Duke
I believe I am the resident expert on the Army Warrant Officer Program. I am a CW3 in the Army Guard, flying the C-12. Let me start by telling you what a Warrant Officer is: An officer appointed by warrant by the Secretary of the Army, Commissioned by the President of the United States upon promotion to CW2, based upon a sound level of technical and tactical competence. The warrant officer is the highly specialized expert and trainer who, by gaining progressive levels of expertise and leadership, operates, maintains, administers, and manages the Army's equipment, support activities, or technical systems for an entire career, check out the Warrant Officer site at
www.army.mil/wocc/
You seem to have the right motivations and are getting proper guidance by what I can tell. You can enlist under the Warrant Officer program, make sure this is what your contract says. It sounds like the recruiter is getting you to take the right test. You will need in addition to the ASVAB (you need a 110 on the General Tech portion), the flight aptitude test and you will need to take and qualify for a Class 1 Military flight physical to include a cycloplegic (sp) eye refraction exam. This all takes time, but it is worth finding out before you "go in". After it is all said and done and you qualify you still need to go to Army Basic Training then you will get to go to Warrant Officer School.
I am not sure of the stats on how many are accepted but I will tell you this, if you are qualified you should be selected, maybe not on your first attempt, but eventually. The selection process alone will test you to as whether or not you really want it.
Quality of life? You are joining the Army, and it is a highly deployed Army in these days. It is in these deployments where you will see that the brotherhood / comraderie does exist. You will make life long friends who you will come to depend on for your very life as they will depend on you.
Pay is important and you will find it fair.
You need to decide fairly quickly as your age leaves you little room to flounder. Ask the recruiter to find out the age at which you must be "seated" in flight training, I can't remember but I believe it's 26.5 yrs. As you have questions don't hesitate to ask the recruiter to see the regulation covering Warrant Officers or Flight Training selection. Good Luck and let me know how it goes.
I have answered simular questions for others and have comfortably recommended against the CWO programm based on options that they had, but based on your age and limited college experience I believe the Warrant Officer Program is a great opportunity for you.