I’m a young student, 2 years since I graduated high school, and I’m attending intensive elite engineering classes. I’ve done everything in my power to get here, and put laser focus on a specific field : aviation. This field is something I have been pursuing for a very long time, and put in colossal work to get here.

I’m currently facing a binary choice :

1°/ Study for two more years and go to flight school :

This is a one in a lifetime opportunity, because of age restrictions (27 years old tops) and the current peak in pilot recruiting in my country(NOT India btw), which would most likely not happen before I turn 27.

After 2 years of prep classes, and two more in flight training I get to graduate and become an airline pilot with a very generous salary (7 to 10K per month) and excellent working conditions but a pretty bad job security, no college degree, thus no fallback if I ever lose my airline job (which can happen for a lot of reasons, notably health issues)

Pros : interesting job, high social/financial status (high reward) Cons : could lose my job any moment, no degree for fallback, stressful job (high risk)

OR

2°/ Miss out on flight school and pursue an engineering degree :

After 2 years of prep classes which, if done exceptionally well, would get me in an excellent engineering school during 3 more years of engineering studies (total of 5 years from now). Unsure if I’ll ever be able to pursue my preferred line of work. (Not interested in aeronautical engineering, only in flying planes)

Pros : excellent degree IF I succeed, stable career, safe path (low risk) Cons : mediocre pay, probably not aviation-related, not as interesting for me (medium reward)

What would TRP community do?

I thought of a third option, which is work as hard as I can so I can have the ability to apply wherever I want, but this sounds like buying time and not being decisive, which is against what I believe in. Since I am at such a loss, I turn to you guys for help.

Thank you all.