Given the interest and confusion on the Seneca program in the RMC Jeans Debacle thread, I figured I'd summarize what I know over here.
Fair warning, I'm a 1st Year, and a 2Lt. My knowledge, experience, and seniority are all heavily limited.
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[*]What is the Seneca Program?
The Seneca Program, also at various times known as the CEOTP-Pilot or AEAD (air environment affiliated degree) program is a 4 year combined school and flying program, designed to produce winged, degreed captains in 4 years vs. the normal 7. It combines 5 semesters of dumbed-down engineering courses with 3 Phases of flight training (delivered by the RCAF). It operates in parallel to the civilian FPR program at Seneca for the first year -classes are mixed civilian and military- but diverges after that point.
[*]Entry into the Seneca Program:
Entry into the program requires a high school degree, minimum 65% across the board. There are specific courses that you must have taken in high school; once you remind a recruiter of the program's existence, they should be able to look them up. Passing the CFAT and ACS is required, and exempts you from writing the Seneca entrance exam.
[*]Year 1:
This program (ideally) begins in January of the year you enroll, and finishes in December 4 years later. Your first year, you will do basic training and be commissioned as a 2Lt, then proceed on Phase I flight training in Portage in the summer. After completion of Ph I, you'll be posted to Toronto and start school in September with all the civilian students. Any spare time (ie if you do basic earlier) you will be sent on OJT, preferably near where you live.
When you get to Toronto, you'll be strongly encouraged to live in residence. Res is expensive, and there is not a proper cafeteria, but the 2Lt. pay covers it quite nicely; books and tuition are paid by the military. Seneca insists that the Aviation program be uniformed to maintain a professional appearance. For military, this means 3Bs Monday and Tuesday, and flight suits the other 3 days (it was originally 3Bs 4 days a week, but people kept thinking we were bus drivers).
This program is pre-planned, there are no electives. Classes will include Calculus, Statics, Chemistry, and a basic French course. The quality of instruction is considerably lower than a proper university, and you will pass half your courses despite your profs, not because of them. Keep in mind, a pass in this program is 65%. About 1/3rd of the civilians will fail to meet this and go home; traditionally no military students fail.
Another perk of the Seneca program (the best perk for me right now) is sim time. There is a B200 King Air simulator at the college, in the basement. It's a fixed-base, surround screen setup with a fully modeled cockpit. You will have free access to this throughout your time at the school (indeed, you will be required to do at least 1 hour per week), and you will also get 1 hour instruction a month from John and Adam, a pair of (downright excellent) Transat pilots. Conveniently, the King Air flies at effectively the same speeds as the Harvard, so it's fantastic practice. Seneca students start Ph II with 50 sim hours, which is huge when you've only got 20 hours from Ph I. You'll also have at least a foundation in IFR, radio chaos, terrible crosswinds, and just general "flying twice as fast"
[*]Year 2:
Year 2 begins with the winter semester, which builds on the material learned in the Fall. It's more difficult, but not substantially more so. This will get you to April, at which point the civvies head to Peterborough to fly Cessnas, and you go to Moose Jaw for Phase II. Before you can do Ph II, you need to complete AMT (folks who started basic before January already had time for this). This is a 2 day course in Winnipeg, and includes cheesy videos of things burning, sensory illusions, and fun with hypoxia. This marks the end of what I'm qualified to comment on in detail right now. After AMT, Phase II starts in June, and runs till February.
[*]Year 3:
At the beginning of Year 3, you'll be completing Ph II in Moose Jaw. At the end of Phase II, students are streamed 3 ways: Jets, Helo, and Multi. Before Phase III, everyone has to complete Land Survival and Sea Survival. All students then proceed on Ph III; Jets remain in Moose Jaw, Helo and Multi return to Portage. The Multi and Jets Ph IIIs are shorter (and ironically the jets one doesn't involve jets), while the Helo one is quite long. Upon completing your Ph III, you'll get your wings. Depending on timings, there may be time for follow-on courses (ie the Hawk conversion course), but you need to be done by December, for return to Seneca.
[*]Year 4:
It's now Year 4 (2022 if you start in 2019), and you're all reunited at Seneca in January, ready to resume academics. The civs are nowhere to be found (they're still in Peterborough), and the classes are less demanding, relatively, than 1st year. By all accounts from the departing senior course, it's a victory lap. Year 4 is made of 3 semesters, done back-to-back-to-back. At the end of these 3 semesters, it is December, and you're graduating, ready to proceed to operational flying. 4 years for a degree and wings.
[*]Outcomes:
This has to be one of the most heavily speculated things about the Seneca program: will it put a damper on your career advancement? The honest answer is "check back in a decade". Seneca graduates have just reached operational flying in the past two years, so there's no data. We're told that the program grants a bachelor's degree, and so it won't hold us back, but no-one knows. Give it 20 years, and we'll see if any graduates have made LCol.
Certainly, it doesn't have SLT integrated with it. If you're after bilingualism, you'll have to do SLT after you're operational, or find some other means of exposure.
The one outcome we do know, however, is Phase II performance. The majority of the preceding courses got the stream they wanted, and they generally outscored their peers. I can't say what drives that, but I'd wager the sim is instrumental.
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This is just a rough summary of the program, E&OE. I'll try and update it as I see more.
