Hi Rikesh! Glad to hear your doing well, and keep following the dream!
For me, I am currently doing option 2 -
2. Complete A-Levels, then do modular training towards an fATPL while keeping my part-time job to pay for it. Possibly take out a loan to assist, depending on the actual costs. Then, apply for airlines.
Well I havn't taken a loan out and don't plan to. I finished A Levels and have been in full time employment ever since, saving for my pilot training. And you know what, a bit of me says maybe I should have gone to Uni, but to be honest I still don't regret not going. I think things have changed over the years, and with soo many people comming out of uni waving their degrees in the air and not enough jobs to go round, I think really a degree is only worth doing if doing something specific like becomming a doctor, or a lawyer or a teacher.
By all means I agree that a degree is good to fall back on should things turn bad. But only if it's a degree that means something! Doing a degree in say television studies is not really going to do any favours for you. More employers now are really looking at what work experience you have had in sales or customer service etc. Plus think about the costs, the costs of doing a degree and then the pilot training is going to cost as much as an integrated course anyway.
At the end of the day, its up to the individual really in what they decide. I just wanted to put my version across to everyone, as quite a lot of people I know have either taken up the air force route, gone integrated, or went to uni.
Hope it goes well for you Rikesh!