Originally Posted by philltowns
A fair few of the people I studied Aerospace Engineering with, were planning to go on to careers on the flight deck. That was at university though (although I have a feeling the American 'college' and British 'University' are the same thing)
In the U.S. "College" and "University" are terms commonly used interchangeably. Technically, a University would consist of a collection of "colleges" on differing disciplines.
Zach -
With regards to a college degree and aviation, it matters almost nothing to an airline what you're degree was in. In fact a college degree is not always required, but to be competitive with your peers, it is.
My personal recommendations . . .
1. Don't go into aviation as a pilot. The compensation model is going to continue to drop.
2. If you do, get your college degree in something out of aviation, so that you can fall back onto something you enjoy, if piloting as a career doesn't meet your expectations.
3. If you're going to fund your training yourself, be prepared to spend a huge amount of money just to get to a bare minimum qualification to be competitive for an entry-level airline job. Say about $50,000 to $100,000 over and above normal college costs.
Go to
http://www.aapilots.com/public/flash...ontent_id=1280 for a list of U.S. universities that offer aviation programs.