Supercell, I know it's difficult to understand why all these cool guys with a job you want are telling you to wait on flying (or at least jet flying) and go to college now. I was in the exact same position a year ago - I was absolutely determined to be at a regional airline by the age of 21. I didn't care about college, I just wanted to be behind the yoke of a jet. I would do everything I could to reason to myself why it was better to go to flight school rather than college - this despite the fact that almost every single pilot I talked to said "go to college!" I even started the ATP program, and halfway through the cross-country time-building phase, discontinued. Why? It finally hit me I'd be doing this for forty years, staring at instruments day in and day out. Fun, yes, but ... well it gets kinda old, too. Sometimes I woulda just as soon been on the ground hanging out with friends or playing my Playstation 2. When you're being thrown around by dispatch (or turbulence), forced to sleep in a hotel room far from home, it gets you thinking, "Maybe a 9-5 office job and a weekend 172 would be better after all."
As DE727 said, if you want to fly something bigger than a CRJ someday, you're gonna need a bachelor's degree. Period. As for online school, I've taken two online classes, and I did not enjoy them at all. I won't take any more if I can help it. They are much more difficult than on-campus classes. You can't raise your hand and ask a question. You can't see your professor do sample problems on the board. You can't lean over to the classmate sitting next to you and ask them to explain something.
Obviously, it's a decision you have to make for yourself. But don't make a decision you think you might regret. Enjoy your time NOW - you can't go back, you won't be 19 or 20 again. If you go to college, and enjoy the experience college offers, work on your ratings on the side (or as part of a degree program), and get hired when you're 23 - you'll still have thirty-seven years to stare at instruments.
