You found the best resource available to answer your questions when you started to look at FlyerTalk. In my opinion, this is by far the best resource for all things related to flying and travel on the internet.

Besides the most obvious answer to your question which is to read as much on this site as possible, you will get better responses to your question if you post where you usually fly from, where you usually fly to and if you have any idea where you will live after you get out of school. Some airports and regions of the country are much better suited to certain airlines than others. In addition, you can start on a quest for lifetime status early in your flying career with some airlines.

Post as much information about your projected travel that you feel comfortable posting. You will get great responses here if you provide enough information to get a response.

If you look at the space on the left under my screen name, you can see my home airports and programs, this makes it much easier for fellow FT members to help you out because they don't have to guess where you are located.

The final suggestion I would make is to make a pledge to yourself to find some kind of way to credit all future flights to at least one frequent flyer program. Once you get into this more, I would suggest you read up on the various airline alliances and take advantage of staying within the same alliance if possible. That way, you can likely credit all of your miles to one program and getting yourself ready for a dream trip in the future.

Good luck.