Originally Posted by
landlover
I was in a very similar situation 15 years ago. I left college in a pro pilot degree with 1 year and a PPL under my belt to wrap up all my ratings at
https://www.aviator.edu/flight-school and then instructed full time for a year before deciding to go back to college full time(back then "the aviator" didn't offer college degrees). It allowed me to test out of many classes once returning with all(commercial multi instrument & MEI/CFII/CFI) my ratings. So I ended up sitting in school for 6 semesters and leaving with a BS, but start to finish it took 5 years. I took loans for mostly everything, which thankfully I've paid off. The only regret, I started flying/college at 21. I would have liked to have started earlier.
I did the exact same thing as landlover in 1976-81. Fly first, build flight time and work your way through college. Flight Safety has a program where if you show up with a commercial-instrument rating, they will buy your CFII-MEI in exchange for teaching at their flight school in Florida for two years. You can finish up your degree while you rack up flight time.