Hello!
You sound just like me when I was 17-18 years old.
I struggled with the same issue of wheter to take up a degree , my parents were always forcing me to take up a degree but I always wanted to go flying.
But aviation was doing bad and I decided to move for a degree first. I am still yet to complete my degree in Mechanical Engineering I have a year more and then I look forward to start flight school.
Anyway, in my first year of university, I was always regretting the decision of taking up a degree well its always hard in the first year because university is quite different from school, its a lot more to study and little time so don't give up at first.
After I went into the core of mechanical engineering , I found there are a lot of concepts which can be applied to aircraft, so I kept imagining an aircraft and kept many models next to me, to keep me motivated and kept thinking how can this theory and concepts be put into use into aircraft's of course sometime I was moaning and ranting about how stupid the degree is , but in the end its always worth it.
If you think you can arrange the funds to go to university and keep money later for flying I would say go do a degree, because it helps incase you finish flying school and don't find a job as a Pilot you could use your degree for a while and then always go flying when the industry picks up
Also don't just do any degree because your parents force you to do it , find something that interests you , if you can and you are quite good in Physics and Mathematics (you don't have to be brilliant to be an engineer) you could try Aeronautical Engineering its an amazing field and you will study all about aircraft's and I don't know if this is the real situation but I am guessing Airlines will think of you as a better candidate if you apply to a cadet program or even as an airline pilot
Please feel free to reply if you need anymore info.
Good luck! hope to see you flying soon , it may be a long struggle but you will always have an edge
