Air Force Academy or Embry Riddle?

Jerald Florence: The Academy gets you a free education, but commits you to serving as an Air Force officer for a few years. You might learn to be a pilot while there or after graduation, but it's no guarantee. And even if it does, it's more likely to be as a fighter pilot, for which there is no demand outside the AF. It is, however, a real university and you'll get a good education. Embry-Riddle can teach you a lot about aviation, but it's not a real university in the sense that most people understand the word. It's certainly not free, but you're not committed to serving in the military either.To answer your question: The Academy will get you a much better education, but Embry Riddle will more likely lead to a job as a commercial pilot....Show more

Russell Mckinzie: USAFA would be the better route. USAFA is a university that most would say rank with or at least near the Ivy leagues and you'll take classes in a huge range of studies. If you are physically quali! fied and interested you can more than likely also gain a pilot slot in the Air Force. You more than likely will NOT become a fighter pilot unless it is goal to be one and there is a little luck on your side. It is more likely that you would become a heavy pilot and be flying more like the airlines do.Embry Riddle is an aviation school and pretty much everyone there will get a degree that has something to do with aviation. The real downside is that you will not have any sort of guaranteed job like you do from USAFA. (unless you do AF ROTC, but then you don't have as good a chance of getting a pilot slot) Embry Riddle will be much easier than USAFA though. You wont have to deal with a ton of classes that you may not care about the subject matter, in addition to wearing a uniform everyday and marching to meals and having inspections and having mandatory intramurals. I will admit that I am bias. I had a scholarship to Embry Riddle but chose USAFA in the end. It worked out well ! for me, I have a good job where I fly a plane larger than most! airliners all around the world and I get paid well enough to do whatever I feel like and have some left over....Show more