Hey there. In Argentina, college degrees are not as important as in USA if you want to become an airline pilot. To apply for LAN Argentina, Aerolineas Argentinas, Andes, Sol, Macair etc you need 900hs and First Class Commercial Pilot License (PC1), that only exists here (typical), and a big hook.
The usual career is to become a Private Pilot and start to build hours until you're at 200-500. At 200h you can become a Commercial Pilot, which here is not as important as it looks as nobody would hire you with such low-time for a Part 135 (non-scheduled ops, charter, medevac, cargo, corporate, etc) - EXCEPT you have a golden hook hidden. Main reason is insurance companies. So you end up begging for hours here and there in a very slow paced process. It could be made by towing gliders, carring parachute nuts, banner-towing, Lo-Jack surveys or doing "Bautismos de Vuelo" in your local Flying Club.
That stage is the filter usually as if you end up not having enough passion, then I guarantee that the road will be so tough that you'l feel it's not worth the hassle. So the main mental attribute here is passion for flying, love for the airborn feeling and desire to progress. If you have that, you can become what you are wishing for. I waited 9 years for my first flying job and I'm loving it despite having unfulfilled debts yet. And I'm not flying for an scheduled airline.
The 200-500 region covered, now comes the after-500h stage. With 500h you can become a Certified Flight Instructor. That license is a hour-building machine. Once you got that license, go to a nearby Flight School and show your Resumé (preferable over a Flying Club as the're sadly fading away because ANAC doesn't care about them). You will be flying 80h a MONTH. Period. That's how it works here. So then you can get the PC1 at 900h and apply for the airlines IF they're hiring.
Market for pilots here in Argentina is slim. Only two majors (if we can call LANar and ARSA majors - they have a total of 70 airplanes in all). And everybody want to work there, so there's the bottle-neck. Not enough jobs for everyone (like in USA, Europe...).
That was the most common career path here.
Having said that, in Latin America there's (still) a big shortage of pilots. Fliyng Schools here tend to instruct people from countries like Perú, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and when they reach 200hs they apply for the airlines (little known names like LAN, Avianca-Taca, Copa, etc). I've known guys with 200hs getting off a C152 (which they could barely fly) and go to Miami to have a 767 rating! True story.
So that's another path for you, but mind you that you will not enjoy the flying as you'd do in a C182 over the mountains or in a Piper Cub doing TO-Landings. If you're passionate of flying, finding yourself checking at the displays while the airplane flies itself right up to touchdown would be quite unencouraging. Yes the paycheck is great and all, but what we do is not mainly for the paycheck.
I always encourage new pilots to enjoy flying while they can, give your family a beautiful ride, depart from an airstrip and go to another and have Mate and facturas, feel the beauty of feeling free as a bird. You won't feel exactly that in an airliner.
Sure it's great to fly at 460kt at 36,000ft in a shiny jet and all, but your responsabilities will be big, and sometimes no time for sightseeing. I have a frined flying for AR and when I asked him whether he liked flying in or out of Rio de Janeiro he told me that he didn't know, that he was with concentrated in his instruments the whole arrival and departure, because you ought to.
That's why IMHO you need to enjoy it while you can, and then those beautiful experiences will enable you to be an airline pilot and actually enjoy the ride.
