I'm gonna go with the consensus here, and recommend getting a more generic degree at a NON aviation oriented college (way more girls!), and pursuing aviation training on the side. Just be careful not to bite off more than you can chew re: your major.
My quick story:
In 1983, when I graduated HS, I was all set to go to ERAU in Daytona to pursue my career in aviation, as it was the ONLY thing I wanted to do.
In the spring of my senior year of HS, unbeknownst to me, my music teacher had put me in for an audition for a music scholarship to a local university. While it is one of my passions, I had never considered a career in music, since all I'd ever wanted to do was be a pilot. I did the audition, and was offered the scholarship. I took it, started college in the fall and continued learning to fly on the side (as well as work part time at the airport while living at home and trying to keep up with a university level curriculum). The music scholarship turned something I loved doing into a chore, as they had me running all frigging day and night. Many days went from 0600 til well past midnight, and I still had homework to do......
It didn't take long to discover that, even at 18 years old, there are only so many hours in the day, and something had to give. I quit that college after one semester, and since ERAU worked on "trimesters" and the new one didn't start until March, my mom was freaking out that I'd never go back if I took a few months off and worked at the airport!
My dad was an airline pilot, and a guy he flew with was on the BOD of a small community college in western PA that had an aviation program. It was a LOT cheaper than Riddle (which appealed to the airline pilot in my dad), they took all of my credits from the other university, and if I became a resident of certain counties, even got a huge discount on tuition AND flying. I went out there, and became a resident. I already had the bulk of my private finished, and just dove in.
A huge advantage over Riddle and other aviation oriented schools was that there were 3 141 flight schools affiliated with the college, so I could fly as much, and whenever I wanted to. At Riddle et al, the flying syllabus is much more tightly scheduled, and it's harder to work at your own pace, or at least it was back then. I flew my butt off, and was able to bang out my private, commercial and instrument in under a year, all while getting my college stuff done. I walked out of there with an AS degree.
The next year, I went to a college closer to home to finish up my BS, got my multi and was working on my CFI. After my first semester, the company at which I was working as a mechanic offered me a conditional flying job (I had to spend the summer as a line boy at HTO because they couldn't find anyone willing to go out there that they could rely on). I had also been doing test flights and "slot preservation" at LGA for the little airline they owned (think: the TV show
Wings) while I was working in MX.
Being the pragmatist that I am, I figured that I could always continue college any time, but the opportunity to get paid to build hours at my experience level (550 hours or so) was not likely to happen again, so I quit college and started flying for a 135 airline at the ripe old age of 21. I figure if I got laid off, I could always go back to college.
I never finished up my degree (nor my CFI), as, with the exception of a 3 month period in '87, I've always been employed as a pilot since.
I've been
very lucky in my career, and was able to get all of the bad stuff (dismal pay, furloughs, 2 chapter 11s, 3 chapter 7's etc) out of the way in the first 10 years and have been with the same major for 19 years now.
The best advice I can give, if you're looking at the airlines, is get your degree as quickly and cheaply as possible while working on your ratings. Do whatever it takes to build as many hours as soon as possible, in the most complex airplanes someone will let you fly. The best way to do the latter is to network, and the best way to network is to work at an airport. I got 4 of my 9 flying jobs solely because I was working at the airport (as a line boy and in mx) and knew everyone.
Seniority is life in the context of an airline career, so the earlier you get hired, the quicker you upgrade, get better schedules, days off etc.
Always take the first class date when offered a job.
Always treat your co workers like gold, even, no ESPECIALLY those "below" you in stature, because besides being the right thing to do, you
never know when you'll need a job recommendation from them. I credit my current position to the recommendations of my former FOs who are all senior to me here and all wrote glowing (all lies
) recs for me. I truly believe that they're the reason I am sitting here today.
IMHO, while the career is certainly a crap shoot, and there are NO guarantees, the earlier in life you start, the better chance you have of a successful career, hence getting college and time building out of the way as early as possible.
Good luck!
