Trends in the world are changing day by day – before it was aeronautical schools only then spacecraft, moons, orbits all came in – now its time to enrol yourself in Drone School/College/University. These days number of schools are offering drone specific degrees – and have a subject on drone and above all these colleges/universities are taking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
This year Federal Aviation Administration has selected 26 schools so far to participate in its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Collegiate Training Initiative (UAS-CTI), a program to designed to allow schools to partner with the FAA better.
Here I am listing the top 26 schools which are offering Drone specific courses in the USA.
- Blue Mountain Community College, Pendleton, Oregon
- Central Oregon Community College, Bend, Oregon
- Dakota College, Bottineau, North Dakota
- Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL and Prescott, AZ
- Green River College, Auburn, Washington
- Gulf Coast Community College, Panama City, Florida
- Hazard Community and Technical College, Hazard, Kentucky
- Hinds Community College, Bolton, Mississippi
- Idaho State University, Poncatello, Idaho
- Indiana State University, Terra Haute, Indiana
- MiraCosta College, Carlsbad, California
- Mountain Empire Community College, Big Stone Gap, Virginia
- Mountwest Community and Technical College, Huntington, West Virginia
- Niagara Community College, Sanborn, New York
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
- Northeastern Technical College, Cheraw, South Carolina
- Northland Community and Technical College, Thief River Falls, Minnesota
- Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse, Michigan
- Oklahoma City Community College, Stillwater, Oklahoma
- Palomar College District, San Marcos, California
- Santa Rosa Junior College, Windsor, California
- Southwestern College, Chula Vista, California
- Tallahassee Community College, Tallahassee, Florida
- University of Maine at Augusta, August, Maine
- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota
- WSU Tech, Wichita, Kansas
Do note, the drone industry is growing day by day – just last year 2019 was a record year in terms of investment in drone niche, as overall approx $1.5 Billion Dollars were invested in around 160 different deals. Increasingly photographers are opting to join drone industry – to start earning part time or full time right from taking pictures on weddings to work in Film/studio and or working as surveying career for big companies in mining/agriculture and much more. (Check Drone Uses and Applications)
Moreover, there is now a big Drone racing trend where competitors compete to earn million dollar awards and so many fun things happening each and every day. Also recently, FAA awarded over $3 Million to 7 universities in US to start doing research using drones for Disaster preparedness/Recovery Response. Here are the schools:
- Mississippi State University –lead university: $1,290,410
- University of Alabama–Huntsville –lead university: $1,101,000
- New Mexico State University: $234,000
- University of Alaska, Fairbanks: $245,000
- Mississippi State University: $130,000
- North Carolina State University: $124,979
- Oregon State University: $165,000
