Speedbird13,
I am a recent graduate from Oxford (2 weeks ago), looking for employment. you are not wrong in your asessment of how the likes of ezy and fr are, and will continue to pick up pilots. Oxford has a very good deal with easyjet where they take a lot of graduates, whilst also taking experience as well for a good mix.
You will get a lot of people coming on here who will advise you not to go to Oxford, who will downplay the quality of training, but this is the case with all the decent schools. alot of biterness. I worked extremely hard at Oxford and beleive me its no tea party, but I am confident I made the right choice and my timing is good. Oxfords level of training is very high, the CAA examiners who do Instrument ratings can see the quality shine through in an Oxford student, with high levels of airmanship and handling to name just a couple of positives.
If you do start when you say you will there is very little (bar a terrorist attack slowing down passenger uptake) to suggest that you would not be entering at a good time, the only way is up from here, and there are potential signs of the likes of BA starting to take fresh graduates next year and onwards, they always did, and for a reason.
If you work hard and achieve your goals you are an attractive prospect and Oxford will make sure of it. saying that i can not emphasise how hard you have to work; ground school is tough and requires ALOT of work. we have seen those who dont put the work in fail exams and be recoursed or even leave altogether. saying that though you do not need to be massively clever, it is the application that gets people through.
moving on to the goodyear phase of training, its great fun visually flying around there. but also hard work.
its the instrument phase back in the UK that really requires the graft, but it is massively rewarding. when you can fly to Bristol purely on instruments and no visuals, go down the ILS, go-around, suffer an engine failure in the climb, divert to Gloucester and land on the ndb you know you have achieved something. the reward comes after in the 737 sim. the quality of instructors, especially IR, at Oxford are second to none, that I guarantee you, they have so much experience in airlines and general aviation that they pass on.
Not only do I think that Oxford has made me a good pilot, but it has rounded me as a person. If I were you I would not rule out University, I know, had i gone at the age of 18 I would not have been ready for the task. If you think you are then you may well be, that is just my case.
Good luck and I hope this helped, feel free to ask me any questions.