<p>I'm replacing my lower level science & math courses needed for nursing with higher ones needed for pre med, then taking the remaining ones after I get my BSN. But I heard that there is a low percentage rate of getting into med school with a BSN. </p>
<p>I also heard that bio major students' applications are placed in another pile unlike music or english major students since so many students applying to med school have bio degrees.</p>
<p>(I just hate the uncertainty of whether or not I'll get into medical school. There isn't anything I can do with a bachelor's degree in bio unless I get a master's in it, which I'm NOT going to do).</p>
<p>Can someone who has any experience similar to my situation please help me???</p>
<p>I am doing pretty much the same thing, but trying to go straight from UPenn SON to med school. Everybody on CC loooves to put down Pre-med nurses, but I’m doing it for several reasons that would be really unfair to ‘look down’ on me for. No, it is not because I consider nursing my “back up” if I don’t get into med school, nor is it because nursing is any easier than pursuing a degree in some other area. I simply happened to fall in love with my particular nursing school which I consider to be unlike any other; and my dedication to healthcare I feel can best be put to work pursuing clinical rotations in nursing, and then hopefully going onto medical school to gain the skills I desire to take my healthcare work in a different direction. </p>
<p>I am a freshman now, and what I’m doing is taking both the med school pre-reqs and the nursing requirements simultaneously. Is it a huge pain in the butt? Of course. Most people who try this end up dropping. But with some summer courses , I will have finished the med school pre reqs by the end of junior year, and hopefully be ready to apply. In no way is this an easy route to medical school, but if you’re up to the challenge, I would definitely go ahead and try it. </p>
<p>If anything, I personally would find it much more impressive for an applicant to be successful in nursing and the pre-med requirements than your average applicant because it already proves that you’re excellent with patients. Volunteering in hospitals and shadowing doctors is great and all, but when you’re in nursing school, you have to actually work with the patients; not simply watch what a doctor does all day, or file paperwork as a volunteer might. ( This is not to say that ALL volunteering and shadowing is like this, but it is how it tends to be, especially before you have any real experience)</p>
<p>Finally, it might assure you to know that my cousin works for a prestigious medical school admissions office, and she has told me that nursing majors are not “looked down upon”, nor are they berated for majoring in something that some elitists on this website like to consider “vocational”. Yes, maybe a 2 year LPN nurse from a community college can be considered a vocation, but when you’re at a top nursing school in the country and work extremely hard, it would be quite unfair and silly on the med school’s part to deem you unworthy of a med school position just because of your major.</p>
<p>PM me if you have any other further questions, I would love to hear your input and know how you have liked nursing and pre-med so far</p>
<p>It mainly is a concern if you intend to apply directly from nursing to MD school. However, it is only a concern, not an absolute contraindication. If you can justify your reasons well, then it is possible to sway the school to your side. Their primary concerns tend to be that you are taking away a spot from a nursing student who could help fill the nursing shortage and that you may not be committed to a career in medicine (as evidence by the perception of you “changing your mind” about nursing even if in reality you had always known that you were going to be applying to medical school).</p>
<p>As an aside, health science majors (including nursing) have a lower acceptance rate (or at least lower MCATs I can’t remember what it says on the AAMC) than other majors. That doesn’t necessary mean that this is due to the major itself.</p>
<p>I would also comment that being a nursing student doesn’t mean that you are good with patients. I’ve seen plenty of nurses and nursing students (as well as doctors and medical students) with less than par bedside manner. Nursing students also do a fair chunk of shadowing as they learn the ropes. Going to a bit of nursing school before the wards doesn’t make you instantly qualified to perform nursing duties any more than going to medical school doesn’t instantly prepare you to start operating in your clinical year.</p>
<p>I really don’t know why people would discourage or think down on someone who goes the BSN route. Bottom line is you are going to need to major in something, so why not get your undergrad degree in something that will give you a leg up in Med school if that’s your ultimate goal. </p>
<p>The reasons I say a Bsn will give you a “leg up” are simple; no other undergraduate major will give you extensive, up-close and personal exposure to the healthcare environment as well as a jump start on patient interaction, learning disease processes and medications/management, ect.?</p>
<p>I mean if you are INTO biology or Chemistry and think it gives you a better chance of getting in to Med school then by all means go that route, but rest assured when it comes down to it pre-med BSNs will wipe the floor in the clinical settings with those lab rats…</p>
<p>P.S. getting a diploma in nursing or an lpn from a community college or whatever is just as valuable as getting a BSN at a “Name Brand” school. Don’t let these people fool you into thinking otherwise because the bottom line is the only difference there will be between those two nurses is the amount of Daddy’s money spent or the student loan amounts taken out which will be significantly lower at my no name school.</p>
<p>And the biggest joke of all is when both of us go for a job recruiters who know anything about nursing would probably pick me for the position because my community college education focused more on patient care than my counterparts name brand theory courses… Its also no secret (at least where I’m from) that straight BSNs got way more theory (not discounting theory, just saying) than hands on experience when compared to straight RN to BSN students. </p>
<p>Anyhoo, sorry for the ranting. Bottom line a nurse is a nurse no matter how they become a nurse and it is an honor to be in the number (but know that good and bad nurses come from all types of programs highly ranked or not). Nursing is quite different from being a MD or DO but it is just as or more so important in the grand scheme of medicine land… And If becoming a Dr. is your passion GO FOR IT!!! Just know being nurse will be more of an asset in that endeavor than not being a nurse…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Being a nurse will not give you a leg up in med school. The nature of the clinical experiences of a nurse vs. a doctor is very different.</p></li>
<li><p>Hospitals in my area pretty much only hire BSN’s. ADN’s from community college and LPN’s generally have to work in nursing homes.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>socalledelitist, you wrote, “Nursing is quite different from being a MD or DO”</p>
<p>Does that not contradict everything you said prior to it about how nursing gives you such a leg-up? How does it provide such an advantage if they’re so different.</p>
<p>As a current 2nd year MD/PhD (talk about being a lab rat), I really don’t see how nursing would provide that much of an advantage in patient interaction. In the few evaluations we’ve had regarding our interactions with patients (both real and standardized) I’ve received a lot of praise. This is not meant to be boastful, as my point is anyone can learn to have good bed side manner. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed a few years ago that people would now consider my communication skills as excellent and superior to my peers, but I didn’t need clinical exposure as I think that any skills I’ve picked up came from my involvement in Greek life more than anything else. I imagine that basically any activity where you have to interact with people about remotely meaningful topics on a regular basis will provide you with enough experience.</p>
<p>The hospitals I’ve been in have only featured RNs and BSNs, never even heard of the other degrees before this conversation.</p>
<p>People who are applying to medical school often don’t understand is that academic medicine - the environment in which medical school education takes place - prides itself on being, well, academic. Bachelor’s degrees like English, art history, biology, or computer science are also perceived as being academic and therefore a worthwhile pursuit prior to beginning formal medical education. Undergraduate degrees in areas that are not perceived as being academic include nursing. A nursing degree is viewed as vocational training, designed to provide you with just the facts and skills you need to execute doctors’ orders and care for patients, with no significant time spent on the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. </p>
<p>As for nursing degrees, an RN is someone who’s passed the NCLEX-RN exam. They can have any sort of degree ranging from an associate in science of nursing to a bachelor’s of science in nursing (BSN) up to a doctor of nursing practice. An LPN degree allows a person to take care of patients under the supervision of RNs or physicians. You’ll encounter all sorts of different degrees on the wards.</p>
<p>Check out the admission rates of ‘Allied Health Professionals’ under amcas. And then compare them with the liberal arts majors.</p>
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<p>Penn’s Nursing program also requires its undergrads to major in a liberal arts. Penn is more valuable.</p>
<p>OP, unfortunately, there is not much that you can do with a Masters in bio, either. But that is true for most liberal arts degrees (outside of econ).</p>
<p>I know my school doesn’t care if you have a pharmD, nursing, or bs in clinical sciences/health sciences. We have 2 nurses and 2 clinical sciences in my class alone. I know other classes above me have a mixture too. I will say the majority of those in the class have the traditional biology, psychology, etc degrees.</p>
<p>I would point out that 2 nurses, unless you go to a small class size medical school, is a fairly low number. What is the basis for knowing that your school doesn’t take a more cautious approach to such degrees?</p>
<p>Ultimately, however, it doesn’t matter. No one is saying it is impossible to get into medical school as a bsn, merely that there is some bias against rapid transitions between the field. Im sure the amount varies from adcom to adcom, but it does exist in at least some.</p>
<p>To toss another anecdote into the mix, out of the 104 kids in my MD class and the 104 above us, 0 are RNs or BSNs. My school also has a sizable nursing school and a pretty well respected program (at least around here), so I’m sure there is no shortage of nursing applicants. Out of my few friends (<5?) who decided to apply to med school straight out of a BSN program, precisely 0 were accepted to any school. (No idea what their scores or GPAs were, but their soft factors were at least decent.)</p>