With secondary education standards falling to ever lower levels, were you to become unsuccessful during pilot training, you would have nothing to fall back upon if you didn't have a degree...
I joined as a Flt Cdt; however, I 'lucked in' when the massive University Cadetship expansion occurred at the end of the 60s. As a result I had 4 years of fun, flew far too much (it wasn't used for streaming back then) - and by the time I graduated, virtually everyone was being sent FJ. Had I stayed on the Flt Cdt course, there is no way I would have flown FJs as the ratio of FJ:RW:ME was something like 2:1:10 just a few years earlier!
But I wouldn't do Aero Eng at University! Business studies, perhaps? Or Geography - pretty babe-tastic?
If you've got a mathematical background up to and including basic calculus, you've probably got all you'd need for RAF pilot or ATPL level mathematics.
Go to University, read an interesting degree, join the OTC. If your father is some wheel in the RAF and wonders why you didn't apply for the UAS, tell him it's thanks to his colleagues who have totally screwed up the University Cadetship system!