It's not that you'll be "stuck" persay, but in the aviation industry you need to "work up" to the job you want. You can usually apply to the regional airlines and have a decent chance of getting hired if you have enough hours, but to get hired by the majors you simply need a lot of hours, somtimes an ATP lisecense, turbine time, thousands of hours and the industry has to be hiring pilots. The industry is cylcical and right now at the "bottom" of it's cycle, in the next few years it should get better, but after enough it may turn down again, such is life. Regional airlines are usually a better bet as far as hiring because they are making more money than the bigger airlines.



An ROTC program is a great idea, the Navy even has a program where you don't have to do the ROTC thing, just go to school, stay fit, get decent grades(nothing crazy) and you get most of the schooling paid for. Right now this is probably the best program here at Embry-Riddle. We also have Army, Air Force and Marine ROTC of course, so those are all options. You might have to borrow a little money to complete school here(school loans) but ROTC WILL pay for most of it, and it is still a great idea in the long run. If I had planned better in high school, I probably would have done ROTC rather than going in the army to get gi bill and college fund money.



I would not recommend that you go about getting a lot of ratings before you go to an aviation college though, the private pilot might be ok, but keep in mind that if you attend Embry-Riddle, or another big avaition school, you will have to relearn a lot of things to do them the way the school wants. There's a lot of varience in the way flight schools do things, and private pilots have to take a course in which they do a lot of the same stuff they did in their private pilots course, but to the Embry-Riddle standards. This is sometimes too much for someone that learned how to fly at a "lax" school, and they get upset. It's not necessarily going to happen to everyone, but it's something to consider.



Another thing to consider is that you're taking a leap of faith as far as flight training. There are students that it just doesn't work out for them here at the school. It's not easy and the standards can sometimes be fairly high. I am thankfull each day that it seems to have worked out for me, but I do think about the fact that it may not have worked out for me. Some people try to fly but it simply doesn't work out for them. Not trying to discourage you, but it's something to conisider. I'd say though if you go in the military ROTC programs, they'd probably give you the discipline necessary. The military helped me a lot and is probably the #1 reason that I can apply myself and get excellent grades and complete the flight courses in the allotted time(extremely rare here).



It really sounds like you have your head on straight though and that you have some good plans already. I'd say go ROTC though rather than to the Naval Acadamy or Air Force Acadamy. We have real good ROTC programs and you get a lot more freedom than if you were going to the naval acadamy. You also get to choose from degrees in Aeronautical Science with professional pilot minors, weather minors, saftey minors, or you could even try for an engineering degree to become a test pilot. At the very least, going to school at one of the big aviation universitys(not military acadamy) gives you a better understanding of commercial aviation, as opposed to military, although you'll learn about military no doubt after you graduate with your degree and go on to military flight school.



Going to school here is not going to gaurentee anyone an airline job, but by training to higher standards you end up being better prepared than most, and with all the academic classes you end up having a better knowledge base. What you do with those as far as what you actually choose to learn in school, and how you present yourself to your future airline employers is going to be what makes the difference.