er82 , you illustrate my point perfectly. While everyone else is getting drunk at uni and dreaming about flying, you're there doing it!
Consider the uni thing people. The 'fall back option' has always been bandied around by worried parents for as long as I can remember.
You'd think that a degree was a magic entry pass to a disneyworld of lucrative career choices. Lets just explore that. You half heartedly embark on a degree course you've no interest in because your parents want you to have a fall back position. If you're lucky, and the dreams of flying, drink and the opposite sex don't take too much of a toll, you come out three years later with an average degree. Then what?
Either you go for a job to make money for flying using your degree, or you use it as a 'fall back' later on. Don't you think there'll be the same competitiveness for worthwhile jobs outside aviation? Graduate jobs where you'll be up against other graduates who actually want to do the job. Even worse when your degree's a couple of years old so to speak. Not such a magic 'fall back' position after all.
As I see it the choices for a school leaver who really really really wants to fly for a living are this:
1.) Get selected by an airline for sponsorship or the armed forces.
2.) Get parents or whoever to finance your training.
3.) If option 2.) not available, situation now very difficult indeed needing huge amounts of motivation and graft. Either start work straight away (think about training as plumber, electrician etc) or go to uni.
4.) Uni option will take much longer but might eventually lead to higher paid work to finance training. Uni option may for the lucky few lead to UAS flying. Best training in the world. Danger of uni option is distraction into other things, life takes over, new career takes over and flying dreams fall by the wayside but will always niggle away as you work to support your new wife and kids.
Conclusion - the world of work is tough whatever way you look at it. Parents are naturally fearful for you going out into the big bad world, and are drawn towards the degree as a way of putting off the inevitable in many ways. But to utilise that degree will ultimately require the same kind of dedication that anything worthwhile takes. Don't think of the degree as an easy option. The high achievers always work hard no matter what they tell you.
Do what you really want to do, but make sure it's financially viable. You're just not going to get anywhere fast in flying by flipping burgers or stacking shelves.