Question

Hi Rabbi Dr.,
With your permission (or actually without your permission? I hope you’ll forgive that), I want to ask a question about academic studies in general.
Again, I hope it’s okay to ask about that here.
I’m 22, religious (hopefully not only in my own opinion…), and I want to study at a university. Unfortunately, I didn’t invest much in school (to the point of studying for matriculation exams the day before), partly because attention issues and learning difficulties probably affected me. The result is that I have a matriculation certificate, but with a low average (3-unit math, and nowhere near an expanded physics track or anything like that), not to mention one high enough for university admission. I read on Wikipedia that you have an impressive résumé in the world of higher education.
I have three questions, if I may (again):
Question one:
I feel that studying 5-unit mathematics requires a certain kind of exertion. True, I never really studied it in depth, because I find myself getting bored by the cold and technical nature that the subject presents, even at the early stages (after a day or two of studying for two or three hours each day), and I simply turn to reading articles that actually interest me (mainly from scientific fields), and abandon the studying. Sometimes I notice formulas that appear in the more advanced stages of mathematics and physics (at the academic level). And I have no idea, even if I wanted to, how I could ever come to understand what stands behind all those letters.
So the real question is: are most people who succeeded in academia in fields that require advanced mathematics (like you), from what you know at least, and who finished their academic studies with distinction—are these geniuses who simply looked at an example problem in mathematics (at least at the high-school level) and knew how to solve it without studying, and then automatically inferred other topics as well? People who could skip studying math (5 units) in high school, and two weeks before the matriculation exam make it all up and get a high grade? If you people are like that, then what’s the point of my studying if in any case my chances of success aren’t high… Well, at least you can make a living from it.
Question two:
In your experience, is it worthwhile to study subjects like physics and mathematics on your own at matriculation level in order to get into university? Of course, the dilemma is between that and a preparatory program. In school I found myself less focused in classes of one or two hours on a specific subject, so several hours on the same subject?
Question three:
I’m worried that higher education studies might affect my spiritual standing, not only from the angle of men and women studying together, but also on the ideological level. Meaning that I may hear ideas that could cause doubts and maybe crises of faith / belief. Should I be concerned about that, if in any case I’m thinking of studying a “cold” field (like computer science, not philosophy)?