There is also the obvious issue of getting accepted back into a school that someone dropped out of with bad grades. Particularly when thousands of other applicants will have stronger resumes. There are a lot of older students like vets and true life hardship cases that USC likes to work with. Keep in mind they will still have your past file - they will see all of your history - your grades, past income, payments made - you will not come in as a new applicant. I would not bank on a positive outcome here. Frankly, I think you are trying to play the system, but naive to how that system works, and I just don’t see it working out the way you think it could. “I’m independent now cause I made bad grades and goofed around till I was 24 or 26” is not an appealing case for admission to any school, and particularly not USC.
Otherwise, maybe everyone should just surf till they are 24 or 26 then go to school for free? Ya, it doesn’t play out that way. Because there is always someone else who was willing to do more to get that spot. You really need to work on a different plan.