Choosing a school? UND?
 

So here's my dillema. I don't live too far from UND which supposedly has thee best flight program in the U.S. I really want to go there, but the problem is, I botched a year of college. My GPA went down 2.17, and I'm really embarrased to say that, but that's what I get for taking a drawing and art class. UND requires a 2.50 to start flying commercial and instrument. I have my ppl already. Should I bother taking an extra semester to get my GPA back up. I figured I would have to take 5 classes and get straight As to get my gpa just to 2.50. :ugh: On the other hand I could start flying at Mankato U. with my current GPA and they have the full gammet. (CPL, Inst., Multi, ect.).

My long term goal is to eventually get into the airlines. And don't tell me to not strive to fly for the majors because your not going to change my mind! A lot of people keep telling to do something else, but I would hate myself for the rest of my life if I didn't atleast try.

Basically what am asking, would it be enough of an advantage on my resume for flying for the majors to get my GPA to 2.5 and go to UND or should I just settle for Mankato. Note that I have to take out student loans for all of what I'm about to do, but I don't have any debt yet.

I want to get my GPA up reguardless. I was dumb and "twitterpated" about a girl when my gpa dropped and thought I had everything figured out. I really reget not focusing on school then. I do have a backup plan too :ok:

Can the flight school you go to affect your odds of getting a job? Like would going to UND look better than going to a flight school no one has heard of?

The name/brand of school is not going to matter that much. Neither will the degree that you get. In fact, quite a fee airline pilots get hired after getting a degree in non-aviation subjects and having done their training at a small mom and pop flying school/fbo.

I actually got my PPL from a mom and pop flight school. I am going to get a bachelors in aviation because if I don't get a job as a pilot anywhere, I'll even try to become a bush pilot if I can, I know bush flying is actually harder than airline flying. I'll take any job flying that I can make a living is what I'm saying. So atleast I'll have a bachelors. A lot of jobs (including the airlines) don't require a specific one. So it would be a lot easier for me to get a degree in commercial aviation. I also have an A.A. degree now so I've got something so far.

I want to go to a university flight school for two reasons.
1. The degree
2. I can get through flight training a lot faster at a proffesional school. I think its faster anyway?
Plus, I've never been to a big college before. Just a local community college and it would be nice to have some big college experiences.

I went to a mom and pop school and I was able to finish very quickly. Much more quickly than anybody I knew who went to Embry Riddle. If I wasn´t working full time, I could have finished from 0 hours to IR+CPL+ME+CFI+CFII in probably 5 months. Part of the reason is because this mom and pop school always had aircraft availability. I was able to book the aircraft 4 weeks in advance sometimes and even working full time, I was able to fly 30 hours some months. Try doing that at a ¨professional¨ school (well, you could probably do it at All ATPs).

I don´t know what kind of pace you can do at UND or the other school you mentioned. You should talk with some of the students and find out.

FWIW, I went to a big university but it didn´t have a flight department. But there were three local airports nearby and I was able to choose the school that was best for me. Plus, my university also had a flying club. But I can see that you are deadset on the university aviation degree thing, so knock yourself out. You´ll still enjoy it and probably get a lot out of it.

I talked with a proffesor from the Mankato school and they seemed really interested in getting me into their program. They have a shortage of students where UND doesn't. So I think mankato would be better as far as available instructors. They have a similar aircraft fleet.

Off topic question,
the training for your PPL is done in a DA20. How are these vs a 172 as far as training goes? I see the DA20s are stick vs the 172 yoke.

Both are good little planes. Stick vs yoke doesn't matter much. I found that the DA-20 lacked lumbar support so I brought a little pillow every flight, but then again some C172s are like that too.

Well, they said "plenty of room" so I figure I can get more flight time in with less students. I've had 2 relatives who went to the school and they recommened it too.

They have the DA20 C-1 Eclipse. From what I've read about them, they're super cheap, great full economy, and they improved the seats with the C-1, and this one has a 125HP continental engine vs the katana's 80hp.

Then they have a Warrior III and a Seminole.

Anyway, thanks for the replies everyone. I already have my PPL in rotorcraft so I believe I only need 20 hours to get my fixed-wing add-on. At any rate, its going to be interesting to go from rotors to planks! lol

I flew the C-1 Eclipse, not the Katana. The seats were nice except for the lumbar issue, at least for me. But overall, it was a really good airplane and fun to fly.

Also, to add on a PPL A to your PPL H, you need 30 hours, not 20 (20 dual, 10 solo).
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...a-ppl-add.html
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