Flight Instructing in College

Hi everyone,

I'm a junior in high school and have started looking into what college I want to attend. I will hopefully have my PPL within the next month or two, the weather has been terrible for the past few months here so it'll take longer than planned, and then I am planning on getting my Instrument and possibly my commercial before I graduate high school.

With this in mind i'm trying to figure out what schools I would be able to attend and instruct at for 3 years, if not right off the bat, and also get credit for my ratings. I've visited the University of Oklahoma and I got the vibe that they I'd be able to get credit but it'd be a long process, and that they only hire their own students in their senior year.

I have no problem getting my CFI at the school I attend if thats what it takes. I'm also open to schools without aviation programs with airports nearby, but I most likely will not have a car. Any insight or help would be greatly appreciated!

[video=youtube;rF6izPxIG2M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF6izPxIG2M[/video]

Since your in Chicago, both UIUC and SIU (in-state tuition will save you crap tons of money)have aviation programs. I don't think they will give credit hours for the ratings(maybe) but if you do their aviation degree(don't) you would not have to take those classes. If you had your CFI and simply attend the university for something other than Aviation, you should be able to get a part time gig as a CFI with the school. One of my instructors was getting his MBA and another was getting a degree in Aero-engineering.

Thanks for the reply, I was considering both SIU and UIUC but i've heard that UIUC may be closing their flight program.

Adler, thank you for the reply as well, do you know anything more about k-state? I ask because I haven't been able to find alot of information about K-state besides their website, I also think it may be too small for what i'm looking for but I may be wrong.

I'm an Aviation student at the University of Oklahoma.

PM me if you have any questions about it.

The biggest piece of advice I would give anyone getting into aviation is to minimize debt as much as possible. Do whatever it takes to do that. In the end a degree is a degree(in our field), but that loan payment really really really sucks.

:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :clap: :clap:

If you can get it paid for, then go, by all means. But if you have to go in debt to do it...be careful.

Agreed.

I didn't see this thread before this unfortunately. I'm also a junior in high school and hopefully will havem y private as well as my instrument on my 17th birthday(May 3rd). Following that, I plan to get glider, aerobatic things done and build time towards my commercial, while I work on my commercial I'm going to simultaneously be working on my CFI. I hope to have my Commercial on my 18th birthday, and my CFI shortly after and be done before high school. All of this will be debt free, I've saved my entire life and work my ass of.

Any ways, I say if you can make money doing this during college, keep grades up, as well as help your students. Go for it, it's what I plan to do.

Thanks! I may take you up on that soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvqtfrJA7M4&feature=channel_video_title

Im currently in the Aviation Management program here at UND. It may be out of state tuition for you, but its a very reasonable cost. We have the largest collegiate training fleet in the country (over 100 aircraft). If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Dirt cheap state schools in Florida here too, major in something other than aviation, plenty of places to instruct on the side year round. But like everyone else will tell you - go to school for something else you like - there is plenty of time to fly either now or later.

Probably the worst thing to link him to if you want him to seriously consider UND :laff:

OP: I instruct at UND at the moment, graduating this May from their Commercial Aviation program. If you're looking for hours or ratings credit, unless you have your Commercial coming in, get ready to take PPL/IFR ground schools and flying all over again. The UND forum has plenty of literature on this already. Feel free to PM me with any other questions about the program as well.

Not sure where you're located but check out San Jose State University. It's in California in the bay area. First, let me say we don't have an official pilot program at the moment, but by the time you would get here it should be in place. Since it's a state university it's pretty cheap as well, and there are TONS of great connections here. Our program is getting totally revised at the moment and the plans we have set up are looking really good. Like all the other schools, we have a flight team and a school specific flight club for you to do the rest of your training at...and it is cheaper than ANY other place I know of. I can give you the prices if you pm me. Unlike most of the aviation specifc schools we have a ton of degrees that you can major in and it's nice because you have a ton of opportunites to try new things besides aviation. I know all you can think of now is talking about planes and becoming a pilot, but trust me you'll want to expand your knowledge to other things besides just planes after a while. Shoot me a PM and I can help you out with any questions you have. I've spent four years here so I have a pretty good idea of what's going on and can tell you about the different colleges and help you out with some of lesser known things about an aviation career.

If you're still considering Siu, PM me.

It's a great program with a large all cessna fleet. Our flight team just won nationals, beating out ERAU, UND, ect... We also have a brand new building going up that is going to be amazing.

This is EXACTLY what I did with SIU. I went in with my Commercial, and got 28 credits for it towards my elective requirements in the Aviation Management degree. So then got my CFI with them the first semester, and will only be here for 3 years instead of 4 thanks to the credits they gave me on day one. This leaves me 4 semesters to instruct, and 2 summers to instruct/tow outside of SIU. I will graduate with about 1200/100 in 3 years when 21, when the average students is about 300/20 in 4 years, and 22. Im very happy that I did it this way and really recommend that you do the same.

tlewis is a smart kid, I would listen to him!

Thanks, i'll probably take you up on that very soon