Engineering is the art of making what you want from stuff you can get.

Having said that, I didn't dislike math, I HATED math. I STILL hate math
the way it is taught. It is just one of those gates that you have to walk
through to get the degree. I *teach* math, and as God is my witness, I try
and make it something that is real and understandable.

Having said that, my degree in physics (or as we called it, the department
of theoretical engineering) opened up a whole vista of opportunities, one of
which could have been flying if I had wanted it. I chose (as your walls are
mute testimony) to go into the space program. I could have gone into
computer programming. I could have gone into semiconductor design. I could
have gone a dozen different directions.

If you go to an "aviation" school and take "aviation", you have one career
choice in one particular field. If you go into computer science, or
engineering, or physics, or chemistry, you have a whole rainbow of choices
and as others have noted, you don't have to have an "aviation" degree to fly
for a living. .

Advice, worth every penny you paid for it...find a community college (get
the kid out of the nest for a while) that has dorms or at least housing near
the school. Try engineering (or physics, or...) for a year. If you STILL
don't like it, you've at least inexpensively eliminated one path and
possibly have found your true love. Or you can come home, say that you want
to go to one of the universities with an aviation program and go for it.

Get a college job wrenching on the weekends (no, I didn't say WENCHING).
Four years later you'll come out with a degree PLUS your A&P PLUS as many
hours as you can afford flying. Maybe a CFI in a couple of hundred hours
and pick up a little spare change doing flight reviews and the like.

Stay away from the "aviation schools" like Embry and such. Sure, they are
pilot mills, but little else.

Worth every penny, eh?

Jim

--
"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."
--Henry Ford


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
As many of you know, my son is taking flight lessons. He's past solo,
and into his cross-country flights.

He's a senior in high school, and is wondering what to do with the
rest of his life. His initial aim has been going into engineering,
but has decided that math is not something he truly enjoys. (Although
he's good at it -- far, far more advanced than I am.)

He's now toying with the idea of a career in aviation. Possibilities
include:

- Commercial pilot
- Helicopter pilot
- Something on the business side of aviation.