New classes begin each quarter, and each class is limited to 60 students. After graduation, with appropriate experience and hours earned in the workplace, graduates may return to the school's three-week Airline Transport Pilot certification course. The school, however, stresses to each student that a degree is required for most top flying positions. About half the students arrive with degrees in hand. Others earn their degrees while flying in the work place and climbing the ladder.
Most pilots are able to achieve it, however, for three simple reasons.
First, most colleges and universities are cognizant of the plight. There are programs of study designed to meet the demands of adults engaged in on-going careers. Second, graduates of a school such as NAIA are superbly prepared for college. The intensive schooling in which they've mastered aeronautical science is more than equal to any lower-level university semester they're likely to encounter. Third, professionally minded pilots are goal-oriented.