I graduated from Dowling in 2007 and lived on the Shirley campus for 3 years. There have since been a lot of improvements. New sports fields and a cafeteria were built and a very nice ATC simulator added (that as a CTI student, I just missed out on). I was originally a Professional Pilot major and made good use of the fleet of Piper Aircraft on the field (KHWV).

The classes are usually only 20 -30 people and most (but not all) professors are very knowledgeable and willing to give you extra help. The school also gave me a good scholarship; costs were about $27,000 plus more if you were taking flight lessons.

My biggest complaints go to the flight school. In my 4 years there were many staff changes. I was left without a flight instructor for several months resulting in delays in my training (you must be commercial rated to graduate). I was faced with being finished with college, but without a diploma due to incomplete flight training so I switched majors and decided to use my CTI status to go into ATC. After I graduated more staff changes at Dowling slowed them from passing on my paperwork to the FAA for another 6 months. It was only after I called them and hounded them for weeks that it got done. I wasn't the only one encountering these problems and many of us wrote a letter to Dowling?s President so hopefully they were able to address these issues.

The campus is located in Shirley NY, about 17 miles from Dowling's main campus in Oakdale NY. Smith Point Beach is close by and there are music festivals there sometimes. There's also some big malls and a water park in Riverhead if you want to take a little bit of a drive. Besides that, Shirley is full of fast food places and few dead end bars. Port Jefferson is about 15 - 20 minutes away and has a pretty cool music/bar scene. If you really want to have some fun though, head to Manhattan or the Hamptons.

If you?re looking to go to a CTI school to be a controller, Dowling is a good option with a lot of brand new top-of-the-line equipment. Dorms are a lot better than many of the state schools too. Just beware of some of the bureaucratic tendencies of the Aviation school management. If you?re not going for flight training you will probably avoid much of it.

I just graduated from Dowling College in May 2009 with a degree in Aeronautics. I also completed the flight training and CTI program there. I am currently in the MBA program at Dowling for Aviation Management. I would have to comment on the previous post and say that in the past there have been flight school management issues, but I can say with a great deal of accuracy that it has changed alot since 2007 for the better. I enjoyed my time at the school and am grateful for the opportunities I were given.

The ATC simulation lab is, to say the least, insane. It is a fantastic tool that the school has. It is a multi-million dollar virtual simulation built in whole by Raytheon Corporation and has all of the main functions of the NAS including Center, Tracon, and Tower (which in include Flight Data and ground control). It also has a psuedo-pilot part where fellow classmates operate the aircraft that the Air traffic controller positions are handling. The lab is taught by three professors (two of which are retired controllers -JFK & SYC). I had a alot of fun in this lab and learned a about a career that I had never before considered.

Some personnel from the OKC Training Facility came to speak to some of our CTI candidates and when the saw the lab, they were very impressed.

It is a great place to train and I would recommend it to anyone. Just understand that the school is not without its problems, just like every other flight school. There is no perfect school. Flight school management is a problem at all schools. For one, retention of employees is low, because no one wants to be a career flight instructor. Once they "buy there time" they are off to the airlines. The cost of maintenance of aircraft plus high insurance costs make it difficult to operate. I can say this however, Dowling has the newest and cleanest fleet in the Northeast. The maintenance department at Dowling is top notch and they do an excellent job at keeping the aircraft flying safely. Dowling is one of the fastest growing flight schools.

Also, I have to say a congratulations to the recently resurrected Dowling College Flying Lions Flight Team that placed 1st overall (and 1st in Flight and Ground Events) in the 2009 Region VII SAFECON competition from NIFA!!!!

Overall I had a great time there and would recommend Dowling to anyone.

I hope my review is helpful to those trying to decide.

I am currently a senior at Dowling.. I transferred here after two years at another school(earning commercial pilot cert.) because I was interested in their CTI program. I give the price a 3 because its not as much as riddle, BUT I am paying the same amount here as i was the other school while i was flying there, and i am not flying here. BIG difference and a lot of money IMO. however i love the staff here. all experienced, some retired controllers who know what their talking about. I also joined the flight team here which was real cool since we took first place in just about every category in the regionals. The ATC sim is really cool and a huge factor that got me interested. close to a million dollar machine, it runs basic to advanced simulations that are really fun involving 6 controllers and 6 pseudo-pilots to get a realistic feel, much like the raytheon simulator over at JFK tower where i got an internship through the school, which is another cool thing dowling does! internship in JFK tower OR new york center at islip airport. both awesome and can help you network! not many other schools do this. the classes here are small, ive had one class with 7 people in it, and the largest around 27. hard to fall asleep in or text without being noticed , but you can learn more and get questions answered more easily than in a large class. i think dowling holds students to a high standard and will not send people to OK without the proper knowlege... however i cannot fully rate their curriculum since i did half my bachelors at another school, BUT i am a little displeased with the advanced courses i am in now... very repetitive...:deadhorse: i hope it will be changed in the future. thats about it, hope it helps someone interested in dowling, overall i definitely WOULD recommend it!! great school, i really love it.