Thank you all for the helpful information. An extra thanks to you rotorboy for your lengthy and thorough post.
I think I'll probably steer clear of SSH but I'm not sure if I can steer clear of getting my heli licenses altogether. I've always been fascinated by aviation and I would love fixed wing too, but I just have a fixation with learning to fly heli. Maybe as a career move the fixed wing would be a better option and then just do heli for fun later on. I dunno... it's a hard decision, especially with $35k+ on the line.
Thanks again.