Is this even beneficial?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>My school district has this two-year nursing program for high school students, at the completion of which you become a Licensed Practical Nurse. I'm currently a sophomore, and my parents are basically forcing me to do this next year. I don't have any interest in being a nurse, I'm leaning toward neurosurgery or developmental and behavioral pediatrics. My parents said if I do it, I'll come out of high school with a good-paying part-time job, and that it will help me with med school admissions (will med schools even care?). Additionally, this program would take up the entire summer between junior and senior year for me, a time when I could ideally get involved with something more important to me. For my parents, it's me doing the program or failure. I, on the other hand, highly doubt that something I choose (or don't choose) to do now will so heavily impact my future. Med school is so far off in the future. All I want right now is to get into a good college.</p>

<p>I just need some opinions. Is doing the program a good idea? If I did it, it would take up two whole periods in my schedule, and I wouldn't be able to take Spanish III and AP Chemistry next year, classes that I think will be infinitely more important in the long run (and classes that I'm really looking forward to taking). What do you think?</p>

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<p>The thought among several medical students on this forum is that nursing degrees (and other professional degrees) may actually hurt your application for medical school. Instead of just having to comvince adcoms that you have a good reason for wanting to be a doctor, you will have to convince adcoms that you have a good reason for no longer wanting to be a nurse and instead, wanting to be a doctor. That is not easy to do.</p>

<p>I agree with you that Spanish III and AP Chemistry are much more likely to be helpful in college than this nursing program. If you’re interested in being an MD, then this nursing thing sounds like a detour that at best, will be boring and a waste of time and at worst, could result in difficulty for you down the road.</p>

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<p>I’d just like to affirm the above (and thank Shades for a very good way of putting it). The US is facing a severe nursing shortage; pulling a qualified nurse out of the workforce is something medical schools are loath to do without good reason.</p>