Gareth,
As a Cambridge graduate myself, I'm not fooled by Oxbridge entry requirements. The girl to whom you refer (Laura Spence?) was actually rejected after interview by Oxford, it had nothing to do with funds. Gordon Brown made a big thing of it by suggesting that she had been discriminated against because she was northern and went to a state comprehensive school (ditto both for me - I still got to Cambridge - but I digress). Until universities are free to set their own fees, fees will not be a major factor in choice of universities. Cost of living, yes, but that's highest in London, not Oxford or Cambridge.
Anyway back on the main point, I completely agree that to get a job you have to make yourself marketable. However with respect I just think you are misguided in considering OATS as a way of obtaining marketability, and seriously question its value for money.
I do not believe that an OATS integrated CPL/IR with 200-ish hours is significantly more marketable than a modular CPL/IR with 200-ish hours. If it is then the benefit is not very significant, and only for a very small proportion of the best graduates. The rest of the Oxford 'upper hand' to which you refer is just what their marketing department would have you believe. It's certainly not twenty grand's worth of upper hand.
As for real life. Well, real life is that neither CPL/IR is worth much at the moment. Any hiring that is being done is at experience levels well beyond 200 hours. In fact it was always so in by far the majority of cases. Getting the licence is just the first step, the majority need experience after that before airlines will even give your CV a second look. And once you've got a thousand or so instructional hours under your belt, no-one is interested which school you went to.
Hence why I think OATS (and self-sponsoring at other integrated schools in most cases) is a waste of money.
If I were convinced that the OATS name was going to give me an edge (and IMHO I'd be misguided), I'd do a back-to-back OATS modular course and save me money in the process.
If I were convinced that doing an integrated course was going to give me an edge, (which is probably closer to the truth, but still not very significant, IMHO) I'd go to BAe Jerez and save money.
However at the end of the day it's your money to do with what you will.
cheers!
foggy.
Last edited by foghorn; 27th Jan 2003 at 13:52.