Never thought id be asking for this type of help. As for most you guys know around here, I come here for help on aviation colleges alot. Most of you know me for my passion for wanting to join the Navy..
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If only I could get into the Naval Academy ...But I have a TON of interest in going to ERAU...yes I know, its a waste of money blah blah blah...Ive looked into other universities you guys have suggested for flying. I was looking into ROTC for Navy or Air Force but over the past few months I think my love for the joining the military might just die down. As my vision right now is 20/475 you can tell that my eyes are COMPLETELY horrible and all I ever hear about is how hard it is to fly for the military and on top of that with eye surgery. My mom tells me the only way I can got to ERAU is if I do ROTC, which is a problem.

My main and only goal is to fly. I want to fly commercial, not military even if I had to choose its commercial. So doing more research someone said look into Community College as its much cheaper. Im not the type of guy who wants to go to a CC, I want to go to a university but it seems most of the universitys are a little hard to get into that have aviation programs besides ERAU. Looking at CC prices they are ALOT cheaper than ERAU and other universitys.

So my question is...is it a good idea to go to CC and then get my ratings and such there for cheaper? How do I get a college degree to become a pilot and what do you usually do after the 2 years in CC with all your ratings?

Its funny how most parents dont want there children to go into the military, but sophmore year/last year I told them about flying and ROTC and now they are encouraging me to do ROTC and saying its the only way it will be able to pay for all this....

Unfortunately they dont know that I have a passion to fly commercial...not really military...but as I know it is hard to become a commercial pilot, im completely certain I will have the courage to achieve it.

Plus it has got to be more fun.

I'll see if I can't give you a couple of tips,

First shameless plug. Have you taken a look at Arizona State University? Our flying program is in cooperation with Mesa Airlines and I believe a good amount of students get a job with them after they graduate. And I know there's at least one guy who got in with Southwest right after he graduated. A few may also be with united. Not too sure on who went where

Other then that, I know the university of North Dakota has a flight program that works out of community colleges. Where they go after that I couldn't tell ya.

But in re-reading your post it makes it look like your not sure about how you're paying for college. So take or leave my above comments.  However think about this. Don't ever let money dictate what you're going to do with your life. That's something I got told time and time again in High School. There are thousands of scholarships available out there. And if you're not qualified for the FAFSA, then get student loans. I know everyone wants to avoid debt but you know.. I'd rather be in debt and have a degree then to be debt free without a degree.

I'm familiar with some of your "higher education adventures"  if I may from previous posts, and the only thing I want to add at this point is:

Make darn sure you have a back-up plan, and make sure that you would be perfectly happy with that back-up plan if something happens that denies you the possibility of a career flying aircraft. The plan can still be aviation related of course. 

Not to be a pessimistic tart, but keep as many options on the table as you can, even when you are in the middle of your flight training. You don't know what could happen down the road, for better or worse.

Best of luck with your career path!

tcco94 wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2010 at 11:57pm:

I'm visiting ERAU in a couple of weeks 

I looked at Bowling Geen State University, and I must say it is by far the best aviation college I have looked at.  (and I have seen almost all north east schools and ERAU). Their aviation program is fairly unknown.

The reason I will most likely go there fo college is cost.  They give out pretty good scholarships and are building a new housing unit for freshmen which is very nice.  The airport is 99% bgsu aircraft traffic and they have a nice terminal and maintence hangar.  The airport is right next to the school too. 

They have step aircraft in which you would go from c172 with gauges and dials to piper archer with gauges and dials then arche with glass cockpit and finially Seminole.

If anything I would check it out.  That's where I plan to go, because I don't have much money ROTC qualifications either. (although they do have a ROTC program there.).

University of North Dakota claims to have to most aircraft out of any university....

Anybody check out Middle Tennessee State University? Discovered there flight program and seems to look really nice. They say the average cost for flying at a university is about $37k but they only have you fly for about $26k...and they recently bought 20 new airplanes...looks like they have a pretty big fleet, and a 727 donated by FedEx (not sure if they fly it or not) but also they said once you graduate and have 500 hours and 100 or 200 of those hours are multi you are guaranteed a interview with American Eagle.

Just thought I'd share since noone has brought up MTSU.

http://www.mtsu.edu/aerospace/index.shtml