College Visits

[MaxWebster]

aside: one of my best friends' sons goes to Kent State flight school, just finished freshman year with full intent on being a commercial pilot. I don't know many details but he's told me that there's some co-opting with Delta in that he'll be hired by them upon graduation (i'm sure pending completion of all hours etc etc). I should ask how many flight hours he'll get (he's already logged a bunch first year which ... surprised me?).

[A_B]

So, my oldest is done this month as well. He'll have his H.S. diploma and almost enough dual enrollment credits to have an AA. We toured Embry Riddle a year or so ago, as he wants to be a commercial airline pilot. Roughly $75k/yr, and you still need 1000 flight hours after graduation to get your commercial license. Seems like a waste of time and money.

$75k isn't chopped liver, depending on the area in which you live.

Are you helping him pay for school or can he otherwise get those last few semesters paid for and not have debt? If so, I say do what you want, which may well be one of the commercial programs.

ETA: If he still has to do 4 years, that changes the calculus. Thought maybe he was getting a more beneficial credit transfer than might be true.

(I am probably foisting some things on the swamp writ large because of what some friends have said to me recently about soon-to-be graduates.)

[govmentchedda]

So, my oldest is done this month as well. He'll have his H.S. diploma and almost enough dual enrollment credits to have an AA. We toured Embry Riddle a year or so ago, as he wants to be a commercial airline pilot. Roughly $75k/yr, and you still need 1000 flight hours after graduation to get your commercial license. Seems like a waste of time and money.

We have a few friends, and I have a few clients, who are pilots and we learned that both Delta and United have started their own flight schools. The cost for those is roughly $100k total and it's a pipeline to a job with either airline.

We're working on a gap year plan for him now that will likely mean September to December in Europe, probably a combination of work exchange programs in Denmark and Italy before returning home for the holidays and then maybe spending the spring (their fall) down under in either Australia or New Zealand. Schengen European immigration/tourism rules only allow 90 of 180 days on the continent before restarting the clock, and as a non-EU citizen he won't be able to get a work visa. Sounds like work visas are much easier to get as an American in either Australia or New Zealand.

This is all just so great.

NLFC, did you get a pilot's license? I had one in college, but ran out of money in law school and haven't flown since. I could probably afford to pick it up again, but I've realized I am not very good at responding to emergencies, and flying here seems so much dicier than flying over the flat farmland of Illinois.

No, we had that falling out when I was 12/13 and while I'd "flown" with my dad in the co-pilot chair and had control of the stick a bunch, I never took the next logical step.

'chedda... speaking of cost, does Embry Riddle pick up the cost of plane rental and fuel? Because while that tuition is steep (very), that might be mitigated a bit of those costs are baked in. (I know this is just a theoretical question, just curious.)

It's weird we're talking about this today... One of my favorite YT channels was just talking about the many issues facing the airline industry and the correlation with problems in the flight instruction side of things. Way too many instructors that are really just trying to clock hours and not into teaching the students anything other than what's in the book. (very simplified version of what he was talking about.)

IIRC, ERAU picked up some of the cost, but not all. Still, $300k and 4 years, and a need for 1000 more flight hours vs. ~$100k and 1-1.5 years, and you've got all of your hours and an in towards a career. Seemed like a no brainer to us. I'm looking forward to the family flight benefits. Flying standby may not be fun, but flying anywhere in the US for free sounds amazing.

[govmentchedda]

So, my oldest is done this month as well. He'll have his H.S. diploma and almost enough dual enrollment credits to have an AA. We toured Embry Riddle a year or so ago, as he wants to be a commercial airline pilot. Roughly $75k/yr, and you still need 1000 flight hours after graduation to get your commercial license. Seems like a waste of time and money.

$75k isn't chopped liver, depending on the area in which you live.

Are you helping him pay for school or can he otherwise get those last few semesters paid for and not have debt? If so, I say do what you want, which may well be one of the commercial programs.

(I am probably foisting some things on the swamp writ large because of what some friends have said to me recently about soon-to-be graduates.)

Yeah, I don't want any part of saddling him or me (as co-signor) with $300k in debt when we can get him where he wants to be for $100k. Florida has it's own Prepaid College plans that we bought for him as an infant. They're different from a 529, in that we paid a set amount 17 years ago ($16k, I think) and it guaranteed one year of dormitory living and 4 years of undergrad at a state school. ERAU is private, so my understanding is that we can get our $16k back, but that's it, if he doesn't attend a state school. However, we can transfer that to a sibling, and our second is likely to go the state school or community college route.

When we went to purchase the same plan for our second son, some 17 months later, the cost had doubled such that 1 year of dorm and 4 years of undergrad tuition would have been over $30k. We opted to put the same amount in a 529 for him, and that's grown over the last 16 years. I'm hoping to swap these accounts so that we can utilize the 529 for the oldest, and Florida prepaid for the middle. I think that's doable, with the only caveat being that the 10 year window to use the Florida prepaid starts when the oldest would have started college (fall '24).

[HaulCitgo]

Good luck to kiddos. Those in house flight schools scare me a bit. Turns out the air France flight schools grads DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY A FUCKING PLANE and drove the bitch to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Flight 447.

The flight crew consisted of 58-year-old Captain Marc Dubois, a veteran pilot with nearly 11,000 hours; 32-year-old First Officer Pierre-Cédric Bonin, an inexperienced copilot with 2,000 hours who had recently come up through Air France’s in-house training program; and 37-year-old Relief First Officer David Robert, who would fill in during the middle of the flight so that Captain Dubois could get his legally mandated rest. Robert had also learned to fly at Air France, but had since graduated to an executive position, and had joined the crew of flight 447 in order to keep his type rating. His landing in Rio de Janeiro during the inbound trip was his first in three months.

https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/the ... 7678c37982 Read this if you never want to get on another airplane.

[govmentchedda]

Thanks for that. Greatly appreciated.

[HaulCitgo]

Not your kid. hes too smart. Just make sure he studies. Seriously though thats aviation they crash it and learn from it so your kid doesnt have to. Cant imagine that isnt a major lesson for every carrier.

[The Sybian]

First off, great news!

But, yeah, that's total bullshit on the deposit. I hate shit like that.

My son just switched school enrollments and it showed up as paid without having to pay again, so maybe the Admissions person I spoke to was wrong. If the business school just accepted him initially, we wouldn't have had the past 5 months of stress and travel. Oh well.

[A_B]

First off, great news!

But, yeah, that's total bullshit on the deposit. I hate shit like that.

My son just switched school enrollments and it showed up as paid without having to pay again, so maybe the Admissions person I spoke to was wrong. If the business school just accepted him initially, we wouldn't have had the past 5 months of stress and travel. Oh well.

Well they had to wait to see if Chedda's kid wanted in.

[DSafetyGuy]

The Boy just got notice this morning that he got into Rutgers Business School off the waitlist. So glad he already accepted at Rutgers (School of Arts and Sciences), otherwise he'd have to rescind an acceptance at another school and resubmit his commit announcement on his school's Instagram page. This was a big surprise as I heard they only accepted 250 incoming Freshman this year, as compared to over a 1000 in past years, and my wife saw there was a 2% acceptance rate off the waitlist in past years. Timing would have really sucked, as several of the schools he got into had deadlines yesterday to commit.

On a funny note, the deposit he paid to reserve his spot in the School of Arts and Sciences is non-refundable and won't be used towards tuition. Only $150, but it seems kind of sheisty.

Just got your first lesson from business school.

[rass]

Congrats guys

[DSafetyGuy]

That Akron@RU Swampup is getting bigger.

The kicker has officially graduated. Called last night on his drive home, in what has turned into a little tradition. He offered me the two tickets he gets and can possibly get extras off teammates on a first-come basis. Just something to keep in back of mind, but I don't want to go crazy on him.