best reasonable answer for the question.

Keaton,

Funny you should ask, I am currently in the middle of a eight hour maintenance delay. Because of the severity of this delay, the company provided a hotel room for me. Generally on the 2-3 hour sits in between flights I grab food, make phone calls and answer questions on this website :slight_smile:

Chris

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Good answer, another question I should ask, is how do you get back an forth an around when you are waiting on the next flight?

Keaton,

Most hotels have shuttles. There are also cabs, Uber and public transportation.

Adam

So basically nothing to do with the Company you work for while waiting on a flight, Inless it’s a long period of time or something unexpected.