CTI/Aviation Degree Warning

AFSS5602 Junior Member

I want to issue a warning that I wish someone would have given me before I went off to college. UND and Embry Riddle are very good university's. You will receive a top notch aviation education. However the 100k-200k student loan debt WILL leave you with a severe and debilitating handicap once you go out into the real world. Around 10k-12k of your after tax income every year will go toward paying off your loans for 30 years of your life. Add rent/mortgage, utilities, car payments, food, gas, cloths etc... and soon you may find that those large loan payments are putting you way under water. You will be struggling while people who went to the military and other less known smaller colleges will be sitting beside you making the same money with almost/ or possibly NO DEBT.

For many the debt from UND and Riddle has meant the inability to own a home for a very long time. It also has made saving any money for retirement or a home very difficult if not near impossible.

Once again, they are very good schools. The problem is that the salaries out there just don't pay well enough on average to cover your loan expenses and life expenses.

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

amen...i'm in that boat now...got the lenders breathing down my neck

to add to that, something that i wish someone would've told me...

if you are planning on getting an aviation degree, don't. get a degree that will be worth something as a backup should aviation take a dump (like it has). if you want to be a pilot, then get your ratings at a small fbo, it will save you a ton of money

TOWER_BOY1 Senior Member brooklyn NY

Omg i had no clue that these schools was that expensive..damn

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

when i left riddle a year ago, it was a hair over 1000 per credit hour. 120 credits for a BS degree + sga fees + technology fees + books...its ridiculous BUT it is a great school and i don't truly regret going there.

DeltaNui Rookie Grand Forks, ND

Considering most students don't pay full out of state tuition at UND, and the fact that you can get residency rates after one year at school, I'd say UND is one of the most affordable schools in the country. As a Washington resident, tuition did not cost me any more than attending a school in state. Unless you're getting a Commercial Aviation degree, there is no reason you should graduate six figures in debt from UND.

JosueZQ8 Trusted Member Akron, OH

Wow......I couldn't imagine being in that boat!

Makes my $11,000 worth of debt for CCBC seem like a kick in the bucket! Of course, there are other expenses I paid for already....gen ed night classes at the college back home, private pilot's cert., living expenses out here, etc. So the total after it's all said and done will probably be around $25K.

rogersjf Trusted Contributor New Jersey

Take it for what is worth, if you cannot afford college and have to take out loans you will have debt no matter what school you go to and will have to pay it back. School costs are getting absurd and it has become a factor for people while selecting which can only lead to you not perusing your dreams and what you want to do. Its just another speed bump in the trip called life, at least were not medical students theirs are much worse.

polo708 Epic Member tower

Join the military... I got paid to learn and work ATC, now the FAA is paying me 20K extra to work for them. Can't beat it.

Irish Rookie Ohio

I agree with Polo. I gained great on the job experience in the Air Force and they paid for my B.S. degree.

zoz02 Trusted Member KSGJ

go in the military, get trained as an ATC *navy in my case. Buy a house during the next housing boom. Then get your bachelors while your in. Then get out and work on your masters, which they pay me around 1000 a month after tuition to do, then claim unemployement for 18 months in the next recession. Then get picked up FAA.

Or

go to a CTI school, attain 60-150000 in debt. Then go bankrupt, then don't get hired by the FAA because they won't give you a security clearance.