<p>On "How to Become an Astronaut" but I kinda want more information.</p>
<p>What majors and what kind of grad schools should a hopeful astronaut go to? What will astronaut rejectees work in? Err... yes I know I sound ignorant. Please educate me?</p>
<p>I know of Aerospace and Aeronautics, but would Applied Math and Applied Physics work also?</p>
<p>Couldn't tell you about you about Applied Math and Applied Science, but I can tell you that the easiest road is probably the Air Force Academy. My dad went there, flew F-15s, and now flies for Delta. Some of his good friends are currently on the space shuttle crews right now, and I believe Aero Engineering at USAFA was the road they took. Ended up well for them obviously.</p>
<p>Good luck with your life goal, it would certainly be a dream come true if it works out for you, but it can be a long road.</p>
<p>Check out MIT, Michigan-Ann Arbor, Purdue, CalTech, Princeton and Stanford. Those have very strong relationships with companies like Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, NASA etc... They obviously have to ranked aerospace Engineering programs. And many of their graduates have gone one to fly and some, even to walk on the moon!</p>
<p>You dont have to go to an Academy. Going to an Academy just makes it easier to obtain a pilot slot. If you go to a top 50 school and do AFROTC or NROTC while studying something like engineering or Physics you can receive a pilot slot, then after a few years apply for an instructor program the a couple more years you can apply for the test pilot program, then after some years doing that you can apply for the astronaut program. A grad degree is practically required and must also be in one of the few technical degrees. </p>
<p>Its one long road. Just read and search for more info and search for NAvy pilots and air force pilots and the steps they have done.</p>
<p>The average stats of those admitted into Arizona are slightly better...</p>
<p>Does anyone have any comments on the following schools?</p>
<p>Cooper Union
Florida Institute of Technology
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Harvey Mudd College</p>
<p>Comments preferably with relation to this thread. I've looked into the schools themselves, but I don't know how strong they are in preparing for piloting/sending grads off to space.</p>
<p>Off topic a lil: I'm sure going to look forward to tell my parents that I'm looking into ROTC.</p>
<p>Airforce1, I looked through the AFROTC site. Sounds cool/fun, but the PFT - 42 push ups? I only managed to do 33 7th grade and now I can barely do... 1. Hahah. Oh well, should be able to pass the other two. I'll work on arms... weak...</p>
<p>I'm going to talk to my GC next week (cuz can't this week) and see what he says. Thanks for telling me to check out the ROTC stuff!</p>
<p>I can tell you that Olin is the greatest school ever accredited, except its not accredited yet. But it is an awesome school, as I'm sure you have found out if you have done any research. Don't know how much it will help you fly, however, because there is no Aero program yet.</p>
<p>If all you want to do is fly in the military or for some airline then a professional aviation 4 year college degree will work. If you want to become an astronaut or a test pilot or some day be in management or do business then get an engineering degree. </p>
<p>What grade are you in? I am a senior and applied for an AFROTC scholarship this year and will find out the result March 4th. The AFROTC and NROTC programs are great. You can attend a university with a better education than an academy, you get to experience a real college, you still become a officer in the military, and provided you get a scholarship you wont have to pay anything for college- you will have to pay less than everyone else.</p>
<p>I am guessing you are Junior so apply for a scholarship for AFROTC or NROTC next fall. Make sure you get everything in in the FALL that way you find out early what and how much you get and you have a better chance of getting a scholarship.</p>
<p>So your a girl right? you said 42 pushups... that the max
Just work on pushups and situps and running a couple miles... For the AFROTC scholarship i had to do a physical test similar to the PFT and did 63 pushups in a min, then 63 Situps in a min, then ran 1.5 miles. And had 2 min break in between each. I just did the test by myslef for once a day for the four days previous tot he test.</p>
<p>Have you ever been in a plane? In a small plane? Flown a small plane?
You need to say yes to all these before getting gung-ho about becoming a pilot. TRy Be a pilot program for intro and a short flight at a local airport for only $50. </p>
<p>I can go on and on and take on my plans... I have hundreds of hours of reading and research about all types of these things so just ask..
A good sight you should read every day is baseops.net then go to their forums</p>
<p>Yup, I'm a girl. I'll be applying to the AFROTC scholarship next school year. I run and sometimes do sit-ups, but I'm just really bad with push-ups. If that's the maximum, does that mean I can do less? No, wait, don't tell me. If I think I'll do better if I aim higher. </p>
<p>I've been in a passenger plane multiple times, but never in a small one... much less flown one. I'll be looking into pilot programs now. Never knew there were so many different things I need to do. </p>
<p>What does it really mean to become part of the ROTC? Cuz I told my friend that I was thinking about joining and she freaked out and told me they were going to draft me and send me to war... Then she threatened to tell my parents that I was going to die. </p>
<p>I'll look into baseops.net and the pilot programs before asking you more questions, so that way you won't be too pestered.</p>
<p>But one more question: How important is that vision requirement (of 20/150 for NASA class II phys, and 20/50 for NASA Class I... uncorrected)?</p>
<p>Yeah, it wasn't easy convincing my mom that I was going into the military but she's proud now, it takes time. I'm going into aviation but I'm not being a pilot. I took an aviation class my junior and senior year at a nearby college which was part of a high school program. There's more to being a pilot than flying the plane, there's a lot of calculating and geography and meteorology, just a bunch of ground school before you get in the air. I chose service academy route because I love Navy planes and in the air and space field a lot have had service prior. It's okay so far. You have to sacrafice some things that you would enjoy in civilian life, and keep in shape which I'm not a fan of:/, but it's worth it if you keep an eye on your goal.</p>
<p>Thinkmof the militray standards before NASA<br>
For the Air Force a pilot must have 20/70 uncorrected and corrected to 20/20 with glasses or contacts. Since so many people dont have this vision yet still wish to beomce pilots many have used eye exercises ( see Clearly Method) and pinhole glasses instead of wearing your glasses.</p>
<p>Also LASIK is not allowed. ANother safer method called PRK is allowed but only 10% of the pilot slots can have that PRK waiver. So having PRK makes it harder to get a slot.</p>
<p>Hey airforce this is mrmuenchow replying to your response on my forum. So if I want to become what would be my best bet, Embry-Riddle, airforce,etc?</p>
<p>First question is what type of pilot? Commercial, military, local, business planes?</p>
<p>So I am guessing that you want to fly commercial jets for an airliner. You have two ways of getting all of your licenses and certificates. Civilian and military. </p>
<p>Civilian- You go to a college like Embry Riddle another school with a nationally known avaition department such as SAN Jose State. Embry is the most well known and probably the most expensive. For your major you study aviation where you take courses and fly. By the time you graduate you have racked up a multi eng rating to even a commercial rating. This is very expensive and even after you graduate you still dont have enough experience to go to the big companies yet. You have to work another couple of years for a charter small jet company where you wont make that much. After flying charter jets you will be qualified to fly for the major airline companies.</p>
<p>Military- For tha air force your locked in for 10 years as a pilot and in the NAvy your in for I believe 8 years. While in the Military you will gain many hours and great experience that the civilian route could not provide. Once your out of the military since you have so many hours you can just test and get the check rides for all the ratings and certificates. </p>
<p>Military you get more and better training and experience but you will be in the military for 10 years ( some people dont want to be locked into that for so long). Civilian route you can apply for jobs with big airlines only a few years after college but you wil be competing for jobs against people that went through the military.</p>
<p>So i guess the question is do you want to go into the military for a decade?</p>
<p>If you're intimidated by the Academies have you looked into the smaller and sometimes more user friendly Coast Guard Academy. I know a couble girls there and they all love it. They're not all military brats and most are just normal girls who wanted a challenge. From what I've heard its a ton of fun after the initial "breaking in" period(ie bootcamp). You give up alot but you get experiences that you would have gotten at no normal college... AND IT'S FREE!</p>
<p>If i entered the airforce would i have to live on base? If i graduated from a college and tried to become an airline pilot would it be hard competing against the military trained pilots? About how much would I make working flying charter planes?</p>