Re: How would this look for a career in academia, industry, or in the DoD?

Try to get your name on a published paper while as
an undergraduate.  A good fraction of MIT undergraduates
do research in a specially designed program.  I believe
Harvard might have one of those programs too.
A timetable might be to (1) identify a lab
you like by 2nd semester freshman (2) get your name
on a paper by junior so you can put that on graduate
applications.

MIT just created a new major called Biological Engineering.
(It had been lurking inside EE and ME for some decades.)
That way you can look keep the options of both med school
or engineering open.  Since many med schools only admit
less than 10% of their applicants, they like people who can
do the traditional courses plus something special extra.