I am a junior in a small New Jersey town. I’m an Asian girl with pretty solid grades and projected standardized testing scores who wants to study medicine (most likely to become a nurse practitioner.) A lot of other top kids at my school are going into the medical field as well. How can I distinguish myself from them? I am an officer of the HOSA club at my school, volunteer at a hospital weekly, and went on a service trip the summer before my sophomore year. I attended two medicine related camps the last summer as well.
Becoming an EMT doesn’t seem like a viable option for me because my town’s First Aid Squad is generally no longer open to accepting high school kids. Some of the best kids in my school are EMTs, which worries me!
I don’t believe you can become a Registered Nurse Assistant in the state of NJ, so that seems like it’s out too.
Would taking online medical courses help beef up my resume? My mom doesn’t think so (she’s very in the college game but is sometimes too confident in a few threads that she reads)
I am getting CPR certified soon, but I want to do more. I know it’s late to pick something up the middle of junior year, but any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
I wouldn’t worry too much about a “spike”. If your goal is a nurse practitioner, your goal is to get into a direct admit nursing program that is inexpensive for you that you can get good grades. Your current EC look fine to me. Concentrate on your grades and test scores to make sure that you can get into a direct admit program. Look at the admit profile for Rutgers https://admissions.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/media/Documents/2017-18_Admn_Profile-WB.pdf
Don’t worry about prestige for a nursing degree. It get you almost nothing. They only care about passing the RN exam and work experience. Just don’t go to a for profit nursing school.
I agree with the advice given in the above post ^^^. Having some first hand knowledge of what Nursing entails would be beneficial for your resume so I would consider volunteering in a hospital or nursing home. What will be important to get into a direct admit Nursing program is good grades especially in the sciences and solid test scores.
I am in NJ. When you said your town is no longer accepting high school kids, did you mean they do not accept HS kid as cadet or not accepting HS kids as EMT. My older DD is an EMT, started as a cadet, took the EMT while in her gap year, my younger DD is a cadet, neither is interested in the medical field, but they enjoy volunteering as part of the community.
I am assuming your town does not have cadet, right? If you still want to become a EMT, there are a few towns which accept kids from other towns as cadet. You can also volunteer as a EMT in a neighboring town. Research towns in your area.
If you were to take the course, I suggest to take it during the summer, my older DD took it during the second half of her gap year. Her friend volunteered at a neighboring town as an EMT and took the course during the fall semester.