OP, if you are thinking that nursing school will provide you with a path into med school or PA school, I urge you to call and speak with the pre-med advisor at SDSU, not a nursing school advisor, and also the admissions office at UC San Diego medical school, and find out the truth from them. Just because a nursing class is named chemistry doesn’t mean it will be accepted by a med or PA school. I don’t believe that med schools would accept nursing school basic science classes as fulfilling the prereqs for med or PA school admission, but better to find out from the med schools, than to make a mistake based upon internet busybodies.
I still think that if you have the caring personality suitable for nursing school, that it is a much easier route, shorter, cheaper, with many different employment paths afterwards, including paths that allow you to practice medicine without MD supervision. Basically, if you’re wavering between the two, that says to me that you should do nursing. Most people who want med school have no interest in doing the intimate, day long bedside care that nurses are involved in - they want to diagnose and prescribe the treatment, or do surgery, or do procedures. They want to be making the decisions that may be implemented by others.
This is not a feasible plan. Why would you take the sciences at the nursing level, and simultaneously take them at the pre-med level? Plus nursing school has clinical practicals, which I don’t think would leave you time to fit in the 10 semesters of basic science class plus lab that are required. On the other hand, I do think that someone who has a BSN in nursing and work experience as a nurse, who then does a post-bac/premed program, does well in it, and gets a high MCAT score, would be an attractive candidate for med schools, because of their proven interest in medicine.
This is a question they will be asked at their interview. They will be asked why they are switching from nursing to doctor. And this has nothing to do with their grades or MCAT score.
Adcomms want to know why a practicing medical professional is willing to leave their career. They want to be sure that they are running toward medicine and not just running away from nursing. Without a good answer to “why medicine and not nursing?” adcomms are reluctant to poach practitioners from other healthcare professions. Right now nurses are in desperately short supply.
What I’m trying to say, without using a sledgehammer, is that if the person who had been in nursing is able to achieve the extremely high grades in the very challenging premed prereqs, and a high MCAT score, the reason that the person wants to move out of med school and into nursing will be obvious to those making the decision.
But to state it bluntly, the person would likely explain in a delicate, polite, and careful manner that they are interested in the diagnostic challenge involved in being a medical doctor, the possibility of becoming a surgeon, or performing complex medical procedures, of leading the team caring for the patient, etc, etc, etc. The achievement that makes admission to medical school a possibility states in and of itself that the person has the intellectual capacity to become an MD, wanted the challenges, satisfaction, and rewards that come along with that path, and so switched.
I REALLY don’t think that med school adcomms consider that any nurse, or EMT, or RT, or any of the ancillary med personnel who can demonstrate the high academic achievement necessary for admission to med school, should be kept out because medicine would be “poaching” from ancillary professions. “We would have taken you. Obviously, with your 4.0 science GPA and 99th % MCAT, you have the ability to succeed in medical school. But we really feel that since you’re already in nursing, you should just stay there…”
There was a very bright girl in my neighborhood who would have made a fine doctor, but she was passionate about going into nursing. She got the highest level degree in oncology nursing available at that point. She quickly rose to the highest master’s level nursing position in the children’s oncology unit. And when I saw her a decade later at an oncology meeting… she was an oncologist. When I asked her why she’d switched, she laughed at me for even asking, saying that there had been insufficient intellectual challenge in nursing, and that she’d been a fool not to have listened to all who were telling her that she was making a big mistake, choosing nursing over medicine.
The OP was able to get admitted to UCB. The only reason that she should choose nursing over UCB and premed is if she is passionately committed to the nursing profession (in which case she would have only been applying to nursing schools), or if she is afraid that she would fail in the premed track (a reasonable fear, but if she was bright enough to be admitted to UCB, she likely has the ability to get through the premed track and get into medical school).
That’s why it seems to me that her real issue is choosing her profession, rather than choosing the school. Because the tracks are so divergent, switching would likely take at least 2 summers and a school year (15 months) in order to either do a BA/BS to BSN program, or do a post-bac pre-med program. But it’s really not the end of the world if one makes that decision to switch in the future. It is possible.
Some highly intelligent students do choose nursing over med school, after spending undergrad as premed and doing exceptionally well. Some want more balance and do not necessary have to be at the top. They often apply to accelerated programs. They also become PAs, PTs, etc.
There are nursing programs out there that are intellectually challenging, filled with research etc. (DNP, phd). I am not diminishing the BSN/MSN…they are plenty challenging. Its a very different role …one that is important…but just like becoming a physician, you need to understand what the role entails and if that is what you want to do. I am also not suggesting that NPs have the same education as MDs.
Medical school is a more grueling path than nursing school, even if one pursues a nurse practitioner degree and chooses to go for the doctorate. Medical school is grueling. This doesn’t mean the NP path is easy…but it is the less intense path to take. Some want that, others don’t.
There is not a lot of overlap between premed (biology, etc) and nursing at the undergrad level…or accelerated. Different sciences, labs etc.
I think if somebody is a nurse and wants to return to medical school, they need to come up with a better “story” than suggesting (even subtly) that it’s not intellectually challenging. That’s not a good look for anybody.