When I first started looking at colleges I had no idea what I wanted to major in. I knew I wanted to fly but my parents weren’t as onboard because my uncle was a pilot and he struggled after 9/11 and then the 2008 recession and they didn’t want me to follow the same path. Because of this I didn’t look at very many schools with aviation programs. When I looked at OSU I noticed their Aviation Business major and that kind of piqued my interest, and my parents were more ok with that because I would have that background in business as a backup plan in case flying didn’t work out. I came to OSU my freshman year as an undeclared major and took the intro to aviation course and some business courses to see if that was what I really wanted to do. I loved the intro to aviation course and was less thrilled about the core business courses, and after talking to some people I figured that majoring in Aviation Management isn’t what I really wanted to do, so I finally declared myself as an Air Transportation major with the pilot track at the end of freshman year. I plan on minoring in something other than aviation so that I do have that backup plan in case something were to happen in the industry that would prevent me from finding a job, I just haven’t decided what I want to minor in yet.
As of right now the goal is to become an airline pilot after I graduate. I don’t have a specific airline in mind yet and I guess I’d be pretty willing take any job that is available and offered to me. I am not 100% set on the airlines however and if another opportunity came up I would be willing to consider deviating from that plan. I do know that I would like to fly after graduation though and hope that I can do that, although I wouldn’t mind a more administrative job in the aviation industry, as long as it still gave me the opportunity to occasionally fly.