Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

Date: Aug 22 2015
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
I did like the Aviation department instructors.I considered the educational opportunities good. BUT the major things I would change is the management of the department.Equipment needs to be updated/repaired/expanded to allow more opportunities for students to complete on time. The MAIN COMPLAINT I have is the blatant lies told to aviation students about the costs. At orientation, I was told it was going to be $5,000 in flight fees per year over and above tuition for a 2 year pilot program to get your pilot's license. Then you could stay two extra years to get aviation management degree to get a 4 year degree. The TRUTH is it does not take 2 years to complete the pilot program, it takes 3 or 4. AND FLIGHT FEES ARE ABOUT $10K PER SEMESTER. MY flight costs for the 4 years were over $80k. This is a significant increase and could prevent some students from being able to complete a degree due to lack of funding. IF THIS IS THE COST, JUST TELL PEOPLE THE TRUTH. The first year, I called many times to try to find out why the fees were so much. Everyone from the bursar to the head of the department just passed the buck. No one would explain anything or address the issue. ALSO…due to FAA changes in the flight hours required, aviation students now graduate without being able to get a job flying for an airline or even fedex. Private couriers or the military are the only only options. I do not blame the school for the FAA changes; however, I do blame them for not getting ahead of this for student benefit. Going into the school, they SAID ALL aviation students had at least 1-2 job offers post-graduation. With this change, opportunities were substantially limited, but there were not attempts by the school to help with this by researching opportunities and providing students with job fairs or vacancy lists or even employer lists. Non pilot Internships were offered, but nothing for pilot positions or opportunities to get enough hours for airline qualification.