I am looking to invest a few thousand dollars over a period of 3-5 years...?

I am 17 years old, and would like to begin paying off my student loan (I am currently still a junior in high school) as soon as I get out of college, and if I get into some good investments, this could help quite a bit. I don't want really safe, but I don't want to be too risky either... I want close to the middle (average risk, average+ return). What should I invest in? Should I get into some large cap, more safe stocks (AAPL, MSFT, etc...)... should I go mid-cap? What should I do? Thank you very much! :-)

Great, but the best thing to not do is take advice from others that may or may not know anymore than you. And I have seen some pretty bad advice that have made people lose money. Start learning the basics of fundamentals and technical so you will be more informed in your investments. Unless your parents sign for you to open account you can't invest until you turn 18. Until then you can find all the basic info you need to learn on websites for free.
This site should give you a good start.
http://finance.yahoo.com/education

If your future employer offers an employee 401k plan. Invest up to the matching % of your employers contribution. Next invest in a Roth IRA up to the max allowed(yearly). If you then have more money to invest, go back to your 401k plan and invest the max allowed(yearly). So after you do all the above and want to invest more you should be able to decide how. Only invest money that you can afford to lose. Making some quick money is nice but if you lose it, it gets right ugly.

Try what you learn on demo sites. They can be a very fun but educational way to learn from mistakes. If you pick 75% right with play money then you might be ready to start slowly investing.
http://simulator.investopedia.com/
http://simulator.zacks.com/
http://www.fxcm.com/open-free-100k.jsp
http://www.alpari-idc.com/en/metatrader4...
Or just google for more.

I use Lightning Strikes Trading System for trading in any time frame and it works on forex, stocks, bonds, etf's, mutual funds, etc... They have 3 free training sessions a week and you don't have to buy the software to join in the live chat and text. You can even watch some recorded past live sessions. Here are some past charts that I used.
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16R0zjjaZ...
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16RxjOUQt...
There are 7 indicators (2 short, 2 medium, and 3 long term) and if volume is reported another one is added (on balance volume). Plus whatever time-frame is used the 2 green horizontal lines are the support and resistance for that time frame. So when indicators are all touching the bottom price is at or very, very near support. At top is at or very, very near resistance. Which helps my entry/exits and risk/reward ratio.
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16R9Wv-wt...
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16R9wSKdV...
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/QCt6R2fYIj6...
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/QCt6R3R0VQe...
If you can not view charts above I can email them.

Here are my favorite sites.

http://stockcharts.com/
Has basically all you need from fundamental to technical terms. Plus stock screens, charts, public chart lists, and much more useful info.

https://www.fidelity.com/
Has good learning resources.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp
In addition to yahoo finance.

http://www.reuters.com/
For news and more.

http://www.marketwatch.com/default.aspx
For news and more.

http://www.valueprime.com/index.php
For rating stock risk/reward ratio and reports.

http://www.barchart.com/
For investing in more than stocks.

http://www.investopedia.com/
For more great learning tools.

http://www.lightninglive.com/
For best software timing your entry/exits any time frame for day traders and long term investors.

Others worth exploring.
http://www.equis.com/
http://www.stockta.com/
http://www.secform4.com/

Best Wishes,
Burt Whitley

First go to a reputable company like Charles Schwab (no cost to you) and have them suggest a no load successful mutual fund and income average !!!! I think it is great you are interested in this at 17..Good for you !!!
i would stay away from any individual stocks at this time......perhaps when you are older.......... think Mutual Funds

Call a local financial institution or bank. I would invest the money into a CD (certificate of deposit). A CD is safe and you are guaranteed to make some money. The more money you put in and the longer you keep it there will yield more interest.

Be proud of yourself for being financially minded at a young age. Good luck!

If you want average risk/return. Buy index funds. Use the ETFs (exchange traded funds). They will ,by defenition get you the market return. SPY (which matches the returns of the sp500) at this low prices should be ok. You may want to buy at different times a small fraction of your investment so you dont have to worry too much about market timing. This is called dollar cost averaging or laddering in to an investment.

you might want to consider emerging markets and commodities.

there are some good ETF's and mutual funds investing in China/Asia/Pacific and in various industrial and agricultural commodities that could very well return +20%/year over your timeframe.

China, especially, has a long way to go, and as they get richer, they are likely to drive the prices of all kinds of commodities sky high.

alternative energy and clean water supply industries should also do well as oil goes up and conventional energy gets shorter in supply and worldwide pollution problems need to be addressed.

generally speaking, international is the way to go, and you would do well to read the Financial Times daily newspaper if you are interested at all in what's going on in the world and making good investments.

These are uncertain times, with the risk of a recession happening right now,, you really want to be in the defensive names,, you should check out the folks at www.thewallstreethunter.com they have a pretty good track record for picking good companies that seem to prosper in bad times.... they also have great articles for newbies..

Good luck...

IMO, you should not invest in stocks if your time frame is 3 - 5 years. Your only options, IMO, are short-term bonds, which would not give you much more than inflation.

IMO, you are better off paying back small bits of the loand as soon as you realize you don't need that certain amount. In other words, let's say you borrow $5000 for a semester but only need $3000 of that. Pay back that leftover $2000. That represents money that will no longer be borrowed and thus compound interest will not work against you.

Unless you can guarantee an investment return greater than the rate of interest from the loan, then you are better off paying down the loan early.

IMO, you should not mess with stocks or stock mutual funds until you are finished with college. Keep your money safe and liquid until then. College is usually more expensive than people realize and there are all kinds of unexpected costs that come up in college. How would you like to see your car die on you, need to replace the alterator for $400, only to realize you have your money tied up in stocks?

These are merely my opinions ... coming from someone who went through college with barely enough money to get by. Ultimately, you need to choose for yourself what you will do with your money.