1st, yeah, I'm sure a lot of students enjoyed it, but the majority, a few years ago, seemed to have a lot of complaints.
3rd: yeah you can survive on it for nine months...barely
, but I can basically guarantee it won't be 9 months!!!! It'll be a lot longer than that (and nobody I talked to got their sheets and towels)
Also, they have a tendency to favour money over safety (I don't know if this is the same for all flight schools but...). When I was there, there were a couple of students who got an engine or cockpit fire, which they said could have easily been extinguished with a fire extinguisher. Despite a lot of nagging by the students to have this on board, NAIA/NEAR didn't want to spend those extra $$$$$ at something that was not required by the law.
Overal, I think most people agreed that NAIA/NEAR was long past its days of glory
and that it is just baskin in its old reputation as one of the best schools around!
