Subsidized College Programs (Ontario)

[evand.13]

I have been considering both Sault College and Confederation College for flight training. These are my two preferred options as the flight time is subsidized. Does anyone have any experience with these programs? I am aware of the prerequisites to apply, but does anyone know what type of (%) grades I may need to get into either of these programs? I would assume they would both be very highly competitive, as many people like graduating with as little debt as possible. However correct me if I am wrong about this.

Also if you do know of these, in your opinion, Confederation or Sault?

[montado]

I would rather live in Thunder Bay vs Sault. I would rather spend 2 years in school rather than 3. I'd also rather get my flying done on time with the help of better weather and a better managed program.

When a prof at Sault says confederation has the better program, don't need to think to hard about that choice. Be sure to schedule your MIFR on the March break of year two if you are looking for that kind of job to start!

[Victory]

Air Canada's recommended qualifications say 3 year Aviation College diploma not 2 year though.

[Speedalive]

I went to Sault College. Had I been accepted into Confed though, I would've gone there for the simple fact that it's cheaper even with the added expense of having to do your multi after the fact. A far as I understand, you get the same quality of education except it was based on business/management rather than aviation engineering and they have all the same opportunities (eg: jazz award). They also had a float program at the time which would've been sweet! It's a shame they got rid of it..

If you do decide to go to the Sault, there's a couple things to note. It is a very strict atmosphere there and at times I found it took away from the learning environment. You got penalized for small things that in other schools would be considered a chance to learn and improve. Students got treated like kids and not like paying customers as well by the higher ups in the program. I didn't realize all this until I went back home to continue my training though. I suspect this was probably due to the fact that they accepted more students than they could realistically accommodate so they had to wean out students somehow, especially now that they got rid of the gpa requirement in first semester. The bright side of this though was that you had to hold yourself to higher standards, but on the other hand, it added unnecessary stress to the early stages of flight training. It is manageable, but just be prepared for it. I think the profs were good for the most part and instructors were good as well (especially the senior ones) and overall it was a good program. You get bad apples wherever you go of course. I would recommend purchasing a car if you go to the Sault. It's a real pain taking the school van to and from the airport, especially when you're going there to snag a last second open booking (or 'scam' a flight as they called it). You will need to scam flights to have any realistic chance of staying ahead with all of the wonderful weather in SSM (I once flew 3 times in 3 months and I had a personal record of 15 bookings cancelled in a row due to WX).. I hear Tbay has much better weather being on the other side of Lake Superior.

As a full disclaimer, I didn't finish my training at Sault College. I did 2.5 years but I still didn't have my PPL due in part to wx delays, but mostly because of many poor decisions on my part and I regret it a lot. Even though my experience sucked, I would still say it's a good program and I often recommend it to aspiring pilots along with Confed. I feel like my time there has also instilled a sense of self discipline in me that has helped me tremendously in my flight training back home to the point that instructors kept telling me to stop being so hard on myself after every flight (and I'm in a University flying program right now...). So you can be sure that you'll be getting quality flight instruction.

Maybe make a list of the pros and cons of both programs to help decide which one would be your best fit. I would talk to some current students if you could as well. I had to make a similar decision between Seneca and Sault College and talking to students helped me a lot to get a realistic picture of what both programs were like. I can't speak for the student experience at Confed since I've never been there, but I still think Confed is the best bang for your buck though. It's cheap, quick, and gets the diploma box ticked off on your resume. Then you can head over to Cornwall to get your multi over with and then you're flying for a living before a Sault grad starts their final year. The Sault is not a bad choice though either. Good luck on your decision.

[evand.13]

I would rather live in Thunder Bay vs Sault. I would rather spend 2 years in school rather than 3. I'd also rather get my flying done on time with the help of better weather and a better managed program.

When a prof at Sault says confederation has the better program, don't need to think to hard about that choice. Be sure to schedule your MIFR on the March break of year two if you are looking for that kind of job to start!

Yes Thunder Bay looks like a better place to live. There is also the fact that even if I couldn't get a car (which I hope to) I could take the bus (30 min) and even biking (20 min - good weather). I think I'd rather get out in the workforce as early as possible too. The best training for a job is well, doing the job. Thank you for the response montado.

[evand.13]

I went to Sault College. Had I been accepted into Confed though, I would've gone there for the simple fact that it's cheaper even with the added expense of having to do your multi after the fact. A far as I understand, you get the same quality of education except it was based on business/management rather than aviation engineering and they have all the same opportunities (eg: jazz award). They also had a float program at the time which would've been sweet! It's a shame they got rid of it..

If you do decide to go to the Sault, there's a couple things to note. It is a very strict atmosphere there and at times I found it took away from the learning environment. You got penalized for small things that in other schools would be considered a chance to learn and improve. Students got treated like kids and not like paying customers as well by the higher ups in the program. I didn't realize all this until I went back home to continue my training though. I suspect this was probably due to the fact that they accepted more students than they could realistically accommodate so they had to wean out students somehow, especially now that they got rid of the gpa requirement in first semester. The bright side of this though was that you had to hold yourself to higher standards, but on the other hand, it added unnecessary stress to the early stages of flight training. It is manageable, but just be prepared for it. I think the profs were good for the most part and instructors were good as well (especially the senior ones) and overall it was a good program. You get bad apples wherever you go of course. I would recommend purchasing a car if you go to the Sault. It's a real pain taking the school van to and from the airport, especially when you're going there to snag a last second open booking (or 'scam' a flight as they called it). You will need to scam flights to have any realistic chance of staying ahead with all of the wonderful weather in SSM (I once flew 3 times in 3 months and I had a personal record of 15 bookings cancelled in a row due to WX).. I hear Tbay has much better weather being on the other side of Lake Superior.

As a full disclaimer, I didn't finish my training at Sault College. I did 2.5 years but I still didn't have my PPL due in part to wx delays, but mostly because of many poor decisions on my part and I regret it a lot. Even though my experience sucked, I would still say it's a good program and I often recommend it to aspiring pilots along with Confed. I feel like my time there has also instilled a sense of self discipline in me that has helped me tremendously in my flight training back home to the point that instructors kept telling me to stop being so hard on myself after every flight (and I'm in a University flying program right now...). So you can be sure that you'll be getting quality flight instruction.

Maybe make a list of the pros and cons of both programs to help decide which one would be your best fit. I would talk to some current students if you could as well. I had to make a similar decision between Seneca and Sault College and talking to students helped me a lot to get a realistic picture of what both programs were like. I can't speak for the student experience at Confed since I've never been there, but I still think Confed is the best bang for your buck though. It's cheap, quick, and gets the diploma box ticked off on your resume. Then you can head over to Cornwall to get your multi over with and then you're flying for a living before a Sault grad starts their final year. The Sault is not a bad choice though either. Good luck on your decision.

I noticed what you are saying about Sault being strict. Just look at the uniform requirements on the program overview . That weather sounds absoulutely terrible. I think based on these responses Thunder Bay might be the better place for me. I definitley won't rule out Sault though. Thanks for the information Speedalive, very helpful .

[evand.13]

Air Canada's recommended qualifications say 3 year Aviation College diploma not 2 year though.

There's a lot of options outside Air Canada though. Air Canada would be like the golden standard of Canadian aviation (besides the RCAF) wouldn't it?

[2ndGenAviator]

Air Canada's recommended qualifications say 3 year Aviation College diploma not 2 year though.

There's a lot of options outside Air Canada though. Air Canada would be like the golden standard of Canadian aviation (besides the RCAF) wouldn't it?

Only by those either at Air Canada or new to the industry.

[evand.13]

Air Canada's recommended qualifications say 3 year Aviation College diploma not 2 year though.

There's a lot of options outside Air Canada though. Air Canada would be like the golden standard of Canadian aviation (besides the RCAF) wouldn't it?

Only by those either at Air Canada or new to the industry.

Ah. See I don't know too much about the different airlines. Just what an average consumer would think.

[Speedalive]

I noticed what you are saying about Sault being strict. Just look at the uniform requirements on the program overview . That weather sounds absoulutely terrible. I think based on these responses Thunder Bay might be the better place for me. I definitley won't rule out Sault though. Thanks for the information Speedalive, very helpful .

I mean... eventually you’ll have to wear a uniform so that part didn’t bother me personally. I hope they’ve improved the quality though. They were pretty rough when I was there. But yeah definitely don’t rule out the Sault. Just be aware of some of the quirks haha. It was really fun flying the Zlin. Flying a 172 feels like flying a mini van compared to that thing.

[evand.13]

I noticed what you are saying about Sault being strict. Just look at the uniform requirements on the program overview . That weather sounds absoulutely terrible. I think based on these responses Thunder Bay might be the better place for me. I definitley won't rule out Sault though. Thanks for the information Speedalive, very helpful .

I mean... eventually you’ll have to wear a uniform so that part didn’t bother me personally. I hope they’ve improved the quality though. They were pretty rough when I was there. But yeah definitely don’t rule out the Sault. Just be aware of some of the quirks haha. It was really fun flying the Zlin. Flying a 172 feels like flying a mini van compared to that thing.

Yes the zlins look really fun. Not many programs have them.

[dogfood]

I went to Sault college and i can honestly say that it was not that good. If i could of done it all over again i would have done it privately. I have alot of buddies that went to confed and it sounds like that was a much better run program

[evand.13]

I went to Sault college and i can honestly say that it was not that good. If i could of done it all over again i would have done it privately. I have alot of buddies that went to confed and it sounds like that was a much better run program

Yes that's the message I'm getting here. I would do it private but then I wouldn't get a diploma. In terms of cost Brampton Flight Centre (my local school) it would be about $50 000 for CPL Multi-IFR. At a college like Confederation it's about $19 000 total. That seems cheap, but then I'd pay for residence ($7000 a year), food ($3500 a year), travel home during breaks ($1000 in flights a year). Plus, Brampton Flight Centre is pretty recognized from what I've read through different sources and they are private so they have to be as best possible to attract customers. Good thing I'm only in grade 10, there's so much to think about here.

Thanks for the response , dogfood