Poker future looks bad, thinking of going back to school. Help?

[MikeyPatriot]

So...poker looks like a less and less appealing career choice. I never wanted it to be my sole source of income for the rest of my life, but I did have plans for it to kickstart other things. Unfortunately, I'm not as confident about those plans as I was even 2 months ago.

I should start off by offering some background. I'm 22, didn't go to college after high school. This had nothing to do with poker. I was pressured to go my entire life, I got involved in radical politics/punk rock lifestyle, and I ended up burnt out on school. I was a great student in high school and scored well on the ACT (SAT was not required). I pretty much had my pick of non-elite schools, but foolishly pissed on that.

I don't regret my life choices and decisions, but I've grown up a lot the past four years. I've lived on my own since I was 18, and living life in the real world opens your eyes to a lot of things. Most notably is my desire to buy a house and have a kid (or two) before I'm 30.

Anyway, I started playing online poker seriously a little over a year and a half ago, and will have been making that my sole source of income one year next February. The horizon does not look great (I don't think it will go away, but I don't have confidence in the quality of the games) and I have been seriously reconsidering going to school.

I haven't given it a ton of thought yet, but my initial idea is to take 2 years of Gen Eds/General Studies degree at the local community college before transferring to IU (since I already live here). I currently make my living 4-tabling 200NL and my bankroll is currently hovering around $11k. My plan would be to withdraw x amount of that + financial aid, while moving down to 100NL and making between $700-$1k/month. If online poker dies, I would either a)play at Caesar's/French Lick/find home games or b) reluctantly get a crappy job. That should get me by the 2 years of CC pretty easily/comfortably. I'd probably get a loan from my parents + federal/bank loan + financial aid for university.

I've always had an interest in math, and I think I would like to do something involving statistics. However, I know next to nothing about the difficulty of getting into school with a mathematics major. Nor have I really done any research into what I'd like to study at this point.

This is where'd I'd like to hear some advice from OOT. First, is a mathematics degree something that someone in my position can get in to? Am I SOL about a lot of things in regards to school? Is there anyone who didn't go to college directly after high school? Was it tough? Was it worth it?

I really would appreciate any sort of advice or ideas I can get. I'm sorry if this is really choppy or rambly, but I'm pretty much just typing what I'm thinking.