USAFA is an awesome institution-on par with Ivy League, excellent curriculum, filled with lots of meaningful activities (many bs too), make life long friends, best odds of getting a UPT slot, etc. No doubt, you will always have the life long prestige being an academy grad. However, it's not for everybody. It's 4 years of a very structured life and very little freedom, at least for the first 2 years.
AFROTC is great way to go if you want to have a regular college life. I went through ROTC myself. UPT slots are a little harder to come by but definitely doable. OTS fills the slots unfilled by the USAFA and ROTC.
As many have said before, once you get to UPT, you are on your own. Source of commission doesn't play a role nor does your degree. As much as the Air Force would like for you to have a technical degree, it doesn't mean jack in UPT. I have a degree in Aero Engineering and I don't think it helped jack; it did, however, help me get a pilot slot. Having some civilian flying experience is more valuable, IMO. You are either going to kick ass, do okay, suck and just scrape by, or just plain wash out. I've seen DG academy grads wash out. I've also seen students with a degree in under water fire prevention from Podunk University DG out of UPT. I've seen this as a student as well as an AETC IP.
The key to success in UPT is attitude, hard work, and to a pretty huge degree is your God given hand to eye coordination. Some people are naturally good sticks and some just don't belong in a cockpit. The greatest factor is the timeline. The military has a certain allotted amount of money and time that they are willing to spend on an individual until they cut their losses, so if your light does not come on in that given timeline, you are SOL.
Jetdriver69: "Concerning helo time, I have a standing $10,000 bet with any of the guys I fly with that they couldn't last 30 seconds in a basic, you do all the flying helicopter. A competant helicopter pilot can fly a fixed wing with very little instruction, it just doesn't work the other way around without a lot of teaching and some guys just can't hover. It is as simple as that."
I have a few good rotor head friends. No disrespect but I disagree. This is JMO so don't get your panties in a wad.

Statistically speaking, some of the worst student pilots from primary go off to the helicopter track (and I've seen some horrific students). I'm not bashing helicopter pilots as some people prefer to fly helicopters. I have not seen anyone, I repeat anyone, who went off to Ft. Rucker wash out of that program. I'm sure there are washouts but I personally don't know of any.