Expert: David A. NewMyer - 4/28/2009

Question
My son and I are having a hard time deciding between western Michigan or southern Illinois for his education in aviation. We are Illinois residents and he has been accepted to both schools. Is there any advice you can give us. He is not interested in being a commercial pilot, rather a private pilot. Thank you for your time.

Karen


Answer
Hi, Karen:

Thank you for your question, I will try to assist!

I guess the key question is what is he interested in in addition to becoming a Private Pilot?  Here at Southern Illinois University Carbonedale (where I work), we offer two key options for him:

1.  The B. S. in Aviation Management:  This would be for careers in airport management, airport planning, working in the business operations side of aviation manufacturing, airline management (flight crew scheduling, marketing, corporate planning, sales, etc) and in goverment-related jobs such as air traffic control; and,

2.  The B. S. in Aviation Technologies:  This would be for careers in aviation maintenance, aircraft product support, aviation manufacturing, avionics and so forth.

At Western Michigan, the choices are similar in that you have two non-flight degrees to choose from, inclduing:

Aviation Maintenance Technology

and

Aviation Science and Administration

Beyond that, you will need to decide on such things as:

1.  Faculty qualifications and their interest in students;
2.  Course selection and choice;
3.  The campus--appearance and organization;
4.  Placement (for example, SIUC offers an annual Aviation Career Expo as well as a number of very good internship connections to the aviation industry);
5.  Costs for tuition, fees, housing, board and books;
6.  Student organizations avialable in aviation.

One way to make your choice is to visit each campus and keep a detailed record of each visit, according to the key decision items that you have listed prior to the visits (such as costs, faculty, student organizations or whatever).  Once you get home from both visits, add up the results of each visit as they compare to one another based on the key points and then see if you can make a decision.

I would be happy to help you further with information about Southern Illinois University Carbondale....I am not sure of a contact at Western Michigan, but, you can consult their website at www.wmich.edu and go to the College of Aviation for further information.

Best of luck to you in your college choice!

Sincerely,

David A. NewMyer, Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Aviation Management and Flight
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
http://www.aviation.siu.edu
newmyer@siu.edu