Hello!
SAA
http://www.bfsaa.se is a good school. It is not that big but has been growing rapidly in last years, as someone have told here before. In fact, they have relatively long history in Sweden. Still, they are quite new (compared to OAT, FTE) in the market as to consider their new international marketing concept. They also had another name before. The fact that the graduates of SAA had a direct entries to interview to SAS talks by itself... Unfortunately SAS is not recruiting at the moment
. But the school has still that contract. And yes, they have connections to Ryanair, and propably to EasyJet, in the near future.
The assessment program is quite demanding... You have to go to Stocholm and take 2 days at one of the recommended psychological assessment centre (either Interpersona or Gordon etc). In the testing, they emphasise specially the stress tolerance, your speed and multiple tasking, numeracy and spacial thinking.
Anyway, the price of the course is good. And yes, the additional costs (living, transportation, etc) are NOT included. However, the total price will be still lower than the total price at OAT or FTE.
The studies are really intense... Also, you start flying almost immediately you start your ground school in SanDiego, which is great in my mind.
Their attitude to teaching is modern- using lot of IT- solutions, and distance learning is emphasised. You are expected to study hard individually, traditional ground school classes are taken place periodically (ie. 1 week self study, 1 week ground school classes). This aspect may be very hard if you are used to traditional every- day- 8h- classroom- learning, or if you have no self discipline enough to plan your time by yourself.
Instructors are good, although some of them are relatively young. And aircrafts (C172) are in very good condition. The airport and airspace they fly in is busy that is an experience itself...
But its fun. I don' t know about MCC course in Sweden that well but I have heard it is one of the best ones. What I know is that the simulators (that are used also by SAS) are great.
The life style in San Diego is very nice. Weather is always good. The central city is approximately 20 min driving distance which is good because you are not attempted to spend your time there too much (cause you by yourself are responsible for the planning of your time), but on the other hand there is everything you need for refreshing your mind if you really need it. Specially surfing!
It is a very long talk now... But I hope it gave you some idea about that place
Cheers!