You already have a great wealth of information from those above so I will only add a few things. First, I’m a newly accepted medical student so I will speak from that angle. I cannot tell you whether you should go military first or school first. That is up to you. You can wait till at least your undergrad if not medical school to decide if you want to use FAP, HPSP, or another payment route if you go straight to college.
When looking into where to do your undergrad you need to make sure they have a good pre-health professions office (if they don’t it’s by no means the end of the world, just makes it easier). If they do he/she will be able to better inform you on ways to pay and where to find health professions recruiters for the different military branches.
Make sure you excel in the AP/honors classes you are taking in high school. The key is to not only get good grades in those high school sciences courses, but to really understand. The more you question and understand in high school the easier your first college science classes will be, therefore better grades.
Good grades and several activities mean more scholarship money for undergrad which means fewer hours you have to work which further translates to more hours to study/make good grades in college.
In college you will need to focus on getting even better grades than high school (if you don’t, again it is okay, I didn’t, but worked my tail off). You need medical/volunteer experience as well as to be active in several hobbies or extracurricular activities. I would suggest shadowing doctors (or PAs if that is the route you decide) during your summer before beginning college. This is your least stressful period of time.
As for the hobbies and extracurricular activities, do not find something you think medical school will like. They can see through “fluff.” Do stuff you really enjoy in addition to the pre-med club or pre-pa club. If you like student government, then do it. If raising money for body armor is more your line of work, then go for that. If you enjoy college you will be more likely to succeed academically, but not at the cost of grades.
Unfortunately, I cannot help you passed the undergrad for the PA route, but I can recommend a book that gives charts showing average college GPAs, MCAT scores, other admission numbers, deadline dates, where students do residencies, and a brief synopsis of each allopathic medical school in the US and Puerto Rico including USUHS (Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences for anyone who is confused). It also can give information on those schools which still take undergrads who meet prerequisites since many only take graduates with at least a bachelor's. For medical admission requirements please see:
https://services.aamc.org/publicatio...259&prv_id=318
That’s probably enough for the forum. If you or anyone else has any other questions you can PM me. The best online resource is as Doczilla said, “on studentdoctor.net”. Bottom line is, make good grades. I wish you the best of luck!
FCW