I suggest getting a four-year degree in theater or drama from a university simply because it will allow you to be a teacher of theater or drama instead of being forced to be a food server while you pursue opportunities to act. It will also expose you to other aspects of acting which you may discover are just as engrossing or even more so than the acting itself. Then you might consider post-baccalaureate study at Julliard or somewhere else.
In my case, I have found that while I purely love acting, especially on the stage where I can inhabit a character for weeks and months during the run of a play, I also love other aspects of acting. I am a capable costumer and have also done set design, special effects, and props work for movies and stage both. I have not gotten rich at acting because I have deliberately chosen not to go to the “centers” for acting, such as LA or New York or even Dallas or Chicago. However, I had a decent day job with benefits that gave me the flexibility to work in theater and indie films, so I never needed to make money at acting. Instead, I have acted purely for the joy it gives me.
While it is true that many “movie stars” do not have degrees, many more actors than most people realize do have four-year degrees. These are often the character actors who last for years and years in theater, TV and movies, because they have the ability and depth of knowledge to work with a huge range of people and roles. The “stars” can and do burn out and disappear, especially those with more beauty or charisma than talent, but character actors seem to thrive.
I have several friends and also know of people from my town who have gone the professional route, or tried to. Only a few have been notably successful in a Hollywood sense: Pepe Serna, Eva Longoria, Farrah Fawcett, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Stacey Keach.
Several friends of mine went to New York, and most came back home, either out of money or, more importantly, disgusted at what people were willing to do to succeed. Several had good, long-lasting roles in various shows but disliked the constant need to protect oneself and one’s reputation from nefarious tricks by other actors. One was doing well in a revival of Oklahoma! but realized soon after 9–11 that it wasn’t worth it because all of her family was elsewhere. Another started off in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” as Tintinabula, and then continued to work with George Abbott as a choreographer and dancer, but she chose to come back home after her studio was destroyed in a fire. She spent 20 years on Broadway and so could be considered the most successful of my friends in the world of professional acting.
However, I also know a number of people who love acting and are thoroughly enjoying themselves by teaching theater in middle school, high school, junior college and university. They make decent income, have good benefits, work with plays and acting all day long, and then go off and audition for community theater and independent film roles in their free time.
Thus, I recommend you stay at a university but either switch majors or simply take classes in theater and audition for university productions. Then, once you have a degree that can serve to make you employable, go on from there.