The only way to become a hacker is to start researching how to hack. Your not really going to learn the ropes by just going to college, you'll need to join hacking forums. There are all sorts of hacking you can do that's not going to ruffle too many feathers. Most private companies expect a certain amount of hacking attempts. Even when the movie Hackers came out, a lot of hacking had to be done by social engineering.. getting people at a company or other entity to give you the login credentials because they think your someone else that has a legitimate reason to know how to log into their system.
There are plenty of fake honeypots on the internet that are essentially games for people to hack... deliberately set up for people to hack into... and they vary from entry level to the gods of hacking. I'd focus on that for a months, if not years, before diving into social engineering. Good luck finding a pay phone... and never use the same pay phone twice. Phone number masking works as far as what the person on the other line thinks, but it's no barrier to law enforcement. It slows them down, but they can eventually find out, even it was bounced in several different countries. (That being said, it can take a long time for them to figure it out... but they will eventually figure it out, and the gov't never gives up or forgets.)
There is definitively a lot of hacking you can do without getting into trouble, but you have to know what to avoid. Hacking nowadays is not like 30 years ago, back when Kevin Mitnik got 5 years for hacking the phone system just to make free telephone calls. (Which is ironic, since long distance calling went away after VoIP and world spanning internet became a thing.)
Many people have gone to prison for hacking stuff, so you really need know exactly what you can do that won't get you arrested. The honeypots is your best bet. I think some are run for a limited time, where they hand out prizes for the winners. The prizes usually are not monetary or have a low value. (Perhaps a $25 gift card or something.)
There are college degrees in computer security, which includes penetration testing... but you really need to be a hacker before you step into class, or your class buddies will look at you and say...
"Do you need help with your 'puter?"
-Quote from the movie "Hackers".
So the question remains: DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE AND BE A HACKER?????
Personally, if your on a forum like this asking if you should be a hacker... your answer is probably.. NO.
Hackers are driven people. They're obsessed with hacking, it's like their brain is so smart, hacking is just a way to give their brain something to do, in order to give themselves a way to elevate themselves above other people's IQ, at least in their own mind. Hackers.. I'd say if your IQ is under 140, your going to fail miserably. Hackers are just driven, and usually start by the age of 12 to 14, if not even earlier.
They don't wake up and say they want to be a penetration tester or computer security consultant... No... they wake up and say to themselves, "I'm bored, I think I'll hack into my uncle's (or some other relatives) business", because let's face it, they're not going to have them arrested for looking at the trash bin on the company's computer network.