guys,
any school - be it an aviation school, college of medicine, institute of fine arts - is only as good as the effort the student puts in. i'm sure this is past arguable.
i am no cerebrally-challenged slacker, but i learned more about flying in general ON MY OWN compared with what i did in the Av-School. in fact, there is some truth to the statement that many guys succeeded not because of, but inspite of, dear old PAL Av-School.
Sure, 'twas fun, but that's not the point of contention here.
you can train with omni, fast, fliteline, or any other hole-in-the wall flying school and still end up a great airman if you put in the work. out of the 3 pilots i respect the most, only 1 came from Av-Sch.
never believe that BS sign. the original actually read thus: "Through this hallway pass not only expert airmen of tomorrow, but also future ambassadors of goodwill." a dodo broke it while knocking on the PT lounge door at 2 am to satisfy the power-tripping of some upperclassmen that had nothing to do with flying at all.
cheers.