My College Education in a post

[Bart Man]

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Hey guys this is my first post on this site so don't get mad if it's in the wrong section. It seemed appropriate.. Here is my education summed up.

High school: McIntosh High-Currently a 12' Senior
College: Valdosta State University. Majoring in Nursing
Goal: Become a Non-Invasive Cardiologist

After getting my BA in Nursing I plan on applying to a Med School here in Georgia. I have not looked into many besides Emory University. So my college classes will be geared towards a selection of two or three of my Med Schools of choice.

Here are my two questions.
1. How do my plans look so far? Should I change anything?
2. Is Cardiology a rough field to study for? I know it's around 8-12yrs of schooling.

Thank You!
Brett

 

[aSagacious]

Moving to hSDN.

 

[One Fly Guy]

hey man I hear cardiologists workaround 60hrs/week. I was going to major in nursing, but alot of people on here say it maybe a bad idea because they say adcoms don't really like people who do nursing (taking someone's spot) and going to Med school. I don't really see a problem with it though... I'm going to email the Med schools in my state and get their responses. goodluck brother!

 

[johnisles2011]

I mentioned I had thought about cardiology in an interview, and the guy told me that would be a mistake. I guess they, as a profession are on the decline and there are too damn many of them anyway.

Your plans look fine. You didn't give any of the important information. Emory is a good school. If you're going to go there, you'll need a good gpa and a solid MCAT (that's the important information). Study hard! Work hard! Play hardest!

 

[Bart Man]

My intention is to have at least a BA in Nursing as a fallback in case I do not like being a doctor or something of the sort. This is just a precaution so that I don't fall flat on my face if things don't turn out well. As for the Cardiology field. I heard they do work long hours, but are they really on low demand? If so I'll look into a different field. What fields are in a high demand with fairly decent pay?

Also I plan on taking the MCAT later in life, like my Junior or Senior year in college. Once I have some more knowledge under my belt.

 

[aSagacious]

You don't have to decide on a specialty for another 8 years, so don't worry about that quite yet. Just start acquiring some clinical experience (shadowing, volunteering, EMT, CNA, tech, etc) to see if medicine is even worth pursuing.

 

[Bart Man]

Thank you I guess I just have to keep an open mind and find reputable colleges to apply to. Does anyone have a suggestion of a decent medical school in the southeast? Disregarding Emory due to it's high cost and I don't think the payoff would be worth it but I could be wrong.

 

[CeeEstee0]

I don't understand why you would use nursing as a fallback when a major in chem/biology/english would suffice.

 

[Bart Man]

I looked into Nursing and getting into a specialty area pays pretty decently and are fields in which I am interested. I am open to all ideas but I chose Nursing just because I felt comfortable with it and there seems to be a need in people with medical majors due to America's population growing every day and people are constantly getting older and sick. No matter what people in the educational and medical fields will deal with less layoffs than other types of jobs. More so Medical hahaha

 

[One Fly Guy]

I don't understand why you would use nursing as a fallback when a major in chem/biology/english would suffice.

Maybe he is more interested in being a nurse rather than a chemist biologist or journalist, if things don't pan out.

 

[Bart Man]

Maybe he is more interested in being a nurse rather than a chemist biologist or journalist, if things don't pan out.

Pretty much. Also due to the fact that I live in Metro Atlanta which is home to many large hospitals. I still have not found out my exact specialty area but I plan on transferring from Valdosta State to either Emory, Mercer or the University of Georgia depending on the area I decide to specialize in and the programs these schools offer. After that MCAT and hopefully a respectful Med School. But for now it's baby steps.

 

[HolySmokes]

My intention is to have at least a BA in Nursing as a fallback in case I do not like being a doctor or something of the sort. This is just a precaution so that I don't fall flat on my face if things don't turn out well. As for the Cardiology field. I heard they do work long hours, but are they really on low demand? If so I'll look into a different field. What fields are in a high demand with fairly decent pay?

Also I plan on taking the MCAT later in life, like my Junior or Senior year in college. Once I have some more knowledge under my belt.

I think you need to think hard about what you really want to do with your life. Do you want to be a nurse? Then get your BSN and become an RN. I don't know of any BA Nursing programs that exist in the US. Do you want to be a physician? Then major in something else and go to medical school.

Allied Health careers are generally frowned upon when applying to medical school if you're trying to go straight out of college. Since these majors are generally geared toward getting graduates jobs, you're just taking up a spot in a nursing program that someone else could have had that actually wants to be a nurse, and that's not cool.

Why are you worrying about what fields are in high demand with decent pay? For one, in my opinion, that's no way to choose a career. Better to do what you will enjoy than something that will make money. More importantly, what is in demand and compensated well right now is not guaranteed to be in the same position when you get to a point where it matters.

I'm a little confused when you say that your college classes will be geared toward 2-3 med schools. Almost all med schools in the US have the same basic prereqs: Gen Chem 1/2, Orgo 1/2, Bio 1/2, Physics 1/2, and a Math class. There's not a whole lot of "gearing" to do with your classes except making sure to take all of the courses that schools recommend but don't require. I can't imagine fitting all of these classes into a nursing degree will be easy since nursing schedules are pretty set in stone.

Finally, as far as becoming a cardiologist, a general timeline would be: College (4 years) --> Medical school (4 years) --> IM residency (3 years) --> Cards fellowship (3 years). So you're looking at ~14 years of post-secondary training before being a licensed cardiologist.

 

[Bart Man]

Thank you for the advice. I like having the option for backup Nursing just in case I can't do Med School due to funds or acceptance as stated earlier. And with a degree in Biology or something else I feel like it would be more difficult to get a job with the job market getting more and more competitive each day. But I will look into different majors. Right now I'm just a High school Senior trying to find an idea for my future.

 

[One Fly Guy]

Thank you for the advice. I like having the option for backup Nursing just in case I can't do Med School due to funds or acceptance as stated earlier. And with a degree in Biology or something else I feel like it would be more difficult to get a job with the job market getting more and more competitive each day. But I will look into different majors. Right now I'm just a High school Senior trying to find an idea for my future.

👍

 

[Bart Man]

Finally got it figured out. I'm going to go to Valdosta for 1-2 years and then transfer into the University of Georgia and go for Pre-Pharmacy. Then enroll in their Pharmacy school which is supposed to be a respectable school.