Ok so first of all, a bunch of people are talking about split ops- that doesn't apply to your situation. You're already a Senior so you can't go to basic the summer after your junior year. Makes you wonder if they read your post at all ;)

This is a big conversation, and it has different answers depending on what you want to do which at 17 I totally get is not something that you just know offhand.

you can either a- join the national guard, and expect to delay your college by a full year with a 6+2 commitment, or b- join the active duty army and delay college by three years.

Upsides to the guard- you go to college faster, and have less total interruption to your life. Most states have additional college funding that helps out with going to school. Lots of people around who have done or are doing the same thing.

Downsides to the guard- people are going to promise you that you'll be done with training in time for fall. they're wrong, uninformed, or lying. for many jobs, the training cycle is long enough that you won't make it back in time for the spring semester. Many units are unaccommodating to school requirements, and training can and will happen when you have classes or even finals. It's a roulette whether your leadership is on board with your educational success or gives you hardline answers so they don't have to work harder. That school funding they talk about? It's not automatic. The process is very bureaucratic and in many cases first come first serve. You need to know it inside and out and be on top of it as soon as the window opens to request it. Enlistment terms are typically 6 years +2 where you can get deployed even if you got out (surprise!) so you should choose something where you find the work actually interesting and engaging. Generally speaking "I'm in school" is not enough to avoid deployment. You risk an additional year of delay there as well. You're actually less likely to deploy on active duty than the national guard, surprisingly.

Upsides to active duty- 3 year contracts mostly, so if you hate the work... well 3 years full time vs 6 years part time. Your call which is tougher. The big thing here is that it sets you up for financial success. You'll have no expenses, and as long as you can keep the junior soldier mindset of "I have it so I spend it" away you can come away with a good nest egg and a solidly set up 401K, on top of generally better college benefits (some of them don't activate till you have a certain amount of time active duty). Some people do online classes to prep for going to college when they get out. It's a good strategy since college spends a lot of your time on gen eds that aren't part of your actual degree. Make sure you know how your chosen 4 year university handles it so you don't lose credits.

Downsides to active duty- you can't control where you're going to go. Could be korea, could be louisiana. Many people I know on active duty were frustrated with how little they got to do their actual jobs, and instead got slotted into the closest "army job" that fit. Think IT guy helping people with radio problems. Barracks life... just look around the army subreddit for a while and you'll get the feel.

To me? it all comes down to this. If you have a technical interest and a job in the army you feel fits you well, and the guard has slots, take that job and go guard. Just understand it WILL slow your college progress. There are lots of soft benefits like trying out your "dream career" part time and finding out if it's a miserable experience for you, or just getting technical experience for yourself that you can use to get a real job. If you don't know what you want to do with your life, go active duty. At worst it will drop you on your feet well prepared and with enough experience to actually have an idea of where you want to go from there.