Thanks everyone for the great advice! Gave me a better idea on how to run my life over the next few years. Revised my plans and I'm hoping things will work out, if not I have engineering and I'll fly for fun.

There has been a few comments about buying a plane and then selling after training instead of renting. Would anyone be willing to actually figure out the cost practicality of this for me. I did some number crunching and I got around the same price for buying vs. renting, but I had to take educated guesses at fuel, insurance, maintenance, and hangar costs and I just did average rental and instructor price, based on a bit of research. However I could lease the plane while I'm not there, and then sell it after training making buying the cheaper option.

At the moment I feel renting would be the best option as I will be flying mostly in the summer and doing school the rest of the year with periodic flights and then I can rent whatever plane I need, but if you can prove me wrong go for it. If anyone could do an estimate for a used c-172, piper warrior, or similar plane versus renting that would be great! (I would like to get a few different estimates to see if everyone's numbers math up.)

Thanks again everyone,
~Jason

Edit: Oh and for the calculations I used 250 hours flight time and four years.