I am trying to figure out my life right now and what I want to do in the future and I really want to be a commercial pilot! Currently Im in high school, 16 years old and doing my PPL. I am in the process of choosing the universities that I want to apply to and their courses that they offer and I know that having a degree or bachelor is helpful in the application process of a pilot and is also helpful in the event that your aviation job doesn't work out and you need to change your career. I am thinking of taking Buisness and doing MBA at UBC or doing the Buisness Administration of Aviation at Simon Fraser University. Im still searching but those are some of my options.
Can anybody please share their input on my situation and maybe recommend a pathway or a course to take and possibly share their story of how they became a commercial pilot?
Get your ratings at a solid flight school. Build time. Do an online degree once you're working in aviation. Live your dream. While it's exemplary to see people doing a full University degree in addition to flight training, IMO you'd be better off focusing on one thing and working while you're doing it. Keep that debt low.
Doing a degree + flight training will run you into $100,000+ worth of debt... Think about that.
You could look into the BCIT Aviation program. Gets you a Diploma with your CPL, MIFR. You can then upgrade your Diploma in the future if needed but these days an Aviation Diploma has decent value. The biggest thing about aviation is getting in. The longer you spend in school the later in life you kinda get your foot in the door. It can take a few years to get a solid job and break that 1500 hour mark before places like Jazz look at you and then another 5 years or so until you might get a shot at a mainline carrier. So the sooner you can get things finished and looking for work the better. The places that look at degrees as valuable is Air Canada, WestJet, Transat etc. You won't be looking at a job there for 5-8 years after finishing your licenses. So get your license, find work and build your hours. While doing that work on a degree over a few years and then you're set. That being said who knows, in 10 years airlines might not care about degrees anymore if the demand is high enough.
edit; pretty sure SFU's program does not include licenses. It's a management program. Unless things have changed in the last few years. Douglas has a program I think with Canadian Flight Center and BCIT with Pacific Flying School.
My son has also expressed an interest in flying as a career. He's only just entering high school so we have some time to see if this is a phase or what, but I'm all for helping him if that's what he wants. Since we live in London, I had a look at the Western site for their aviation program. Looks pretty comprehensive, and you finish with a degree and a CPL, multiengine IFR. Also runs upwards of $120,000 after 4 years, and I assume that's based on minimum hours, any more you need are more $$. And when it's all said and done, you have around 300 hours, so you are still a long way away on that front.
Western is big $$$. Consider a private flight school. He could be done all his licensing by 19 and working shortly after. Whereas at Western it's a long program, a degree... yes but really think if that's what you want.
I hate to inject conventional bourgeois thinking into this but if you are competitive enough to earn a spot in UBC’s Commerce program then take it (we are talking 90th percentile admission here). You probably won’t need a UBC MBA since most of the undergrad courses are similar so the advanced degree is redundant, and if you do want a higher degree it’ll be easier to get accepted.
That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a first-class business education subsidized by the taxpayer at a prestigious university. Sorry but BCIT, SFU and online stuff isn't quite the same thing.
Once you graduate at age 22 or 23 you can pick your license/ratings and then join the low-timer rat race for that coveted rampie job. The difference is you will have a quality education to fall back on in case aviation doesn’t work out (which it doesn’t for a lot of people).
Your parents will thank me. And p.s. stay out of debt.
