Welcome to aviation and welcome to the forum. The Bay is a beautiful area to fly and I'm glad you're enjoying the journey so far. I offer a few principles, all learned the hard way, that might help you decide the next steps towards your goal.
1. Work on whatever is you want consistently. Working more hours per day is great, but working every day is crucial. Taking a break, no matter how well-reasoned or well-intentioned, is costly. In other words, plan a future where you keep flying regularly. No excuses.
2. Surround yourself with people who want the same things that you want. Community is important. You will hold each other accountable and motivate one another. If a big chunk of your friends are flying, it will be entirely normal for you to fly as well. When friends move on to jobs, they will provide a network of opportunities for you. And slugging through that first low-paying flying job will be entirely normal, too. But these forces work against you if surround yourself with people who want something different. For example, say you focus 4-years on a "backup" degree in engineering to the exclusion of flying. Then you will be surrounded by a lot of people whose first choice is engineering, who are getting nice internships and jobs in engineering, and wouldn't you like to be with your friends and have a nice job, too?
3. As you make big decisions, listen to your brain and your gut. Something can make all the logical sense in the world on paper, but yet feel wrong at a deep level. Respect this feeling and seek a different path. On the flip side, if you really want something but a level-headed analysis throws up an explosion of red flags, you have to respect that too.
4. Only you can make personal big decisions, because only you have the full picture. Your parents, friends, and teachers want the best for you and will offer the best advice they can. But they are not inhabiting your body, they don't feel what you feel, and they will not live the consequences. So gather input, think critically, and make the best decision for you (and in the future, your dependents). Sometimes that might mean ignoring "good" advice.
From what you have said, I think either an accelerated program + online degree or a 4-year university with flight program satisfy these principles. If I was advising my own children, I would prefer the 4-year university option. I value the college experience for its own sake and some classes simply work better in person (such as labs). It might even be possible to participate in the flight program while majoring in something else of interest -- I believe I knew someone in graduate school who did all their flight training at Riddle but graduated with an aero engineering degree. A 4-year university also presupposes some mix of scholarships and parental support. If I was completely on my own the calculus would rapidly shift to the lowest cost option.
You're off to a great start! Good luck!
