RN thinking of med school

[YGMOGUL]

I graduated nursing school in August of last year with my BSN. I enjoy nursing and I think it is a very rewarding field. However, I plan to further my education. Having said, I really want to go to med school, always have. I don't have the best gpa (2.93) and I know right now that my chances for acceptance are slim to none. I have not taken any physics, organic chem, one gen chem, or biochem but plan to do so starting the next semester. I want to apply to UAB SOM after those classes, plus some other gpa boosters, MCAT and other requirements. Plus I'm going to get my Masters in Nursing, as well. My main concern is...will all of these extra things for med school be done in vain? Do I have a fighting chance? I spoke with the admission recruiter at UAB and she was telling me that there is some hope because I haven't taken any of the science courses. But I would have to do REALLY WELL in them. I really don't know what plan to pursue because I could easily go for nurse practitioner but I always come back to the idea of wanting to be a physician. Any advice is wanted and appreciated!

ps where should i start looking for volunteer and research experience?

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[bassvp]

If I were wanting to go to med school, I would not go further in nursing by getting a Master's, fwiw.

 

[johnisles2011]

I also think getting a Master's in Nursing isn't going to do anything for you. It'll just cost money and take time that you could devote to other things... like taking the basic science courses.
It sounds like your GPA is low, but it might be helped a lot by all the direct clinical experience you'll have from nursing. I think you should work REALLY hard in the basic science classes and crush them and also CRUSH the MCAT. Doing both of those might make up for your currently low gpa. With great sci grades and MCATs and all your clinical experience, I think you'd be a pretty good non-trad applicant.

Good luck!

 

[vin5cent0]

Your GPA is horrendous by med school standards. Even if you took all of the ECs you need, it'd still be pretty bad. Is it worth it to you? Personally, I think it'd be better to just go for your nursing doctorate and practice as an NP. You'd get to do a lot of the same things, and it wouldn't require you taking Orgo/Physics/all of those other classes that make you want to pull your hair out.

Then again, if you're dead set on medical school, then it's certainly worth it to put in the effort you're going to need to gain admission.

 

[Disinence2]

Just become a CRNA, Make a couple hundred K's a year with little to no liability, no med school, and no residency experience.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I won't sugar coat anything and say you have it easy. You don't. That gpa will really hurt you. With all A's in all of your pre-reqs, you are still going to face problems. Maybe if you add many filler courses will all A's, you could boost your gpa to at least a 3.2 or so. If you can blow the MCAT out of the water with a 3.2, you stand a shot at your state school and D.O. schools.

In other words, you have to want this really bad for this to be worth it. You will need to spend years studying hard for even a chance.

If it is all you want to do, go for it. If not, strongly consider becoming an NP or a CRNA. The pay is great and you have lots of autonomy now.

 

[aSagacious]

Moving to the 'what are my chances?' forum.

 

[LizzyM]

Give it a go but don't bother with the master's degree in nursing... it will mean nothing to med admissions and could only hurt you (if your gpa in those classes is poor). Promise yourself you will quit and consider an alternate career path if you receive a B+ or less in any of the pre-req courses for medical school. You need A's in every course, with an A- at the very least, to prove that the < 3.0 gpa as an undergrad was the Old You and the New You has what it takes to succeed. You also need to prep like crazy for the MCAT, take it once, and score greater than 90th percentile.

I have seen a non-nurse with EMT experience succeed with a similar academic record and the 3.9+ gpa in the post bac and the >36 MCAT was a big contributor to the applicant's success.

 

[YGMOGUL]

I could easily do NP or CRNA. I've thought about both. I understand that it's hard work and I don't object to it, getting into med school that is. I'm young and feel like if I want this I've got to put a lot of effort into getting it as I knew that from the jump.

The science courses that I have to take, would you all recommend taking them from a community college or university? Does it matter? Obviously , I would like to go to a community college for cost but will chunk out the money to attend a university if need be.

 

[LizzyM]

I could easily do NP or CRNA. I've thought about both. I understand that it's hard work and I don't object to it, getting into med school that is. I'm young and feel like if I want this I've got to put a lot of effort into getting it as I knew that from the jump.

The science courses that I have to take, would you all recommend taking them from a community college or university? Does it matter? Obviously , I would like to go to a community college for cost but will chunk out the money to attend a university if need be.

There is a perception that community college is not as rigorous as the same class offered in a 4-year college or university. If money is no object, get yourself into the best formal post-bac program you can and do well in those courses as well as doing the other things you'll need to show that you are serious about medicine (research & community service). If you are going to do the classes on your own, it might not matter as much but you have to do twice as well (quit if you can't manage a 4.0).

 

[Catalystik]

If you are not a great test taker who might do extremely well on the MCAT, also be aware of another potential option for improving your undergrad GPA for DO med school applications, namely their grade forgiveness policy, where only the most recent grade earned will be calculated into your application GPA if you retake (unlike AMCAS schools that include all grades earned):

Each class that one retakes must have the same credit hours as the original course, or greater, in order to invoke the AACOMAS grade forgiveness policy. The retake need not be at the same school. The course name needn't be identical so long as the course content is demonstrably similar per the course catalogs.

This is the fastest way to redeem a low GPA, especially if you have isolated low grades that are dragging you down.

 

[RnVt]

Go for it! I agree with previous posts about skipping M.S., getting stellar grades and maybe doing some grade replacement for DO; I've also found DO schools to be a little more leniant and "whole person" oriented, where your nursing experience might help boost your cred if you present it in the right manner. I graduated with my BSN in '10. I, too, considered CRNA and NP, even PA, but I knew I would always regret not going all the way for a little extra effort and a few more years of studying.

A good test will be Orgo or physics....being able to make it through these arduous classes will be "proof" that you are really serious about this!

 

[deleted314957]

Just become a CRNA, Make a couple hundred K's a year with little to no liability, no med school, and no residency experience.

agree strongly with this and would also add much less debt.

 

[LawlasaurusRex]

I also suggest taking a somewhat vigorous course load, to prove to yourself and to the adcom that you are capable of handling the workload if and/or once you've reached med school. You don't have to do it for every semester, but do try to take 2+ science courses concurrently at some time, at a 4-year program. Obviously, this route is a double-edged sword. In order to maximize your grades, it's always best to space difficult classes apart, but at the same time, you could be in for a very rude awakening in med school if you don't test yourself with a challenging workload.

Only start thinking about volunteering and doing research once you've taken a few pre-req science courses and done exceptionally well in them. The last thing you want to do is spread yourself too thin and not ace those classes.

 

[TriagePreMed]

I graduated nursing school in August of last year with my BSN. I enjoy nursing and I think it is a very rewarding field. However, I plan to further my education. Having said, I really want to go to med school, always have. I don't have the best gpa (2.93) and I know right now that my chances for acceptance are slim to none. I have not taken any physics, organic chem, one gen chem, or biochem but plan to do so starting the next semester. I want to apply to UAB SOM after those classes, plus some other gpa boosters, MCAT and other requirements. Plus I'm going to get my Masters in Nursing, as well. My main concern is...will all of these extra things for med school be done in vain? Do I have a fighting chance? I spoke with the admission recruiter at UAB and she was telling me that there is some hope because I haven't taken any of the science courses. But I would have to do REALLY WELL in them. I really don't know what plan to pursue because I could easily go for nurse practitioner but I always come back to the idea of wanting to be a physician. Any advice is wanted and appreciated!

ps where should i start looking for volunteer and research experience?

The best advice someone can give you is to move on with your life and get that NP or PA degree. A 2.93 is hard to budge and will take forever to bring to a level that UAB will find acceptable. Their median cGPA is 3.82 w/a 3.78 science. You could in theory go the osteopathic route, but you'll need at least a 3.4/3.2/26 to be competitive. Since an Alabama hospital wants to open an Osteopathic school, that may be a good alternative.

You need to decide if you want to be a physician or not NOW. You can't go around getting more nursing degrees because medical schools won't want to admit you. Why? Because they figure that a lot of money has already been spent in training you as a nurse and you are pretty much playing the backup game. If you do decide you want to be a physician, you need to start showing that (volunteer/clubs/tutoring/leadership/etc.). It's much easier to entertain the idea that you are solid in thinking that medicine is for you and nursing is long in the past.

 

[Aaron151]

I could easily do NP or CRNA. I've thought about both. I understand that it's hard work and I don't object to it, getting into med school that is. I'm young and feel like if I want this I've got to put a lot of effort into getting it as I knew that from the jump.

The science courses that I have to take, would you all recommend taking them from a community college or university? Does it matter? Obviously , I would like to go to a community college for cost but will chunk out the money to attend a university if need be.

The NP route is expanding into a purely DNP route and is VERY competitive to get into. For many, having a 3.9 GPA with a BSN will not guarantee acceptance let alone a 2.93. I think there is this assumption that NP school is much easier to get into than medical school. It is very different than medical school from my understanding. Some of my professors are DNPs who have explained the difference of DNP and MD (they have really pushed me to get my DNP). I would say that neither is a cake walk but obviously I would say that the MD route is much more rigorous, time consuming, hard science based and you get A LOT more clinical experience. I am not here to argue the validity, difficulty, autonomy, etc. of the DPN because I know this is a controversial subject. However, do not assume that just because it is a DNP program as opposed to an MD program they would accept you with open arms. Many DNP programs have an application GPA cutoff of around 3.3.There are many RNs that apply to DNP programs with GPAs greater than 3.7 that get rejected.