Have you looked into St. Louis University? Parks College of Engineering & Aviation has a flight school that operates out of Cahokia/Downtown Airport in E. St. Louis (your backyard). You can pursue your flying while minoring/majoring in another discipline. Another option would be to attend a community college while getting your bachelor's and work on all of your ratings at Cahokia or Alton. As you are hearing, all that matters is that you get your degree - and for your own good, probably in something other than aviation. Best of luck and feel free to keep the questions coming.