It is easier to procrastinate and lay flat when you do not have exams and deadlines. Computer science programs also force you to thoroughly learn the uninteresting but also crucial aspects like databases or mathematics.
Computer science is a scientific discipline and programming is only a tool. If a computer program is a house then the computer scientist is the architect and the programmer is the builder.
I encourage you to pursue a degree in computer science instead of trying to simply learn how to program. It is likely that during your computer science degree you will have to teach yourself how to program too.