Hi mathew,

A disclaimer: I am not a microbiologist.  You may want to listen to actual microbiology majors and their experiences, but with an outsider's perspective and without any incentive to pump up the field, I wouldn't want my own children studying microbiology in college.

• The life sciences in general, in the United States, are not in demand.  A bachelor's degree is insufficient for many jobs and doesn't appear to provide good pay relative to the engineering disciplines, to the best of my knowledge.
• PhDs in the life sciences often don't find positions appropriate for their education and investment of time and thought.  You can search on Quora for stories about them doing entry level sales positions or similar jobs.  [edit: It might not be clear, particularly for a 17-year-old, why I even bother mentioning PhDs.  If the most educated in an area aren't finding appropriate positions and taking entry level positions, it's probable than the less educated are worse off.  This is in contrast to fields like computer science, where a six-figure salary seems to be the norm for a graduating PhD.]
• There are microbiology majors who go to medical or veterinary school, and they're not much different from others with different majors once they've finished their doctorates.  A microbiology degree is not necessary for that path and there are probably other majors which have more lucrative backup options, if you want to be a human or animal doctor but aren't admitted to those schools.

I'm sure microbiology is a rewarding field for many of the people who practice it, but I wouldn't have done it, and I don't want my children doing it unless something radical changes between now and their college applications.