my personal route (which is wish i did straight out of highschool) is going to ATP and getting through my ratings ASAP, my last checkride (comm single is april 25th). then using those towards a degree at utah valley or ERAU worldwide (online college where you can use your ratings for credits which is really nice). thats just my personal thing. i have a couple friends who did the same, one stopped going to ERAU and went to ATP just to do ERAU online after since you will save ALOT of money in the long run with that.