Uni or APP

[GB68c]

Hi everyone

Im 19 years old with 3 A'levels in Maths, Physics and Geography at grades A, A, B. For the last year I've been studying geography at the University of Nottingham and am due to go back for my second year in a few weeks.

I applied for a place on OAT's APP and after psychometric tests, team activities, formal interview and simulator learninig assessment I've been offered a place. So do I pursue my life long career ambition, on what I believe is a good course or return for a two year slog at uni to get my degree, which i'm not enjoying.

Thanks

[Gin Slinger]

Complete your degree. Only a fool wouldn't. OATS will still be there in 2 years' time (one assumes). The airlines aren't exactly falling over themselves hiring newly qualified fATPL holders at the moment anyway.

If you leave Uni now you will have wasted a years' work, and more importantly, you will have destroyed your backup in case your aviation career hits the buffers, which it can so easily in these uncertain times.

You're 19 years old. These years are made for drinking cheap bitter with your mates, shagging the birds, steeling traffic cones and generally being irresponsible, not swaning around Kidlington Airport like a good little cadet.

[yeboin]

GB68c,

Tricky situation. I just graduated from Nottingham this summer and although i might therefore be a bit biased, i'd say stay on and finish what you've started. I didn't enjoy my first year that much, my degree was a tad boring, but things got better in the last two, when you get your own house with your mates (don't know if you are doing this, but i recommend it) and you get more freedom to choose what modules you take in your degree programme. Nottingham has a UAS and a gliding club that I joined, try join one or the other if you haven't already done so.

As Gin Slinger says, Oxford will still be there in two years. There may even be more avenues for some form of sponsorship opening up then (I'm optomistic by nature). Nottingham is a good uni and the degree you obtain will be worth something to potential employers. All the advice on this forum from the professionals for us wannabes is to have a backup plan. And a good degree is a very good backup plan. There will be others who may say go to Oxford now, and i can understand your temptation to quit uni now that you have the opportunity to enter training in your hands.

Anyway, just my humble opinion. I feel better entering training with a degree to fall back on as I'm quickly learning that the only certainty in our chosen career is that absolutely nothing is certain. Whicheverway you choose to go mate, all the best.

And don't forget that university will prepare you well for one aspect of wannebeship - being heavily in debt!:uhoh:

Good Luck
:ok:

[Dozza2k]

I'd have to agree, stay and finish your course. It provides a fall back option if it all goes wrong. I am simialar to you, a year younger I have just sat my A levels, coming out with 4. I am sitting selection for the APP in October. If I get in I intend to start in Jan, and not go to Uni. This is a big decision for me, it was thought about for a long time. I decided to not go to Uni right away. I chose to pursue training in a career I have aspired towards since childhood. The way I see it, is that if it does go belly up I can easily go to Uni in the future- age is on my side (18). Both my sister and her bf are returning to Uni at the age of 24 and 25 respectively to do 2nd degree's. Personally, if I were you, I would stick with the degree, if you can get into OAT now, you can in 2 yrs and as said previously you would lose a years work. Good Luck with whatever you choose.Dozza:cool:

[no sponsor]

If I had my time again, and was offered APP while at Uni, I'm afraid to say it, but I'd give up Uni. Everyone and their mother goes to Uni these days, and I'm not sure what it gives young undergraduates today. I did both undergraduate and a masters, spending a grand total of five years at Uni!

You can always go back to Uni, and as a mature student, it will probably be more worthwhile. Why pay for two years for something when, first your heart isn't in it, second, your just building up more debt.

If flying is the career for you, don't hesitate, they'll be wasted years. Take the chances life gives you.

[High Wing Drifter]

Going back to Uni as a mature student is not for everyone. It basically means putting the pause button on life until you leave, just when your peers will be moving up in their careers. Don't rely on that as a fallback, it will be a much harder slog than going now, but for different reasons.

My feeling is that the best time to go to Uni is as soon as possible! Worry about flying when you stand a chance of developing a 'Plan B' if things aeronautical don't go as well as you hoped.

[jimthebus]

GB68c

Well done for passing the tests! I'm off to do them at the end of October and would appreciate some words of wisdom. OAT sent me the general outline and suggest that brushing up on maths and physics would be good but more specific details would be great.

I graduated last year and miss student loans, cheap pints and fresh freshers every september.

[Maximum]

GB68c

If you're sure flying is really, really, really the only thing you want to do with your life - then in my opinion you should get on with it.

What's the point of having a back-up plan if using it will just make you wish you were flying?

Have you noticed how the really successful people in life usually have risked everything, ie, taken a gamble in life, and didn't have a back up plan? Do you think Madonna had a back up plan?

Remember, while you're at Uni dreaming of flying, there will be others of your age flying fighters in the airforce and starting on their careers in the airlines. Will you be envious?

Also, if you finish your degree, then go to OATS, and for some reason it doesn't work out, what brilliant career is your slightly out of date geography degree going to bring you? Will it bring you fulfillment in life?

My views are probably somewhat controversial, and not what someone of my advancing years should be telling you. They only apply if you're 100% committed to flying as a way of earning a living, complete with all its hardships and frustrations.

It may mean initially on leaving OATS you'll have to get some crappy job just to pay the bills while you search for a flying position. At that point you may question your decision.

Life has a way of deflecting us from what we really want to do. At fear of becoming too philisophical, I think it was Proust who said "most of us end up doing what we're second best at". Think about it.

If you start your training now at your tender age(!), by the time you're twenty five, you could potentially be a jet Captain. Training Captain a couple of years after that, management(!), who knows? And still young enough to go back to uni if you eventually decide it's not for you.

I know from my own life experience that on the whole, parents, teachers, well meaning friends etc. will always advise you to take the less risky option. The only person you should listen to is YOURSELF. And that includes me. All this is only my opinion based on my own life experiences.

Another caveat - if you take the flying option, you'll be giving up your youth to a certain extent. Flying training is demanding hard graft. You won't have time to drink much and your social life beyond the other guys/some gals on your course will be zilch. When you get a flying job, you'll end up spending a lot of your young life working with people much older than you. You won't have much in common. They may well appear grumpy and jaded. There'll be no office parties. You'll have to work your ass off.

So there you have it. You want an exciting life? Then you must be prepared to take risks. You want a safe fallback? Then do that. But just remember there'll be others out there already starting to climb the ladder in their chosen vocation. They'll be your manager or trainer or Captain when you finally finish with your "safe" option.

The choice is yours.

:} :E