Enlist in the reserves. Air National Guard, Army National Guard, Marine Reserves. Try to go for a aircraft tech job. Have the military pay for a four year degree, I would suggest in something not aviation-centric. Do ROTC if you like during school, while drilling with a reserve unit. Once you're done with school, apply for a flight slot in one of the branches of service.

You'll have four years toward a reserve retirement, plus a degree mostly if not all paid for by the government. If you don't get a flight slot, your 6x2 reserve enlistment contract will be nearly up and you can separate knowing you got your college paid for. If you get a flight slot, you get flight training paid for and an automatic part time (or full time) job when you complete flight training.

EM

Better yet, get the military to fund med school

Fly Helos in the Army! Choose Blackhawks and fly all the time! If you get your ATP for rotary there is a lot of money to be made right out of the gate.

I'm not sure of the breakdown in the USMC, but I know the Navy has a ton of helicopters.

The Air Force will probably be your highest Pk of setting yourself up for a major, especially if you end up going tanker / transport. Be very wary of the ten year post pilot training commitment, things are a bit ugly now on the Active Duty side with a lot of burned out guys, time away from home and draw-downs* etc... You can get a decent snapshot at Baseops.net Flight Planning, Aviation Weather & Military Discounts (browse the forums a bit). Go Guard if you can.

The flip side is that you will do some very cool stuff flying in the military, and at a relatively young age. No guarantees though, I've met guys who did decent in pilot training and were sent directly to MQ-1's. Do your research here definitely.

I can't talk to the civilian side, but I'm sure there will be a lot of good insight from the guys who have been there, done that.

Good luck to you!

Touche..I wish I had people encouraging me to join the military when I was 17.

Bottom line is, flying is a lot more fun when it's not for a paycheck. Or, I'm assuming, in a fighter jet.

Army Warrant Officer program. Flying and serving without being maintenance officer, etc... Great way to get into the cockpit, STAY in the cockpit, and get fantastic training and experience.

Or, go to college, get a degree in ANYTHING except aviation (anything that can get you a real job, that is) and do flight training on the side. Don't know if there are any universities that allow non-aviation degree students to do a minor or fly in their program, but that would be another option.

Arizona State and Chandler-Gilbert Community College have aviation programs. Start at CGCC, get ratings, finish degree at ASU. Oh, and go look at the ASU cheerleaders. Just saying.

I have multiple friends that fly or have flown in the Army as a Warrant. I actually know one in every air frame. Apache, Blackhawk, Chinook, Kiowa, Lakota, Little Bird.

Lakotas are mainly guard right now and used for medevac mostly. The Little Birds, a Badass helo, are apart of the Nightstalkers.

Fly Kiowas and you will be trained to fire your M4 out the side. Also, Jet Rangers can be found all over the world. No issue getting a job.

If you want to make serious money after you serve, choose the Chinook. There are so many very specialized uses for them in the world that the Pilots can just about write their own checks.

There is much money to be made in the Helo world.

Just remember if you choose an Apache or Kiowa, you may be limited in your flight time. They become heavily in use when at war. Hawks and Chinooks tend to stay consistent with their time.

Good Luck with your choice! High School to Flight School I wished was mine!

Sorry, I couldn't guess what you were referring too.

Thanks a lot for all of this valuable info. Means a lot. I have a few questions though. You mentioned above that TBS is where everyone without an aviation guarantee competes for their MOS, so does that mean that you can get a guaranteed flight spot? And how could I go about getting one? You also said that the fewest go multi-engine, such as the KC-130. Sorry if this sounds dumb, but are you saying that it is the hardest to compete for a chance to fly multi-engine? Again, thanks again for all the info. I've already started reading the resources you gave me.

Oh trust me, I'm getting my bachelors no matter what. It's pretty much a "requirement" nowadays to compete with other people.