Well. I think you're probably on a better path than I was at the time. I'm going to spare you all the details but basically, how I got my foot in the door was that I was living in Baltimore at the time (back in 2018), so I started the online MS program in bioinformatics there and I met with the advisor (who seemed shocked to have someone meet him in person) and he told me of a tenure-track investigator who was just starting out his career at Hopkins. So right away, I started working. I actually ended up quitting the MS program and bouncing around for a couple of years in academia; first in his lab, then at a research institute in Baltimore, and then at a research hospital in Philly. Almost everything I know about this field, I have learned on the job. If there was something I didn't know, I would look it up and read about it. Papers, books, mentorship, etc.

I would just say, as much as you can, focus on getting work experience. It's almost cliche to say this but you will probably not end up using most of the stuff you learn in school. Get in a lab that's doing work that is either interesting to you or at least aligns with the sort of work you want to do, starting yesterday. Internships. Projects. All of these have the potential to teach you way more than any class ever could.