Switching majors, being a super junior

[sc4s2cg]

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Hello,

I am a Nursing student thinking of switching to biology, and I was just wondering how medical schools look at this?

Background info:

I started prenursing and then nursing school in 2007. My first biology and intro to chem class I got a C, so had to take an extra semester to be accepted into nursing. After that I basically got A's or B's in all my sciences (sGPA 3.5ish as of 2011). In the spring of 2009 I realized during a dinner with my family that for my goals in life I need to go one step beyond nursing, into medical school, so I went ahead and took all my medical requirements (Gen Chem, Ochem in the summer. Physics I last semester and physics two this semester).

It is now January 2011 and my nursing grades are bringing me down, way down. From a cGPA of 3.6 to 3.5 to now 3.3. My grades:

Nursing Assessment C
Nursing Interventions D
Nursing Interventions (retake) B
Nursing of Adults C (72.7, with 73 being a C)
Nursing of Gero C (78)

I took these (four) classes over the course of 1.5 years and have tried 3-4 different methods of studying, none of which really pulled through. The only reason I have that lone B is because of the test-retake phenomenon.

Because nursing brought me down so much, I am thinking that maybe I am not cut out to be a nurse? I studied with my professor (who basically gave me questions to know, I am ashamed to say. This was for Adults). I studied with friends. I studied alone. I rewrote all my notes, I relistened to lectures, I read the textbook, I got advice from Accelerated students and Traditional students.

Finally, a month ago, I met with my clinical instructor, who was accepted to NEOUCOM after high school but declined and went for nursing and is now a NP, for evaluation and found out that basically, I have to "stop thinking" so much. And this does not fly. So today I am meeting with an advisor to see my choices for premed: I need to raise my cGPA back, raise my sGPA, and get a good score on this June's MCAT.

The problem is that I'm worried:

1. I'm worried for one that (as a clinical peer, who was accepted to NEOUCOM, went through 2 years, then dropped out because of bad experience during surgery, so aptly put it) "Peter, how will you handle medical school if you can't handle nursing school?". This is my number one.
2. I'm also worried that the admission board will take this same attitude. "Oh, he's a nursing drop out. Out."
3. Because I'm a super Junior, how realistic would it be for me to finish a brand new major in Biology or Exercise Physiology in time for graduation?
4. It is scary to switch majors so dramatically from Nursing to a kind of bio. From having premed as a minor to now premed as a major. Before my thought of doing nursing and premed at the same time was that I can always have nursing as a fall-back option incase medical school did not pull through, little did I know that medical school is the fall-back option. Infact, my only option. For my goals in life, my options were either doctor or nurse. Now that nurse is out, doctor is the only way to go. It is a major life change and wakeup call.

Questions:

1. Does anyone have any advice?
2. Should I go through with change? Or should I stay nursing and try to use everything I learned last semester to get a B or A next semester?
3. If I do go through the change, what should my major be? Strictly biology, exercise physiology, or some other major I haven't learned of? I realize I can do any major I would like, but the options are so many.
4. How do med boards look at a change in major, and how do they look at super "fifth year", or even sixth year, seniors?

Yes, I am meeting with my premed advisor today and the Arts and Science advisor sometime this week, but I would like the opinions of actual premed/med students and/or advisors that happen to be cruising this board. 🙂

(In case anyone is wondering, I do have ongoing volunteer experience, am going to lead a tutoring group in Fall 2011, and have many, many clinical hour experience. These are not what I am worried about)

 

[sc4s2cg]

Bump once and last. Any advice is appreciated. 🙂

 

[Compass]

Moving to WAMC.

From a personal perspective, I would like to ask why you pick MD after choosing Nursing. This will definitely come up in an interview, since a lot of normal MD tracks will be asked why they didn't pick nursing or PhD or so on.

 

[sc4s2cg]

Thank you compass for the move.

Several reasons I chose MD even while I was in the Nursing program
(in order of occurrence):

1. I realized that overtime I started defining "helping others" as "healing others". As a Nurse I wouldn't be able to do this, and as a NP I wouldn't be able to do this outside of the US.
2. My grades were a worrying factor throughout the program. If I'm barely passing Nursing classes, how will I function as a Nurse? At the same time I noticed that I'm doing better in Psychology and the sciences.
3. I was getting very frustrated during my clinical rotations. As students we understandably couldn't do a whole lot. However, I was watching other RNs at their work, and while I realize that without Nurses patients wouldn't have the standard of care everyone deserves, I couldn't see myself fussing over IV bags, beds, diets, and double checking with the doctor every detail. If I know that a patient would benefit from this medication or this treatment, I would like to give it asap. Even as a NP I would need the doctor's permission. And this would be fine, but as I'm aspiring to practice overseas, I don't know how well an NP would work out/be respected.
4. My clinical instructor (the one I wrote about; NP now, but was accepted to med school after high school and regretted she declined it) told me that if I see myself thinking very scientifically, and she thinks I am, and I have the funds then I should definitely go MD/DO after college. Whether I should finish my RN or switch, she didn't say.

So those are my reasons. The only thing I don't know yet is whether it would be better to stick with Nursing, get my RN, and then go MD; or switch to bio/exercise phys and go MD? How well do boards look at a change in major in the (super) junior year? Will this hurt my chances?

Going from a major, even one in which I am struggling, where you are practically guaranteed a job at the end to one where you may or may not be able to get one is frightening...

 

[Catalystik]

Questions:

1. Does anyone have any advice?
2. Should I go through with change? Or should I stay nursing and try to use everything I learned last semester to get a B or A next semester?
3. If I do go through the change, what should my major be? Strictly biology, exercise physiology, or some other major I haven't learned of? I realize I can do any major I would like, but the options are so many.
4. How do med boards look at a change in major, and how do they look at super "fifth year", or even sixth year, seniors?

1. Is it possible for you to retake the Cs? The reason I ask: I expect that C grades are perfectly acceptable for nursing school, but since they are dragging down your GPA, if you retook and got As, the DO medical school application service (AACOMAS) would only include the most recent grade in calculating your application GPA. (MD med schools average retakes along with all other coursework, BTW, as there is no forgiveness policy through AMCAS.)

2. If you can retake, that would give you an extra semester to think things through and make a well-thought out decision. Nursing theory classes and basic science are very very different, and strategies to excel in each differs. It may be that your learning style is really more suited to the premed classes. You might further test the waters by returning to basic science coursework, maybe for some summer school classes, or for one class next semester, and see how that goes before making a decison.

If you retake and things go smoothly, you might even decide to complete the nursing degree, leaving the option to complete the requirements for med school application open for the future after gaining more high-quality clinical experience. Or you could decide to go the NP route. NPs in my state practice under their own license and recently even got narcotic prescribing privileges. In my workplace, NPs don't need "permission" for anything they feel comfortable with. While they may ask docs for help for some things, the docs are equally likely to ask their opinion about an area they have more expertise with.

If a retake is not allowed at your current school, look into whether they have the same class at a local community college. A retake need not be at the same school, but it must have the same or greater credit hours and demonstrably similar content per the course catalog if they don't have the same name.

3. If you change majors, it doesn't matter what your major is. Some med schools will regard the difficulty of your major, and some won't. Just choose something you enjoy as you're more likely to get great grades.

4. Adcomms won't care about a change in major. They won't care how many years of college you took to graduate. They will care about your GPA and your motivations for medicine.

 

[sc4s2cg]

Thanks Catalystik,

1-3. A retake is in no way possible. Our nursing school allows one retake, and I used that one already for the B. I wish I saw your post sooner about taking classes at a community college, this past couple days I've been rushed into choosing whether to stay or leave my major (last week of winter break).

I did decide to change my major after meeting with an Exercise Physiology advisor, she was able to transfer some of my Nursing credits over to phys so I went with that major. That, plus the opportunity to research with advisors about a topic of my choosing, was what made me choose this.

4. That is a great relief, you have no idea. Thank you! So it seems like I made the right choice: raising the GPA is more of an issue than sticking through a major.