Ok guys I'm new here so I'm not really sure where a question like this goes or even if I'm qualified to be on this forum.

Anyways I will be completing my M.S. in Aerospace Engineering in about a year. Meanwhile I am taking flying lessons. I've already banked about 35 hours and at this rate I should have my PPL by the end of August this year.

I really, REALLY have a great fascination with commercial aviation... probably borderline obsessive. But I went the engineering route in college and grad-school mainly because my parents thought that being an airline pilot meant you were unemployed half the time there was an economic hiccup. I'm a little worried about my level of education though, I've heard of people being denied jobs because of overqualification (airlines only require undergrad college) for fear that you'll get bored and leave.

I'm 24 now, but my main instructor is like 26 with a good 900 hours of total flight time, I think about 50-70 of those are twin. Now I'm thinking that I will never get into the airlines at my age and the stiff competition with all the furloughed or layed off pilots out there with thousands of hours of experience. I really can't compete against people who have been flying since 16 or have flown a substantial amount of hours for the airlines already. Additionally, I've looked into all the "low flying-time to right seat airline jobs" type schools and all of them are about $60,000 AND after that you still have to be a CFI to get your hours up to even be considered for an interview.

I guess another problem that I have is that I have asthma. It really isn't all that bad and I rarely have symtoms except for when I run into those high pollen count days, but I take Allegra and it usually goes away. Having that sort of illness, though was a bit of a pain to get by CAMI... they seem to have a blanket policy on this sort of illness regardless of severity. I got my
3rd Class Medical Certificate with the stipulation that I report to CAMI if my symptoms worsen (which they haven't in the 10 years since I was diagnosed).

So I guess wrote this to ask should I even bother trying to get into the airlines considering my age, low flying time, level of education and asthma. I certainly don't want to go through the expense of signing up for a 1st Class Medical if they are going to instantly disqualify me. If you think they would disqualify me... what are other jobs in commercial aviation that a person of my credentials can apply for?