Western Michigan University College of Aviation

Western Michigan University's College of Aviation flies from W.K. Kellogg Airport in Battle Creek, about forty minutes from the main Kalamazoo campus, occupying more than 135,000 square feet across twenty acres of the airfield. It offers three degree majors — aviation flight science, aviation technical operations and aviation management and operations — which means the same campus trains pilots, maintainers and operations staff side by side. It is one of the longest-established collegiate aviation programmes in the American Midwest and has grown steadily on the back of sustained pilot demand.

Training at WMU College of Aviation

Aviation flight science takes students from private pilot through the certificates and ratings an airline career requires, supported by structured instruction and simulator training. What distinguishes WMU is the strength of its pathway agreements: in 2018 it became one of only eight universities admitted to Delta's Propel programme, and it also participates in United's Aviate programme, with AAR running a parallel hiring pipeline for technical operations students. Propel participants selected from the collegiate route receive a conditional job offer to Endeavor Air, Delta's wholly owned subsidiary, and build their hours instructing at the university where they trained.

Entry to the degree is a university admission decision, but entry to the pathways is not — those are competitive selections run by the airlines, layered on top of academic and flight performance. Propel's selection in particular carries all the way through to a qualified job offer at Delta itself, which is why it is assessed seriously. Students who rehearse the reasoning, coordination and multitasking exercises common to modern pilot aptitude assessments are preparing for the pathway interview and for every airline application that follows it.