awesomesauce17,
The fact that you are doing all this advanced research is fantastic. I am so pleased you are trying to find the right path to take. Wish I could say I did the same thing, but thats far from the truth.
If I had the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn't fly for a living. period. There is a difference between flying when you want to and flying because you have to. There is a difference between flying in nice weather with calm winds as a weekend warrior and flying in windshear at an airline. When you HAVE to fly it sucks all the passion you once had completly out of it.
My prefered route would be air traffic control. They get paid big bucks, they are still in aviation, they have awesome benifits and great retirement. Get a loan to put you through school. When you graduate you'll have enough to live well and pay off your loans. You'll even have the cash to get your ratings and a cessna to fly for $100 hamburgers on the your days off.
In my humble opinion, thats the best advice I can give. Thats what I would do if I had the choice. To be honest, its the passion for flying that I miss the most. I wouldn't want anyone to loose that.
Good luck to you in what ever you do!!!
