Curriculum: 3
There are two majors one could take to get the CTI certifications: Aviation Operations (AVO) or Aviation Management (AVM). AVO majors, as I was, are required to get all pilot ratings up through CFII with the Delta Connection Academy at nearby Craig Municipal (KCRG). Outside of all of the normal college of business, major, and university gen-ed courses, getting the CTI certification is very easy, you can actually pick up the one or two additional classes needed, that aren't required under any other pre-reqs, as electives and you will have met your elective requirements and CTI. Must score a 80% on the final CTI exam, which is the final test in the advanced ATC class; this test isn't anything too crazy, pretty easy. Other than that, the curriculum is just like any other 4-year university; there are classes such as calculus, international studies, literature...etc that every student at the school must take. Then there are the college requirements, for AVO and AVM you are in the Davis College of Business, so expect lots of stuff like accounting, business comms, economics, marketing...And the only difference between AVO and AVM is that AVO's actually fly and take all ground school classes at JU, and AVM majors take a few more aviation management/business classes AVO's will not take, but they still take several of the same classes.
The five classes that are required for CTI are: Private Pilot Ground, Aviation Weather, Airport Planning/Management, Airspace Trasnportation Enviroment (basic ATC class), and Advanced ATC.
I scored it as a 3 because there aren't any surprises its just you're average type of 4-year curriculum and there aren't any accelerated CTI courses, they wont allow you to take the class with the CTI exam until your last semmester also, probably so you dont leave early before they get all of their money out of you.

Price: 2
Rather expensive, 18-20K per semmester (estimated) for full time, and $500 per credit hour for summer; or $1500 per class. Of course compared to many well known private schools that is probably well below average, but the tuition has been on a slow but steady increase everyone year I have been there. If you plan on being an AVO major, expect to pretty much double tuition to pay for flight expenses. All flight expenses must be paid prior to being cleared to start a rating or flight block. These prices are determined by the average student complete time. I would say 75% of the students end up going a little over the initial cost due to unforseen circumstances or difficulties. When you're account drops below $150 they can't schedule a flight for you. If for any reason you need to take out a loan to help cover additional costs AVOID the JU loan department at all costs! They have been known to take up to 3 months to get your money cleared and by then you end up spending a lot more because you get rusty over the time you can't fly. Try to have some money aside that you can put in if needed.

Teaching Staff: 5
Within the aviation department, JU probably has some of the most experienced teaching staff in the country. All of the aviation professors have specifically done the things they are teaching in the real world at one point or another. For example, BJ Smith teaches crew resource management...He was a chief pilot for Delta Airlines for several years after being a test pilot in the Airforce; he helped pioneer the newer era of CRM for all civil aviation by developing classes and finding better techniques to teach no and old flight crews for the airline. That is a specific example, he does teach a few other classes each semmester as well. Another one of the professors, Rhett Yates, teaches all of aviation management-type classes such as airport planning/management. He was actually an airport manager at one time among several other things. One more example I'll use is Rusty Chandler. He only teaches the ATC classes because he is the airport manager at Cecil Field (KVQQ). He was certified in pretty much every position for tower and tracon, both civilian and military, prior to becoming an airport manager. There are also a few other teachers who are just as remarkable as the ones I listed, but those are some of the most specific examples that stand out.

In general, the rest of the teachers in the college of business, outside of aviation, are at least average teachers if not higher in all aspects. On the other hand, from personal experience, the majority of the teachers that are outside of the college of business within other departments have been rather poor.

JU's strength is its college of business. Within the college of business, its the aviation department. When it comes to the quality of the aviation instructors, they are hands down some of the most qualified people to teach what they teach, maybe even a little over qualified. Due to this I had to give teachers a score of 5. Even though outside of aviation they may not be the best around, if one does all of their work and keep up their attendance they shouldn't have any problems getting B's.

Nearby Activities: 2
One of the downsides of the university is that it isn't located in one of the best parts of town. There are occasional crimes of campus are robed or worse. The campus is currently wide open so anyone can walk onto campus anytime of day or night if they wanted to. They are going to try to start making an effort to really increase police presence at night and build a fence around campus. Don't let this scare you away though...just make sure you don't walk around campus alone at night if you're living in the appartments or dorms.

There are several places to eat and drink very close to campus. But there really isn't anything to get too excited about very close to campus. Downtown is about a 10-15 minute drive with now traffic, as are the beaches; there are plenty of things to do at those locations. I give it a two because where I moved from Jacksonville is a step down as far as activities go. However, I never lived on campus, or anywhere near campus but I have friends who do. If you want to go out and have a good time and maybe do some drinking, you're going to have to drive to get anywhere; designated drivers are highly recomended.


CONCLUSION:
Jacksonville University is a great school if you are looking to get a 4-year degree within aviation. They also offer great graduate options. I think within the next couple of years they will over a MBA with an emphasis in aviation. The CTI program, if you can call it a program...its really just one extra class... is seamless and stress free. I'll say again, the instructors within the aviation department are second to none. It is always a good idea to have a back up plan if things do not end up working out, such as losing your medical...if you have a bachelors or MBA in aviation you will be in much better shape than if you did some type of accelerated program just to get CTI certified without any other college. They currently do not have any type of simulator devices, but those do not help someone take the AT-SAT, there are a lot sources out there that will more than prepare you, and every CTI student still has to go to the same training in OKCity. I suppose it's all personal preference, you can go to CTI specific two year program and come out without any type of backup, but you will have better training for the training you will get in OKCity anyway... Granted the CTI program is very informal and laid back, it gets you that recomendation to take the test just like every other CTI school...I took the AT-SAT within two weeks of the last day of school. The CTI test and ATC classes came really easily for me because of the flying I do; separation types and minimums were really the only things new things that I learned.

If anyone has any questions feel more than welcome to send me a message and I'll try to answer any questions. I hope this information helps out!

P.S. If there are lots of typo's I'm sorry...I was pretty tired when I wrote this