Biochemistry or nursing major in college?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
linziclip

linziclip

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2012
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
I really like science and am pretty good at stuff like physics, biology, chemistry, and math. I was planning to major in biochemistry in college this year and then go on to medical school or maybe research.
Recently though, I have been considering nursing instead, because it lets me be involved with medicine and science and helping people without having to spend 10+ years in school and having a ton of debt (I don't come from a well-off family and am not planning on a lot money from my parents). Not only that, but I want to one day have a family and spend time with my kids and husband, not just spend most of my life studying like crazy then working such a tough job and not spending as much time with my family as I should.

On the other hand, nursng might not be a big enough challenge, I like science and problem solving and I know nursing programs have pretty watered down science as compared to biochemistry and medical school

Any input would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!🙂
Members don't see this ad.
 
1) Balancing a career and family isn't easy but it can be done.
2) If you wish to become a doctor, majoring in biochem might be a wiser move than majoring in nursing because the latter has a lower acceptance rate.
3) All health professions are challenging in their own way.
 
thanks for the reply! You're right, if I do decide to be a doctor I will major in biology or biochem, so I'm kind of at a crossroad now doctor vs nurse
 
Members don't see this ad :)
varsityblue said:
1) Balancing a career and family isn't easy but it can be done.
2) If you wish to become a doctor, majoring in biochem might be a wiser move than majoring in nursing because the latter has a lower acceptance rate.
3) All health professions are challenging in their own way.
Click to expand...

Do you have some of real proof to back this statement? I am referring to #1
 
FCMike11 said:
Do you have some of real proof to back this statement? I am referring to #1
Click to expand...

Balancing anything with family can be tricky, depending on the family, though, of course.... 🙄

Dear OP: Regardless of which path you take, I recommend that you make sure you take the General and Organic chemistry sequences for "chemistry majors". Nursing programs typically don't require the more rigorous version of those courses, which would mean that you would have to retake two years worth of courses in the event that you later change your mind (if you initially opt for nursing).

Also, don't base your decision to pursue medicine (or not) based upon debt. You will make enough money as a physician to pay it off! Also, you do realize that you would be making roughly $50K per year during residency, right? That means that you will only have to spend 7+ years in school before you are earning your keep.

Once you complete your residency you can adjust your lifestyle around your family and your income requirements. There are several specialties (e.g. psychiatry, derm, ophthalmology, peds, pm&r, etc...) which allow for a reasonable work/life/family balance.

Lastly, time flies! What do you want to be doing when you're 45?
 
Last edited:
varsityblue said:
Wow. See http://www.wondermoms.ca/balancing_work_and_family_life.html to start out. Think of having a family like having a really demanding EC and then automate your schedule Ryan Holiday style. 🙄
Click to expand...

For the record, I'm a non-trad with family. I started out in civil engineering, but came to realize that I wanted something else out of my life.... and now I'm a premed 🙂. The financial impact of me quitting my job was the hardest part of the transition, but the worst part is over (giving up my home and my speedy WRX 🙁). I consistently remind myself that my new, simple life is the pathway to a happier future. We all live only once and we must choose what we value enough to pursue or ignore.

OP: If I had started this pre-med path at 18, I would be a new attending right now. I don't regret my former experiences, but I bring this up to say that you should carefully consider if you truly want to become a doctor because the urge to do so may never completely go away.
 
If I were to do it all over again I would of done nursing. If you do not go straight to med school from undergraduate at least you have a job that can pay you at least 40,000 a year plus it can count as clinical experience.
 
Didnt feel like reading the above posts so sorry if its been said but OP a doctor vs nurse is 2 COMPLETELY different jobs. I'm not going to delve into the details of both but you really have to research both fields a little more before you make any decisions.
 
thanks for all the responses
Yeah, I understand that nursing and MD are totally different, I looked at the course requirements for each one, and MD is really a lot of science and hardcore stuff and nursing is mostly a lot of classes just on how to care for different types of patients.

My parents are encouraging me to use my college years to study science, and since I like it and am able to do well in it then I should go for it.
How soon into your medical education do you get to do hands- on stuff, like care for patients and internships?
 
linziclip said:
thanks for all the responses
How soon into your medical education do you get to do hands- on stuff, like care for patients and internships?
Click to expand...

You get your first prolonged patient contact during the third year rotations. Until that year you're not part of the care team at all. From what I understand though, you need to remember that you're at the VERY bottom of the food chain in the third and fourth year.
From my friends experiences (anecdotal of course) you really end up doing a doctors work towards the end of your internship (the first year of residency after medical school) and the start of residency.

You should spend some time with nurses and doctors and try to figure out which field you like better. Adcoms arent to keen on accepting nursing students for a few reasons. 1) There is already a shortage of nurses and its counterproductive to take an educated professional out of the field. 2) The philosophies (and therefore the roles) of doctors and nurses are very different and starting medical school after a BSN will be a SERIOUS change of gears.


On the balancing family note, A friend of mine from church had two children DURING medical school and is still happily married and finishing a fellowship in Pediatric EM. Did I mention that SHE loves her job?
Its possible to balance family and work. And its easier in some fields, but make no mistake. It is never easy. You do it because you love your spouse and children, not because its fun all the time.

Best of luck!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Here's an idea. Major in nursing and get your BSN. If you don't get into medical school then you can go ahead and get certified and start making money or go get your MSN. Good luck!😀
 
I read LizzyM stating that you might have some trouble explain your career choice to medical school ADcoms when applying with a degree in nursing, so I would make sure you pick one of the two and stick with it. Personally I think nursing would be better for you,but it's a choice you should put some thought into yourself.
 
Do some shadowing. Shadow docs in different specialties but also shadow advanced practice nurses (nurse practiioners, nurse midwife, etc) and physician assistants or at least ask to do an informational interview with them about their career path, years of training, etc. You will make less as a mid-level but you will be finished with your training all the sooner and at lower cost so you have to decide if the trade-off makes it worth it to you. A good friend of mine is a nurse practitioner in a clinic that serves a mostly poor, mostly immigrant community and she finds a lot of satisfaction in it (she is also a former Peace Corps Volunteer so that tells you something about her values). One of my relatives is a physician assistant at a university health service and he has a good balance of home & work but feels annoyed sometimes that he does the same thing that the docs in his area of the clinic do but he earns a lower salary (he has 20 yrs experience at this point).

You could always consider a post-bac nursing program if you major in biochem and then decide that nursing is the best choice for you.
 
linziclip said:
I really like science and am pretty good at stuff like physics, biology, chemistry, and math. I was planning to major in biochemistry in college this year and then go on to medical school or maybe research.
Recently though, I have been considering nursing instead, because it lets me be involved with medicine and science and helping people without having to spend 10+ years in school and having a ton of debt (I don't come from a well-off family and am not planning on a lot money from my parents). Not only that, but I want to one day have a family and spend time with my kids and husband, not just spend most of my life studying like crazy then working such a tough job and not spending as much time with my family as I should.

On the other hand, nursng might not be a big enough challenge, I like science and problem solving and I know nursing programs have pretty watered down science as compared to biochemistry and medical school

Any input would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!🙂
Click to expand...

Well, do what you feel is best. Try some shadowing and clinical volunteer experiences to see if you are really interested in med school. Med school is a huge commitment and you must be willing to commit to all the obstacles whether positive or negative. I understand that nursing is shorter term, so you have to decide. Also, a medical education will require 11 years minimum to complete and that includes 4 years undergrad, 4 years med, and 3+ year residency. Another option is a physician assistant (PA). I believe, but unsure, that you complete a 2 year program post-undergrad; however, you have to complete similar activities as if applying to med school (ECs, MCAT/GRE??, etc). PAs have decent pay for less time and they operate like physicians with less autonomy. PAs are similar to nurse practitioners (NPs).

My advice is to research different options. I have a degree in chemistry/biochemistry and plan to apply to med school this June but I am 2-3 years out from my initial degree because I wanted to obtain research positions and was unable to get one. Just know that nothing is easy and you will never have all the answers when you need them. Originally, I planned to go to med school right after college but then liked research, so I sought after those opportunities with med school still in mind.

PS: Sorry didn't read the above posters, but they all have similar advice as I stated. Good Luck!
 
Last edited:
I think that getting your BSN is the smart thing to do, and then work a little. If you are interested in being a practitioner even after you work as a nurse for a while, I'd suggest that you do some research on Nurse Practitioners. They perform some physician duties and can write prescriptions in most states, but what they are allowed and not allowed to do depends on the state that you practice in.

Good luck and I hope that you are happy with what you choose.
 
FCMike11 said:
Do you have some of real proof to back this statement? I am referring to #1
Click to expand...


exactly my thought. You can say the world is roses and rainbows, but reality says otherwise. I feel like it would be hard to answer the question why not nursing? at interviews. Its a touchy question.
 
Another option is to do Nursing for four years (or two if you already have a BS in something and are doing accelerated), and then do two more years of postgrad nursing to become a Nurse Practitioner. An NP can do basically everything a doctor does, minus surgery and some other things. NP is in partnership with an MD/DO.
 
Bl4ckout said:
exactly my thought. You can say the world is roses and rainbows, but reality says otherwise. I feel like it would be hard to answer the question why not nursing? at interviews. Its a touchy question.
Click to expand...

I am an RN about 14 months out of finishing my BSN, working as a nurse actually made my decision for med school that much more concrete.

But how I was calling him out "low acceptance rates for nursing majors".....well a low % of people who apply are nurses, that makes sense, takes something different for them to want to breach out of the totally seperate profession pretty much.

What I was asking for him was some proof (the way he stated it) that low % of nurses that apply are accepted (ie bad major).

An no I didnt go to nursing school with the intention of med school.
 
linziclip said:
I really like science and am pretty good at stuff like physics, biology, chemistry, and math. I was planning to major in biochemistry in college this year and then go on to medical school or maybe research.
Recently though, I have been considering nursing instead, because it lets me be involved with medicine and science and helping people without having to spend 10+ years in school and having a ton of debt (I don't come from a well-off family and am not planning on a lot money from my parents). Not only that, but I want to one day have a family and spend time with my kids and husband, not just spend most of my life studying like crazy then working such a tough job and not spending as much time with my family as I should.

On the other hand, nursng might not be a big enough challenge, I like science and problem solving and I know nursing programs have pretty watered down science as compared to biochemistry and medical school

Any input would be greatly appreciated
Thanks!🙂
Click to expand...
Nurses do all the work and get paid less than doctors just saying
 
If your biochem the only thing you'll be nursing is your beers...zing
 
Trust me, nursing is not really watered down, it is a difficult curriculum. Obviously not as hard as med school but difficult nonetheless. It will be a challenge. Being a nurse also does not ensure that you will have more family and free time in life, however, there is a much higher chance of that than being a physician.

And, don't worry about debt. If you have a passion and motivation for whatever you want to pursue, you need not worry about debt because you should only vision success and completion of your program of study in your mind.
 
LizzyM said:
Here you go:
https://www.aamc.org/download/161692/data/table18.pdf

nurses all into the "specialized health sciences"... about 1/3 of applicants become matriculants.
Click to expand...

I noticed that "specialized heath sciences" applicants also have the lowest mean scores on every section of the MCAT as well as the second lowest cumulative GPA average. Does it suggest that adcoms have an inherent unrelated bias against nursing majors or that the bias is a byproduct of the strength or weakness of that subset of the applicant pool or maybe a combination of the two?
 
LizzyM said:
Here you go:
https://www.aamc.org/download/161692/data/table18.pdf

nurses all into the "specialized health sciences"... about 1/3 of applicants become matriculants.
Click to expand...

I am a nursing major who, not until I was half way done with my BSN, decided that I knew I wanted to be a physician. I can tell you that it is not the easiest road to medical school, due to the substantially different required classes of nursing majors in comparison to traditional pre-med degrees. Nursing is a very time consuming program and it is very difficult to maintain a high GPA, but in my experience it can be done. I feel that nursing has began to train me for medical school to a certain extent, in that I have had to give up most of my social life, read for six hours a day multiple times a week in conjunction with waking up at 4:15am to get to clinicals and begin assessments on my patients for that morning. Now, I am not trying to compare the difficulty of nursing to medical school because medical school is much more demanding, I am sure, and yes it is a VERY different profession than being a physician. It will also take me an extra year to finish up my pre-reqs to apply to medical school. While if you are a chemistry or biology major, you are killing two birds with one stone, by taking classes that fulfill your major and the medical school requirements. But on the other hand I am basically guaranteed to be working in a hospital or other health care setting. Although a very different role than a doctor, I cannot imagine working in any other setting. I don't see it as a back up to "if I don't get into medical school," but I LOVE WORKING AT THE HOSPITAL, and the reality that all of us must face is the question "what if I don't get in..?😱"

I have an internal locus of control and I try to do my best at everything I can to the potential I have. If the adcoms believe that I do not have the potential or qualities necessary to be a physician and I have re-evaluated myself knowing that I have done everything I can, so be it. I can still work in the setting that I love as a nurse working with patients being the best nurse I can possibly be...😀 This attitude is not out of the lack of dedication, but at a certain point (i.e. after three application cycles without admittance) an individual must truly evaluate themselves.

The questions I have for LizzyM is:

What other "specialized health sciences" majors would fall under that category of applicants? Do you believe that nursing majors are at a disadvantage when applying to medical school? If so, what do you believe constitute as some of the barriers for these applicants to matriculation? The percentage of matriculation is substantially lower in this category compared to others according to the numbers, but because we cannot specifically quantify the number of nursing applicants and the matriculation rate of these individuals in a breakdown format, could it be possible that other "specialized health science," backgrounds would lower the percentage of matriculants or do you believe that nurses make up a majority of these applicants?

I truly hope that I am in that minority of applicants who make it!

P.S. LizzyM,
Thank you for your dedication and continued support of this forum, it is not without true gratitude for you insight.
 
Specialized health sciences would include those whose college majors were vocational health professions. I would imagine that this would include pharmacy, physical and occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, nutrition/dietetics, medical laboratory technology and so forth. I have no doubt that nurses would be in the majority among this group in medical admissions.
 
varsityblue said:
Having a family is about having excellent time management skills. If OP mastered the art of juggling their ECs with academics in undergrad, then OP shouldn't fret that having a family will be a *significant hurdle* to jump through.
Click to expand...

woosh
 
varsityblue said:
Having a family is about having excellent time management skills. If OP mastered the art of juggling their ECs with academics in undergrad, then OP shouldn't fret that having a family will be a *significant hurdle* to jump through.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but starting and maintaining a successful family is not as simple as juggling ECs. For one, the commitment doesn't disappear when you matriculate to MS.
 
Right, having a family is really important for me...I'm figuring the earliest I can possibly be done with MS is around 26 years old, then residency for several more years, by that time I would probably be married or moving towards marriage....if I have a baby then I would definitely be staying home with him for several years, probably until he goes to school. I would never want to sacrifice my family for a career no matter how much I liked it.
How do you girls do it? Has anyone been in MS or worked full time as a doc and been a mom/raised a family at the same time?
 
linziclip said:
Right, having a family is really important for me...I'm figuring the earliest I can possibly be done with MS is around 26 years old, then residency for several more years, by that time I would probably be married or moving towards marriage....if I have a baby then I would definitely be staying home with him for several years, probably until he goes to school. I would never want to sacrifice my family for a career no matter how much I liked it.
How do you girls do it? Has anyone been in MS or worked full time as a doc and been a mom/raised a family at the same time?
Click to expand...

Many of my physician colleagues have given birth and raised families while practicing medicine. A few have gone to part-time for awhile while the children are young but I have never seen anyone become a stay-at-home mom for more than a few weeks of maternity leave.

I knew one OB married to an internist who had a live-in au pair to look after the children and get them up in the morning in case she was called out in the middle of the night for a delivery. Most professional women have someone come into their home to do child care and light housekeeping or they have a house cleaner on a weekly basis and use an outside daycare provider.

If you borrow for your education, you will have student loans due when your children are young... there is almost no way around it. Stopping out of the workforce for those years means that the burden of paying your loans falls on your spouse. The opportunity cost of staying home is very, very high if you have the potential to be a high income earner. Furthermore, not using your skills, even if you attend some kind of continuing education for an average of one hour per week, is going to result in a tremendous loss of skills that you've had little time to practice.
 
Hey, I am not a doctor but as a girlfriend I would tell you,

"Never prioritize your life based on the man of your dreams whom you have not met"

Why are you thinking of marriage at such a young age? Yes, family is important especially to us woman but sometimes you NEED to make these sacrifices. You truly want to be a medical doctor you have to be willing to sacrafice the fact that you may not be married by 26.

I completely respect your decision. Everyone measures life differently weather it's success, marriage, money, family, I say do what is most important for you.

You stated that you would never want to sacrifice family for a career no matter how much you like it. Based on your statement I think it would be challenging for you to make these sacrifices later on in your life.

I think if you want to be a doctor your mentality should be "I don't have time for boyfriends. I want to be accepted into medical school"

Prioritize yourself always. Family would be build throughout your journey. TRUST Me You have a long time to think about settling. Think about the sacrifices and ask your self are you willing to make it work.

"shoot for the moon even if you miss you will land among the stars"
 
varsityblue said:
Having a family is about having excellent time management skills. If OP mastered the art of juggling their ECs with academics in undergrad, then OP shouldn't fret that having a family will be a *significant hurdle* to jump through.
Click to expand...
You really need to stop giving advice about subjects you have no knowledge of. Comparing keeping a healthy relationship and raising a family with "juggling ECs" is one of the most naive things you have posted, which says a lot. You obviously have no clue what you are talking about if you equate the two, and I am saying this as a 28 year old married man with a son who will be 18 months old when I matriculate this August.

Many people have families and are doctors, but there are sacrifices you and your family will have to make for it to be possible. Many families do not survive the sacrifices intact. Comparing it to taking classes and struggling to get in those pesky 8 hours of volunteering a week is ludicrous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Retaking Biochemistry
Replies
3
Views
474
AJS59
AJS59
L
Biology, Chemistry or neuroscience major in college
Replies
3
Views
1K
gyngyn
gyngyn
Appy378
Majoring in physics
Replies
19
Views
876
genbu
genbu
R
  • Question Question
Advice on how to proceed in senior year of college
Replies
2
Views
262
LunaOri
LunaOri
B
online biochemistry course
Replies
2
Views
1K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Top