Nursing degree with 4.0 in all premed courses?

[Ernham]

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I was thinking of taking a huge left turn and going for a nursing degree, mainly because recent changes at my undergrad made it impossible to do what I had wanted to.

In any case, believe it or not, the nursing program I might enter is rumored to be more difficult than going the generic *something in biology* degree route. I was just looking at some of the data, and the actualy average GPA for the entering students is over 3.6. Only about 50-60 persons, out of ~400 applicants, are even let into the program.

If I have a 4.0 GPA in all the pre-meds and a 30+ MCAT, they can't hold anything against me for getting a nursing degree, right? Right? Bueller?

 

[Brickhouse]

You want to get a nursing degree instead of a BS and then apply to med school? Sure, why not? I think that's good, as long as you do the premeds and take the MCAT and all the other stuph. Don't listen to me, I'm just guessing.

 

[5639953]

If you mean "they" to be medical school, I don't think they will hold it against you, but they might ask you why you changed your mind back to medicine, after being a nurse...

As far as nursing and difficulty, I work with nurses and I have many friends that are nurses and we are all close... Almost all of them tell me that getting into nursing school is not hard compared to medical school. The high GPA is for easier classes. Your program might be little different.

One thing they could hold against you is that you want to use the nursing degree to become a doctor.... Because of the shortage of nurses, they seek pre-nursing students that want to be nurses for the rest of their lives.. That's all I can think of..

About nursing school itself, it is alot of writing... You write lots and lots and lots of papers... The rest is not a big challenge...

I hope that helps and good luck with whatever you do!

 

[Ernham]

I already have my answer: I took the nursing degree because my undergrad fuqed me, and a degree in burger flipping is more employable than a biology degree. Joking... not completely, though.

 

[bigbaubdi]

Originally posted by 5639953
One thing they could hold against you is that you want to use the nursing degree to become a doctor.... Because of the shortage of nurses, they seek pre-nursing students that want to be nurses for the rest of their lives.. That's all I can think of..

I took a tour of Harvard med school and one of the admissions people spoke with us afterwards. Someone asked her what she thought about people who had jobs in health care after graduation and she said that jobs in health care are OK, as long as your commitment to medicine was clear. But then she explicitly stated that if you did nursing, then the adcoms might view you less favorably because of the nursing shortage. She sort of implied that adcoms would prefer nurses to remain nurses. I don't know if this is true of all med schools though.

 

[DD214_DOC]

Originally posted by bigbaubdi
I took a tour of Harvard med school and one of the admissions people spoke with us afterwards. Someone asked her what she thought about people who had jobs in health care after graduation and she said that jobs in health care are OK, as long as your commitment to medicine was clear. But then she explicitly stated that if you did nursing, then the adcoms might view you less favorably because of the nursing shortage. She sort of implied that adcoms would prefer nurses to remain nurses. I don't know if this is true of all med schools though.

I, too, have heard this.

 

[fun8stuff]

Originally posted by bigbaubdi
I took a tour of Harvard med school and one of the admissions people spoke with us afterwards. Someone asked her what she thought about people who had jobs in health care after graduation and she said that jobs in health care are OK, as long as your commitment to medicine was clear. But then she explicitly stated that if you did nursing, then the adcoms might view you less favorably because of the nursing shortage. She sort of implied that adcoms would prefer nurses to remain nurses. I don't know if this is true of all med schools though.

Within the last 2 years I have toured and talked with directors of admission at all of the Michigan medical schools (U of M, Mich State MD, Mich State DO, Wayne) and I too asked this question. Ever single one gave me the impression that it would be a bad idea. One said some thing to the effect of, "nurses better have a really good reason for the career switch. Most people want to be doctors to care for and help people- nurses work more closely with patients than doctors in a lot of instances"

Careers in health are good, but I think nursing is an exception. IMHO I don't think you should waste your time.

 

[fun8stuff]

...but on the other hand, I dont think a school will not accept you based on the fact you are nurse. It definately won't help you out though...

 

[DD214_DOC]

The problem with the Nurse -> Doctor thing is the only reason really left for switching is money.

Nurses already help people, perhaps more so than doctors.

Nurses can be in leadership positions.

Nurses have job security.

Most of the reasons for becoming a doc are negated if you're already a nurse. Don't do it.

 

[thedevirginator]

Nothing can hold you against becoming a doctor. All med schools said that they don't care what your major is if you have taken all the prereqs. That being said, I would suggest to you to take some upper-level biology courses to prove to the med schools that you can handle the rigor. Besides that get a nice gpa, decent mcat and you will be set. Cheers.