The academic equivalance of ATPL exams was discussed here
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...cademic&page=6
Put1992, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the real world". If you are planning on doing your ATPLs immediately after school, then full-time might be a good idea as I think you will find it tough to have to adjust to working for a living (rather than being at school) and study in the evenings. However, you may need the moeny!
Do not look for professional advice here!
Eh? I would have thought that the best people to answer a question like, "how hard is it to study and work at the same time" are those people who are actually doing it rather than someone who may have done it a while ago and forgotten what it's like!
Whilst there can be spurrious advice and information given on these pages, a sweeping statement like yours above is not valid. I could easily argue that there are 13 exams for ATPL for example! There are plenty of "professionals" here; most don't need to advertise it!
Cheers
Whirls