Hi Justin,
Congratulations on your decision to enter the real estate investing world. I too am new. In my personal opinion, I would not recommend dropping out of school. Although I plan to do real estate full time, I still attend college studying accounting.
I think it's great that your uncle has already been doing this for a while. You have someone you can turn to for advice and guide you along the way. If your family is anything like mine, I would think the reason they reacted the way they did is because you were talking about dropping out of school altogether. Sometimes parents, especially if they are old fashioned, have that same old-fashioned mentality. "Go to school, get a good job, get married, buy a house, retire; rinse and repeat with your children."
If I were in your situation, I would talk to my family and try to make a deal with them. As long as you stay in school working toward graduation and don't fall behind on your grades, your uncle will act as your mentor. Sort of like you being a football player and your uncle the coach. As long as you keep up your grades, you won't have to sit the bench. By the time you graduate, while your classmates are busy trying to get interviews, you'll be making enough money from real estate not to be bothered with submitting resumes.
A degree is not required to be successful at real estate. Some of the most successful business people, whether in real estate or not, do not have college degrees. However, I would still pursue a degree in accounting even if I closed a million dollar deal tomorrow. That's just me. :-)