Becoming A Pilot

How many hours a pilot works a week, and how much time they spend away from home depends on the type of job they have. For instance, a few major categories of pilots would be: 1) Commercial airline pilots flying for major airlines (like United Airlines, Delta Airlines, FedEx, etc), 2) Commercial airline pilots flying for regional airlines, 3) Charter pilots flying private jets and there are also 4) Helicopter pilots.

Overall, for any kind of pilot, their total 'working hours' which includes both flight hours and duty (or on call) hours should work out to ~160 hours a month. How this gets divided up into working time and rest time depends on a few new rules that have recently been enacted by the FAA. These new rules include:
+ Flight duty time (combination of actual flying and being on duty but not necessarily at the controls for long haul flights) is not to exceed 9-14 hours, depending on the type of flight
+ Total flight time allowed in a 24 period will be limited to 8 or 9 hours, depending on the time of day they are flying, and the number of flights the pilot is making
+ Minimum rest periods will be 10 hours between shifts, and pilots must be allowed 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep during those 10 hours
+ Pilots must have 30 consecutive hours of rest each week

So, given these rules, here are a few examples of what a work month might look like for different kinds of pilots:
1) Airline pilots doing long, international flights. These pilots might only do 1 long round trip 3 times a month, e.g. New York to Tokyo, rest 1 day in between, then come back. These pilots tend to be very senior (e.g. 10-15+ years in the industry) and quite well paid for the work they do.
2) Airline pilots doing regional work. A pilot doing a Los Angeles to San Francisco 'shuttle' flight might make 2 or 3 round trips a day, and if they happen to live in Los Angeles or San Francisco, they would be lucky and could go home every night. This type of flying is more typical as an entry level professional pilot job after a pilot has 2-3 thousand hours of flight experience.
3) Private jet pilots, this tends to be more flexible because this is not a 'scheduled airline' job. You fly when your clients ask you to, i.e. for companies like NetJets or other such companies. These pilots have a wide range of work schedules, e.g. some pilots can push to work more, to gain flight experience, and thus spend more time away from home, while others could have a 2 week on call / 2 week off type schedule.
4) Helicopter pilots usually don't have to spend a lot of time away from home, because they aren't really used for long distance transport. People flying for emergency medical services, law enforcement, etc. usually get to go home every night, unless they happen to be on duty, and they might have 4 x 10 hours shifts a week. Another type of schedule is 14 days on / 14 days off at companies that provide transport to offshore oil rigs. These pilots are on call at a base for 14 days straight, but they do not fly more than 8 hours a day.

In order to work for the airlines, you need to hold an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rating, which requires at least 1,500 hours of flight experience. To get to this point, however, people usually go through a lot of training and obtain the various licenses in the following order: Private Pilot License (PPL) => Instrument Rating => Commercial Pilot License (CPL) => Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) Rating => Certified Flight Instructor for Instrument flying (CFII). (Details on licensing requirements can be found at: http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.1.2&idno=14#14:2.0.1.1.2.7.1.6 See sub-parts E, F and G.)

At this point the average student will have ~300 hours of flight time experience. These pilots are then equipped to start teaching others how to fly and building the 1,500 hours they need to get an ATP. On the way to the ATP, they will probably also get 'rated' or pass tests to fly multi-engine aircraft and jet engine powered aircraft, so that by the time they have 1500-2000 hours, they will have all the airlines' requirements for entry level pilots.

Many airlines will have various requirements beyond a simple 1500 or 2000 hours, such as being 'type-rated' in a particular type of aircraft. Being type- rated just means you have been trained in a specific type of airline, like a Boeing 737, and you've passed the relevant tests to demonstrate your proficiency at flying that type of plane. (You can find out more about this at: http://www.airlinepilotjobs.com/static/careers.php)

Since flight hours aren't cheap, most people go the path of being a flight instructor in order to build flight experience while getting paid. Alternatively if you had to pay for all ~2000 hours of flight experience, at an averaged cost of $250/hr, you would be looking at half a million dollars. If you're doing nothing but working on becoming a pilot, you can probably go from 0 hours to becoming a flight instructor in about 1 year, and then build the flight time in another 1.5-2 years. There are also programs out there that allow you to obtain a college degree while doing your training, Some programs that come to mind include: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Utah Valley University, University of North Dakota, Purdue University. Some airlines do require their pilots to have at least a Bachelor's Degree, while others just prefer it, for their pilots to have upward career mobility.

A short answer of the above is that the requirements for a pilot are very dependent on what type of pilot you want to be. This includes whether the plane is a commercial or corporate/private one, and what type of air vehicle you fly (type of airplane, helicopter, etc.)

Many professional pilots these days have at least some college, and most of the best pilots have at least a bachelor's degree, so that is definitely a good first step if you want to become a pilot.