So I have a friend who is very much interested in Nursing because she’s not sure about the long schooling required to become a doctor. Rice is her top choice school but I don’t believe they have a nursing school. Are there other opportunities for Rice students interested in nursing? Possibly a school partner program or something? She’s really committed to Rice and I’d really like her to join me there next fall, but she’s really looking for an alternative to medical school.
Unless your friend is someone who really wants to go to Rice and has money to blow, I feel like going to Rice for nursing is a questionable investment, since she’ll have spent years getting a degree at Rice then additional years going to a nursing program when she could have gone immediately to a nursing program. I mean, she could transfer before finishing her degree but again, she could also just directly apply to a school with a nursing program.
Has she considered physician assistant or nurse practitioner as a possible career choice? They have similar roles as a doctor, though at a lesser degree. The reqs to become one are also more lenient than a doctor (e.g., fewer required undergrad courses, less grad school). Unfortunately, a nurse practitioner also requires a nursing degree so Rice may not be the best choice there. But becoming a physician assistant is more akin to becoming a doctor in that you have to satisfy course pre-reqs, graduate with a degree in anything, then attend school after undergrad (but no residency requirement for physician assistant). So Rice could definitely be a good option, especially if she really considered becoming a doctor but was put off by the obscene time and money investment.