Applying to flight schools, got denied
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2025
Posts: 1
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From: Toulouse
Applying to flight schools, got denied
Hi everyone,
I am 24 years old and I am just about to finish my master's degree, I am now looking to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot, so I started applying.
To start, I sent my application to Bartolini Air for the Ryanair Future Flyer Academy, prepared for CUT-E style tests and the rest, but I got denied as I "did not meet the criteria set to enrol". So I was curious if anyone who went through flight schools could tell me what criteria I might be missing.
I have work experience (+3 years), a Bachelor's degree, soon to be Master's degree (all business), I am perfectly bilingual FR/ENG (+ A2 level in Polish), class 1 EASA, a few hours on DR400, I am a skydiver, etc...
What I can think of is that I don't have enough flying hours, or I don't have enough work experience related to the air industry. Could that be the issue ? Or maybe my letter was not convincing them that I am fully determined. There's obviously room for improvement and I would be happy to hear from you all.
I thank you in advance for your help, sorry if some stuff I am missing might seem obvious to you.
Nastax
I am 24 years old and I am just about to finish my master's degree, I am now looking to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot, so I started applying.
To start, I sent my application to Bartolini Air for the Ryanair Future Flyer Academy, prepared for CUT-E style tests and the rest, but I got denied as I "did not meet the criteria set to enrol". So I was curious if anyone who went through flight schools could tell me what criteria I might be missing.
I have work experience (+3 years), a Bachelor's degree, soon to be Master's degree (all business), I am perfectly bilingual FR/ENG (+ A2 level in Polish), class 1 EASA, a few hours on DR400, I am a skydiver, etc...
What I can think of is that I don't have enough flying hours, or I don't have enough work experience related to the air industry. Could that be the issue ? Or maybe my letter was not convincing them that I am fully determined. There's obviously room for improvement and I would be happy to hear from you all.
I thank you in advance for your help, sorry if some stuff I am missing might seem obvious to you.
Nastax
Joined: Dec 2005
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 4,973
Likes: 326
From: Hong Kong
If flying is your dream, why all the degrees? You could have been flying for 6-7 years by age 24.
As for your question - its not you, it's the system.
Some schools offer training for a licence - they generally care that you have a pulse and a wallet. Think modular.
Other schools get involved with career paths and maybe go into partnerships with airlines so that they can offer promises of employment and jack up the prices. It's just business. Harvard has a huge amount of applicants so they can set higher standards to justify higher prices.
Once they have those glossy brochures printed with words like "Future flyer" and "Mentored" and perhaps some airline logos, they need to keep two clients happy - the pilot and the airline. The airline wants to see a higher standard of 'product' (that's you) that fits their mould and can be trained easily - so in come the aptitude tests to whittle down the stack of CVs, up go the standards and the whole thing becomes a competition.
Now it could be that you're genuinely not very good, but I doubt it. You probably just fell foul of some unknown CV filter and need to cast your net wider.
Does going to a big name school help you get a job quicker? Possibly. But not if you have to work an extra few years to pay for it and miss the hiring wave (you've heard about those?) Getting that first job can be easy if you time it well, or very hard if you don't. Choosing the 'right' school is not the be-all and end-all that many think it is.
As for your question - its not you, it's the system.
Some schools offer training for a licence - they generally care that you have a pulse and a wallet. Think modular.
Other schools get involved with career paths and maybe go into partnerships with airlines so that they can offer promises of employment and jack up the prices. It's just business. Harvard has a huge amount of applicants so they can set higher standards to justify higher prices.
Once they have those glossy brochures printed with words like "Future flyer" and "Mentored" and perhaps some airline logos, they need to keep two clients happy - the pilot and the airline. The airline wants to see a higher standard of 'product' (that's you) that fits their mould and can be trained easily - so in come the aptitude tests to whittle down the stack of CVs, up go the standards and the whole thing becomes a competition.
Now it could be that you're genuinely not very good, but I doubt it. You probably just fell foul of some unknown CV filter and need to cast your net wider.
Does going to a big name school help you get a job quicker? Possibly. But not if you have to work an extra few years to pay for it and miss the hiring wave (you've heard about those?) Getting that first job can be easy if you time it well, or very hard if you don't. Choosing the 'right' school is not the be-all and end-all that many think it is.
Joined: Aug 2022
Posts: 21
Likes: 1
From: THE GRID
You're clearly not lacking in the qualifications department; rudestuff put it well, with
I'm sure that you'll have a high success rate with other schools, and if these aren't to your taste, modular is always welcoming.
I was disappointed to have not even made it to the web interview phase for any scholarship I applied to (BA, TUI, Air League) despite having gained similar work experience, degree in aerospace engineering and published research in aviation safety.
The truth is that many flight schools have an "image" of the perfect student for their school, with a number of attributes which they prefer. They might want someone with a degree, they might want someone without; they may want someone with flight experience, they may want someone without. If you don't fit the picture of the applicants they want, then you're out of luck. There are so many applicants to high-tier flight schools, and they can pick and choose who they let spend their £££ with them.
As for your question - its not you, it's the system.
I was disappointed to have not even made it to the web interview phase for any scholarship I applied to (BA, TUI, Air League) despite having gained similar work experience, degree in aerospace engineering and published research in aviation safety.
The truth is that many flight schools have an "image" of the perfect student for their school, with a number of attributes which they prefer. They might want someone with a degree, they might want someone without; they may want someone with flight experience, they may want someone without. If you don't fit the picture of the applicants they want, then you're out of luck. There are so many applicants to high-tier flight schools, and they can pick and choose who they let spend their £££ with them.
