Upcoming college grad- when should I start studying for CFA? Is it still worth it??

I will be graduating from school this May, and am incredibly fortunate to have landed a buyside research seat at a top LO (Wellington/TRowe/Fido/Cap group) in Fixed Income. My ultimate goal is to become a PM. I plan on starting my CFA studies upon the start of my job, but recently found out that surprisingly not many associates in my program are currently pursuing the charter. I have heard very mixed reviews from my mentors, some say it is a necessity and others tell me I'd be a fool to bother with it. I've heard some horror stories of people spending countless hours and thousands of dollars for the charter to ultimately have it do nothing for their careers, but it seems to me like most of these are people trying to break into a buyside seat from back office or sell side.

Given that I want to be a PM, and ideally don't want to go to grad school, wouldn't the CFA be a necessity for someone in my position? Even if my firm does not push it, I feel that having the charter or maybe a T25 MBA would make me a more attractive candidate if I want/need to change shops down the road. I find it very hard to believe someone could be promoted to PM without the charter or an MBA. I fully realize I have an incredibly long ways to go in my career and am probably foolish to be thinking about this now, but would really appreciate any advice/insight on this.