Hi there, so I have already committed to the University of Central Florida (Go Knights!) starting Summer term for this year, so basically I move in 8 weeks. I am so torn though, in regards to what I want to study. I have always had a passion for helping people with autism. I grew up around it, and throughout middle school and high school, I did student teaching in Special Ed classrooms. As for teaching, I’ve thought about the idea but I am not sure if I want to spend my whole life working in a school. I feel I’d be more suited for something like Occupational Therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis, etc. I don’t really know the majors or paths for those things though, I am a forst generation college student trying to figure this out. On the other hand, there’s nursing, which is the major I currently have selected. I love to help people, and considering I spent 3/4 of my high school years in a children’s hospital, I really feel connected to nursing and grateful for nurses. I’m usually not a science person but I love learning about different illnesses, ailments, and disorders, and I love to help people. I am also drawn to the 3 day week/12 hour shift schedule that many nurses have. I want to be a mom and for me this schedule sounds ideal since I wilk get full days off with my future children. Here’s the catch though, at UCF, after your first 2 years of classes you have to apply to the nursing program. It is competitive, and I am petrified that I will not get in. I would really like to have my complete college experience be at UCF, so the fear of not making it scares the hell out of me. I really don’t know what to do. I want to be a nurse but I am doubting if I am smart enough. Help!
Congrats on committing to UCF! Great school!
You can get full days off with your children as either a teacher or a nurse. Teachers get the entire summer off and their schedules often mirror their kids’ schedules. You can also modify your schedule later to accommodate your family life; I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Lots of women in lots of fields successfully juggle motherhood and a career.
(Also, not all nurses do the 3 days/12 hours shifts. That’s hospital nurses, but not all nurses work in hospitals. My mother was a hospital nurse and worked that schedule, but now she is a school nurse and she works an 8-3 schedule 10 months out of the year. Some nurses work in clinics and have regular 9-5, 5-day a week schedules. And especially if you move into nursing leadership or education, you may have a more regular day shift schedule.)
You never know what you can do until you try. Not getting into the nursing program doesn’t mean you have to transfer away from UCF; it just means that you’d select a different major and pursue something else, at least temporarily. These days there are lots of ways to go into nursing - there are accelerated BSN programs you can do after finishing college, and there are entry-to-practice master’s programs you can get in three years after college too. Try it out, and shadow a nurse to see if you like it.
There are lots of things in the health field that you can do to help children, and/or work with people with autism. For occupational therapy, you could major in anything you want - you just have to take specific prerequisites. The pre-health advising program at UCF can help you figure out what those are. You can also see them on the websites for graduate programs in occupational therapy. It’s common for pre-OT students to major in things like sport and exercise science, kinesiology, health sciences, or biomedical sciences, but you can major in anything as long as you satisfy the prerequisites.
One thing that may knit together several of your interests is school psychology. School psychologists work with children in the school district to help them overcome obstacles to the learning process; they are the ones who evaluate students for learning disabilities and disorders, and get them connected to special education and mental health services. School psychologists do counseling and treatment for children with disabilities as well. To become a school psychologist, you’d major in psychology (or something closely related, but psychology is the best choice) in college, then get a specialist-level master’s, specialist’s, or doctoral degree in school psychology.
Find out more here: https://www.nasponline.org/about-school-psychology/who-are-school-psychologists.
Applied behavior analysis is a psychological counseling/treatment technique. If you want to do that, you’d want to become a mental health counselor, a clinical social worker, or a psychologist.
There are also school nurses!