Concern about ATC and my future education.

[GoldenTlair]

So I'm currently a double major of human factors and ATM. I need some help from actual ATC because from what I've pretty much gained is that my ATM portion of the degree is worthless to the FAA. I've heard just focus on human factors and add some minors (which I plan on adding computer science to work on UI design). I'm just stuck because I feel there is no point in taking an ATM major and spending more money if it provides zero benefit of becoming an ATC. CTI programs are confusing now and I'd just want to get some ATC opinions before I drop The ATM portion of my degree and add a Computer Science minor. Any help or guidance is appreciated.

Just a little note to add in, my main goal if ATC doesn't workout is to be able to be a part of NextGen. Went over to Europe recently and studied SESAR and it's absolutely fascinating. I plan on applying for an internship at NextGen so if any of you have any information on that or NextGen in general id love to hear it. Thank you.

 

[MJ]

ATC hiring is a mess right now. It has been for a while, but they have really messed up the last two years. The CTI program as it stands right now is completely worthless. FAA scrapped the announcement where being a CTI grad would qualify you, so your only option as of this moment is an open announcement. There is no known time frame for a new open bid, but speculation is for later this year. There is movement in congress to force the faa to reinstate cti hiring at some point. The info for that is in a couple other threads here.

If it were me, I wouldn't waste any college time on the FAA. Something like computer science is useful for a ton of different options, including some faa computer techs like you mention.

 

[GoldenTlair]

TThat's the general census I get from everyone that is involved with the FAA, so I think I made the right choice. I'd love to become an ATC, but I can't risk thousands of dollars to gain zero benefit. Thanks for the advice.

 

[MJ]

You'll still be able to apply to the general bid, regardless of what happens with your schooling and the new laws, provided you meet the (very low) requirements.

You can set up a job search on usajobs to send you 2152 openings at a set interval. I also have an rss feed set here to automatically post a thread when it parses the announcement.

 

[dilbert]

How far along in your ATC (you're calling it ATM - not sure if this is the same thing?) degree are you? Either way, having the background and knowledge will still put you ahead of a zero experience person with zero background in aviation if you do apply to the general opening. If they do bring back CTI (which would be a while if ever) you just wouldn't be eligible for that. An ATC degree isn't "useless" - because a lot of people don't care what your degree is in, just that you have one, but I wouldn't put the extra money into ATC if you're in college like you could other stuff.

 

[om]

wont congress make it so acti grads have an edge over ots? wouldnt that make a higher success rate at okc?

 

[rdyotz]

wont congress make it so acti grads have an edge over ots? wouldnt that make a higher success rate at okc?

Supposedly, all tracks graduate the academy at around the same %. Meaning, 70% of CTI's may pass, but also, 70% of OTS pass. What the FAA needs to do is put some actual requirements to CTI schools... Maybe if less than 90% of a college's CTI students pass the academy, then they should lose CTI status. Although, politicians would get involved and fight to keep CTI status at schools in their district, even if only 50% graduate the academy. Another idea would be if a school passes more than 90% at the academy, allow the schools administration to set 25% or so to go straight to a facility and bypass the academy. It sounds good in theory, but it would probably lead to more issues at their facility, as each school might train to different things, so there would be no baseline.

However, most of the bills I have seen proposed recently have given a slight advantage to CTI & veterans, but it doesn't guarantee any higher success rate.