Should I switch majors?

[hopefulfuturedmd]

Hi, SDN. I am seeking a bit of advice on my current academic situation... I am currently a sophomore "Pre-Nursing Major" at my University. As a 17-year-old deciding my major, I wanted to be a nurse because it meant less time in school and I would still be in the medical field. I really did not learn exactly what nurses did until I started volunteering at a hospital and saw first hand for myself (stupid to decide a major without knowing what exactly the duties are, sigh). II always thought I would be passionate about pursuing a career in nursing. As I get a little bit older, I am starting to think that I would rather pursue medicine. I still think nurses are phenomenal but I can't see myself being happy in the long run. It would be a constant "What-if?" situation in my mind. I definitely do not want to take someone else's spot in nursing school if I am not even sure if I want to be a nurse. In terms of school, I am a decent student. I have a 3.77 GPA (but keep in mind, this is without any med school prereqs). I am willing to work hard to get where I want to be. I feel like I lack guidance especially compared to my peers who have known exactly what they wanted to do since a young age. I have looked into the requirements of medical schools and here are my questions.

1. Where did you all get pre-med guidance in terms of finding doctors to shadow, etc? It seems as if (almost) everybody I know who wants to pursue medicine has at least 1 family member in the medical field. I do not. Do you think it would be better to shadow or to scribe?
2. If I changed my major from pre-nursing, I would most likely be in undergrad for at least a semester to a year longer. How bad would it look that I took 5 years to finish undergraduate and changed from nursing to another major on my medical school application?
3. Do you personally think it would be worthy to finish my degree in nursing and then do a post-bacc program to achieve admission into medical school?
4. I have heard that where you attend undergraduate does not have a major impact on your chances of getting into medical school, as long as you have the grades. However, I notice that many of the alumni of my school end up going to Caribbean schools, which I DO NOT want to do. Is it true that medical schools do not look too hard at where you went to undergraduate? Or should I be looking at transferring to a higher tier university?

I know there are forums out there already, but I couldn't find answers to a couple of questions I had. Thank you to everyone for your help in advance!

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[Catalystik]

Hi, SDN. I am seeking a bit of advice on my current academic situation... I am currently a sophomore "Pre-Nursing Major" at my University. As a 17-year-old deciding my major, I wanted to be a nurse because it meant less time in school and I would still be in the medical field. I really did not learn exactly what nurses did until I started volunteering at a hospital and saw first hand for myself (stupid to decide a major without knowing what exactly the duties are, sigh). II always thought I would be passionate about pursuing a career in nursing. As I get a little bit older, I am starting to think that I would rather pursue medicine. I still think nurses are phenomenal but I can't see myself being happy in the long run. It would be a constant "What-if?" situation in my mind. I definitely do not want to take someone else's spot in nursing school if I am not even sure if I want to be a nurse. In terms of school, I am a decent student. I have a 3.77 GPA (but keep in mind, this is without any med school prereqs). I am willing to work hard to get where I want to be. I feel like I lack guidance especially compared to my peers who have known exactly what they wanted to do since a young age. I have looked into the requirements of medical schools and here are my questions.

1. Where did you all get pre-med guidance in terms of finding doctors to shadow, etc? It seems as if (almost) everybody I know who wants to pursue medicine has at least 1 family member in the medical field. I do not. Do you think it would be better to shadow or to scribe?
2. If I changed my major from pre-nursing, I would most likely be in undergrad for at least a semester to a year longer. How bad would it look that I took 5 years to finish undergraduate and changed from nursing to another major on my medical school application?
3. Do you personally think it would be worthy to finish my degree in nursing and then do a post-bacc program to achieve admission into medical school?
4. I have heard that where you attend undergraduate does not have a major impact on your chances of getting into medical school, as long as you have the grades. However, I notice that many of the alumni of my school end up going to Caribbean schools, which I DO NOT want to do. Is it true that medical schools do not look too hard at where you went to undergraduate? Or should I be looking at transferring to a higher tier university?

I know there are forums out there already, but I couldn't find answers to a couple of questions I had. Thank you to everyone for your help in advance!

1) SDN is a good source for guidance unless your school has a pre-med counselor with a good reputation. You need to both shadow (a passive observership) and have active clinical experience interacting with patients through work or volunteering. There are many ways to acquire the latter in addition to scribing.

2) Not an issue.

3) No. Sounds like a waste of time and money.

4) Why do they go Caribbean? Is it a low GPA issue or a low MCAT score issue? If there is a concern that your current school inflates grades and doesn't provide sufficient rigor to do well on the MCAT, then transferring schools is a good idea.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

1. Where did you all get pre-med guidance in terms of finding doctors to shadow, etc? It seems as if (almost) everybody I know who wants to pursue medicine has at least 1 family member in the medical field. I do not. Do you think it would be better to shadow or to scribe?
2. If I changed my major from pre-nursing, I would most likely be in undergrad for at least a semester to a year longer. How bad would it look that I took 5 years to finish undergraduate and changed from nursing to another major on my medical school application?
3. Do you personally think it would be worthy to finish my degree in nursing and then do a post-bacc program to achieve admission into medical school?
4. I have heard that where you attend undergraduate does not have a major impact on your chances of getting into medical school, as long as you have the grades. However, I notice that many of the alumni of my school end up going to Caribbean schools, which I DO NOT want to do. Is it true that medical schools do not look too hard at where you went to undergraduate? Or should I be looking at transferring to a higher tier university?

I know there are forums out there already, but I couldn't find answers to a couple of questions I had. Thank you to everyone for your help in advance!

1. I'd recommend getting premed guidance from your advisor, but considering a majority goes to the carribean from your school, I wouldn't suggest it at all. You're already volunteering at a hospital, which is great. There are lots of threads on how to start shadowing on sdn. Use the search feature for that.

I would not recommend scribing at all for you right now (maybe later in the future). You should focus on doing well academically and continuing volunteering.

2. It won't.

3. Why continue your nursing degree if that's clearly not your passion.

4. No need to transfer. Do really well at your school and take advantage of all the opportunities available. Work hard and be part of the minority that doesn't go to the Caribbean. Unless you want to take your classes on a ship

Edit: Lol looks like my friend Catalystik beat me by a few milliseconds.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Hi, SDN. I am seeking a bit of advice on my current academic situation... I am currently a sophomore "Pre-Nursing Major" at my University. As a 17-year-old deciding my major, I wanted to be a nurse because it meant less time in school and I would still be in the medical field. I really did not learn exactly what nurses did until I started volunteering at a hospital and saw first hand for myself (stupid to decide a major without knowing what exactly the duties are, sigh). II always thought I would be passionate about pursuing a career in nursing. As I get a little bit older, I am starting to think that I would rather pursue medicine. I still think nurses are phenomenal but I can't see myself being happy in the long run. It would be a constant "What-if?" situation in my mind. I definitely do not want to take someone else's spot in nursing school if I am not even sure if I want to be a nurse. In terms of school, I am a decent student. I have a 3.77 GPA (but keep in mind, this is without any med school prereqs). I am willing to work hard to get where I want to be. I feel like I lack guidance especially compared to my peers who have known exactly what they wanted to do since a young age. I have looked into the requirements of medical schools and here are my questions.

It’s better that you realized this now rather than later. You will save yourself some time.

1. Where did you all get pre-med guidance in terms of finding doctors to shadow, etc? It seems as if (almost) everybody I know who wants to pursue medicine has at least 1 family member in the medical field. I do not. Do you think it would be better to shadow or to scribe?

I got a job in healthcare and found shadowing opportunities that way. I also just asked my daughters’ pediatrician, and then later my supervising physician. You can ask your own doctor or get a job/volunteer.

As for premed advice, I got most of it here. Most premed advisors are terrible. According to the most recent matriculating student questionnaire, the majority of incoming students rated their formal advisors as not very important to their success, but rated their informal advising outlets as very important. I bet SDN is probably one of those informal outlets for a lot of students.

A lot of people recommend scribing. I’ve never done it so I can’t comment, but anything that gets you in your face experience and shadowing all in one is probably good.

2. If I changed my major from pre-nursing, I would most likely be in undergrad for at least a semester to a year longer. How bad would it look that I took 5 years to finish undergraduate and changed from nursing to another major on my medical school application?

According to the matriculating students questionnaire, around 33% of incoming med students decide to pursue medicine in their first three years of college, so it stands to reason that many of them graduate in greater than 4 years.

3. Do you personally think it would be worthy to finish my degree in nursing and then do a post-bacc program to achieve admission into medical school?

I would switch now and focus on doing well in a new major then rocking the MCAT. Don’t forget about your ECs though.

4. I have heard that where you attend undergraduate does not have a major impact on your chances of getting into medical school, as long as you have the grades. However, I notice that many of the alumni of my school end up going to Caribbean schools, which I DO NOT want to do. Is it true that medical schools do not look too hard at where you went to undergraduate? Or should I be looking at transferring to a higher tier university?

Where you attend undergrad will not keep you out of med school, but going to a top undergrad can help with the top med schools. You don’t have to go to the Carib if you work hard now and get the grades and MCAT score you need. Additionally, you major does not matter.

I know there are forums out there already, but I couldn't find answers to a couple of questions I had. Thank you to everyone for your help in advance!

Good luck!

Edit: forgot to link to the MSQ. https://www.aamc.org/download/474258/data/msq2016report.pdf

 

[hopefulfuturedmd]

Thank you for all of the responses! When should I look at beginning to shadow/scribe etc.? After I raise my GPA a bit?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Thank you for all of the responses! When should I look at beginning to shadow/scribe etc.? After I raise my GPA a bit?

Your gpa is above the mean for matriculants. Keep it up there, but you can start shadowing now. A lot of people say you shouldn’t scribe during the school year because it takes up a lot of time. You might be able to handle that though. You could feel it out and see if it’s something you can swing part time.

 

[deleted862527]

Thank you for all of the responses! When should I look at beginning to shadow/scribe etc.? After I raise my GPA a bit?

I still think nurses are phenomenal but I can't see myself being happy in the long run. It would be a constant "What-if?" situation in my mind

This proves alone Nursing is not for you. I know because this is similar to my situation. I recently withdrew from a top, highly competitive Nursing program (top ranked in the country, actually) after one month in the program. For reasons similar to yours, I left because I could not picture myself practicing the role of Nursing for my entire life. I thought having a BSN would be a perfect backup if I was to not gain admission into Med School, and even convinced myself that I could go the NP route as a replace of suffering through the 10+ years of training required to become a Physician. I tried convincing myself not to pursue medicine because I have known Physicians in the past who told me to pursue N.P. or CRNA school instead, or other health professions because Physician training is so difficult. Well, I have come to determine that there will always be negative people in every profession and that these people should not sway your ultimate career choice.

Once I withdrew from RN school, my friends thought I made a stupid mistake. "Why would you ever go the M.D. route when you'll be in all that debt? It takes so long!"

That's their opinion. Yes, there are some drawbacks; however, this is my life and life without pursuing a career in Medicine would be a life full of regret. You have to do what makes you happy and if being a Doctor is for you then go for it and don't hold back. You'll probably have doubts get along way wondering if you will be able to handle the pre-med courses, but please do not compare yourself to others.

You got this!

 

[hopefulfuturedmd]

Thank you, all!