Basically the equipment may not be the best. But the staff is top notch. You are near Seattle. It's a community college so it's cheap. You learn the cti curriculum from experienced instructors so it works. Regular trips to all FAA facilities (SeattleARTCC, KSEA, TRACON,) are nice as well. Great school. I believe that if you are looking to get CTI to avoid OTS this is a great school for you.

I've graduated from Greenriver a year ago and the ATC program is really awesome. It is one of the top colleges on the FAA list. Since I started there the number of Students in the program doubled in 2 years. As far as ATC sim's, each year I've seen a lot of improvement on those and they getting better and better. For struggling students there available aviation tutors which is really nice. I would definitely recommend this school. P.S Curt Scott is the best teacher in my life.

I currently go to green river. overall i am very happy with it. the teachers all genuinely care about your success and will spend as much time as you want one-on-one to help you with your studies and help you plan your education and career. the classes as informal and fairly small in size (less than 25 students). all the teachers go by their first name and are happy to spend time with you outside of class helping you with homework, planning your career, or just talking about aviation. the simulators are very good and realistic. the courses in ATC focus heavily on practical application instead of book learning, the goal of which is to produce grads who are ready to hit the ground running in OKC. be prepared to leave your comfort zone and start talking like a real controller in front of everyone!

the only gripe i have is that none of the teachers have ever worked for the FAA. they are knowledgeable and helpful but sometimes it feels like we are getting second-hand information that you shouldn't really trust without conformation. but to date i haven't found any instance of being steered wrong. if i could change one thing, that would be it. get some retired FAA controllers up in there!

though it is a good education, i don't recommend anyone start at green river any time soon. they are cutting way back on course offerings so its really hard to get done quickly. if you need to retake a course be ready to wait a whole year to do it. also i don't like the grading system. you get a grade point instead of a letter grade so getting a 97% in every class only gets you like a 3.8 or whatever... oh well hopefully grades won't matter to the FAA! only come to green river if you are local and don't want to move, or if you aren't in a hurry to get through the program.

Green River Community College ATC-CTI program is a great place to start your ATC education. After graduating I feel I am ready to take the academy on with success. The instructors have an open door policy and are readily accessible. Currently they have aviation tutors set up to help specifically with aviation courses if you should need it.

No matter how much you know about aviation you are going to have to do self study in this program. You will be expected to know where and how to look up information. If you have a question do not be surprised if you are asked where your FAR/AIM is or where you have looked in the 7110.65 (ATC regulations). Stripmarking, regulations, and memorization are stressed throughout the three ATC courses. You will be expected to memorize a lot of information, sometimes in a short amount of time. This is part of being an air traffic controller. You need to have the regulations memorized and be able to use them quickly while under pressure. On the plus side, when practical, the Memphis area is used which is what the academy uses so you become familiar with information that you will need at the academy.

The one area I marked down is the curriculum. Being a state community college, the school does not have top of the line simulators you will see at the major universities. All of the ATC classes are taught in the ATC lab where computers are set up to simulate a radar control room. When the simulators are being used half of the students will be controllers while the other half will be on the other side of the room acting as pilots inputting the commands the controller tells them, remote pilot operators. You are able to learn what is needed, but I know I will need fine tuning at the academy. Also, I feel there is a small organization problem with the three ATC classes. There is so much information the instructor is trying to teach and so little time. The last ATC class is set up to test you on everything you have learned in all aviation courses in the program.

The school is still the least expensive CTI program that I know of. The school does have dorms though I do not know about their cost or conditions because I did not live on campus. The campus is about 30 minutes from Seattle so the cost of living is expensive. Any activity you want to do can be done in the greater Seattle area. The weather leaves room for desire. Expect a light rain or overcast skies the majority of the year.

If you have further questions the GRCC aviation website may help: GRCC Aviation Technology website. Curt Scott is the current CTI instructor and your best contact for GRCC CTI information. His contact information can be found from the website above. If you have further questions that I may be able to help you with feel free to contact me via a private message on StuckMic.

I am currently enrolled in GRCC as a CTI student. I feel it is a great program, and I was surprised at the level of quality in this school. The instructors are great, and always are very helpful. My aviation instructors were a step above my regular class instructors and all have experience in aviation in some form or another. Curt Scott is a man that loves aviation, and is always trying to better the learning experience for his students.

Some reviewers have said there is a lot of memorizing, and I agree. You will learn maps, abbreviations, and pretty much anything out of the 7110.65. Our radar simulator is a bit different because we write all of our stripmarks. This gives us an advantage to learn everything on it and makes things easier for us at the academy. As for pilot simulators I heard they are working on getting some new top of the line ones in the near future.

Another surprising thing is that the price is very economical compared to other schools. That doesn't mean the quality suffers however. I DO NOT RECOMMEND STAYING AT THE CAMPUS HOUSING. It is very expensive ($600 per month for a room with 3 other roommates, when you can get a studio for about $700 nearby), and in my opinion take advantage of the international students that stay there. I made the mistake of staying on a year lease and regret it. The housing is run by a management company independent of GRCC and it shows.

Try to plan out your CTI before coming here. Some classes are not offered every quarter and some students have to wait until a class opens to graduate. 208 (Airline Dispatch) and the 201, 202, 203 (ATC) classes are required by FAA rules to only allow a certain amount of students, so there is no overloading a class. If you're a pilot or an aviation major looking to get a CTI you can work something out with Curt to graduate in a year or less.

Overall I recommend this school to anyone looking to get their CTI. We all know school is expensive and the economy is not looking too good, but GRCC has the best price to product ratio out of all the CTI schools.

I'm a recent (June, 2010) CTI grad from GRCC as well. I can repeat the same things everyone else did or say something new, so consider my review an addition to theirs, where I felt theirs were lacking.

*GRCC is dirt cheap, I spent more on rent in the 6 months I was there than I did on tuition.

*The CTI Staff are fantastic. Admissions and administration...not so much. Bottom line, the people you have to deal with on a daily basis are knowledgeable, friendly, would take a bullet for you and genuinely have your best interests in mind. Curt Scott (head of the CTI program) should have his salary doubled for the amount of time he spent with us, both in and out of class. He's a stand-up guy. George Comollo is great too.

*Seattle has a fair amount of rain. If you don't like rain, take your CTI in Arizona or Texas or southern California. Seattle is a beautiful city with tons to do, see, and participate in, and Auburn (where GRCC is) is relatively close to the city center (20 mins) and reasonable for rent.

*On campus housing is a rip off, and yes, they do rake foreign students over the coals, which is mainly who you'll find living there. Opt for Amberview apartments, where I lived, and get 1 or 2 roommates in a 2br or 3br. Reasonable rent (my 2br was $825/mo) its a 15 min walk or 3 min drive from school (1 mile) and it's not falling apart like some of the other places in Auburn.

*Plan to study for your ATSAT on your own. Curt will do his best to make sure you earn your CTI recommendation, but ATSAT prep is all you, and it's important you do well. So man up, buy the software prep, and practice once a day till you think you've got it mastered. It's like a crappy video game you cant win, but if you practice you'll do well. I got 100, so I definitely know you can too.

*Study. I'd been out of school quite awhile and had to re-motivate myself. You WILL have to study. If you do, you will succeed. If you don't, it's a slap in the instructor's face, he'll know it, and he'll (politely) call you out on it. So, study.

That's about it. Any ?'s, feel free to IM me.

I graduated Dec 10. There are 3 things that brought me to this school, speed to get through the program, getting a dispatch license, and price.

Speed to get through the program. I started when I was 29 and have a B.S. from another school, so I wanted to get through the program as fast as I could. Green River does quarters, meaning 4 separate semesters during the year (plus a summer, but not many aviation classes are offered then). I could have finished the program in 9 months if I got all the classes that I needed (couldn't get into the dispatch class). Curt Scott will work with you in getting done as soon as you can.

Dispatch License. You can take the FAA dispatch exam when you graduate, so I can work as a dispatcher as I wait or if ATC doesn't work out I have something to fall back on.

Price. It's a bit cheaper than universities, but it wasn't as cheap as I was expecting. Normal classes are 5 credits and then you get charged additional fees on top of tuition, so it's not as cheap as stuck mic says it is, but it's still better than many of the other schools.

Some Other Stuff.

• The instructors are great and will go out of their way to help you succeed. Administration, credit transfers, and the finance office can be a pain but stick with it and talk to the right people and it will eventually come around.
• I don't like how their GPA scale is setup (i.e. 99-100% is a 4.0).
• When I first started I couldn't get into a single class without being overloaded. They have added adjunct instructors so getting into classes aren't such a big issue as they were a year+ ago.
• Get into the Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, and Dispatch classes as soon as you can. Those classes are FAA regulated so the instructors can't overload those classes (the reason I didn't finish in 9 months).
• Very beautiful country with tons to do!