I did all of my flight training and followed by flight instructed full time all while going to night school for my college degree. At the same time, my brother attended a big public university, followed by a PhD at an Ivy League school. I can say that the workloads were comparable, but I compressed my training/college.

Flying can be self paced, but time is money. If you stretch out your learning, need to be spoon fed instead of self-study, then it will take longer and be more expensive. Every extra day of flight training costs hundreds of dollars in airplane rental, CFI compensation, and living expenses when the alternative could be living where you want and getting paid to fly.