I’m just trying to do the best I can with the guidance I have received so far.
I used pre-health to quote a previous commenter. I still love nursing. I have the personality to be able to do the work, the love and passion to be able to care for the patients as well. Therefore I would love to work in a hospital even if not necessarily treating patients face to face.
You don’t need the books. I lugged around some text books and reference books for many years and rarely looked at them again - and that was before the internet. You can find anything you need online or in a library. Save the money and rent or resell your books. Keeping books is a luxury you can’t afford.
And once you move a few times, you’ll be ready to get rid of the books and by then they’ll be worthless.
Try to get into a nursing program now. Since you have good grades you should have a good shot. This should allow you to find a well paid job right out of college (biology currently has record high numbers of unemployment or underemployment since half the premeds can’t get into med school and flood the job market, plus to have a good job you need a master’s degree. Note however that the best way is to get into a PhD, since this are usually free if they want you.any PhD with doing is funded ).
I was going to suggest Biostatistics or bioinformatics
Are there any 4 year public schools within commuting distance where you can be accepted into the nursing program?
The challenge right now is that your full tuition scholarship is a last payer and kicks in after you use all of your federal/state aid (not unusual for a public school). This still leaves you with fees and books. Your federal and state aid will be the same regardless of school. it might be worth it if you can get into a nursing program as a transfer and have to use your $7500 loan to pay for it.
Having a scholarship without an admission to nursing does not help your cause because a terminal bachelors in bio/chem/environmental science is not going to make you marketable after graduation. Even if your goal is getting a job in a lab, you will not have the experience as grad students who are vying for the same jobs.
Would hospital administration work for you as a career?
I have a biology degree. My options to be employable were to get a masters or go back to CC for a 2-year degree in something useful. Just saying.
Consider Medical Laboratory Science.
Four yr degree gets you a very marketable degree in the health field. Not direct patient care but challenging and rewarding.
Our large hospital system in NJ has difficulty recruiting enough qualified MLS candidates for our openings.
Hospital administration could become a very downhill place since there is a lot of politics, and I know that power, position and connections come in hand more than education. Therefore, doctors even if retiring are getting the best deals in those settings.
Medical laboratory is offer at my current school as well, and it sounds like I could finish it before the 2 years too, but now I will try to persue nursing school, it happens to be sooooo much closer to me than the one I’m currently in as well.
Thank you so much everyone. I will take your advise to heart and although I love biology, what I need at the end is a stable and profitable carrier, and if I also happen to enjoy is a deal breaker for me. As I was talking to someone they told me that basically I’m going back to where I started, wanting to go to nursing school.
I was advised to go for CRNA, which overall sounds really good, I would love it as a carrier.
I will change my major to biology-medical laboratory science while waiting on nursing school. And I’ll keep on going from there.
Again thank you every one so sooo much for all your help and eye opening information.
FYI - hospital or healthcare administration also requires a master’s degree