Nursing school or biology degree?

Medicine will cost you more in tuition. And the process (school, internship, and so on) will go on for a while longer.

But your heart is in medicine. You’re young. You can always modify your decisions if they prove wrong.

Med School.

Stick with the nursing degree for the reasons you mention: it’s practical, employable, teaches relevant skills and you will enjoy the work.

Many nurses have gone to Med School. Nursing is a respectable bachelors degree. Biology does not open more doors in advanced education/professional medical careers than a nursing degree. More importantly than the degree, find a way to incorporate research into your education/career. You’ll have much more of an advantage when applying to any program if you have (1) experience working with patients and (2) research/publications.

Additionally, if – for any reason – you end up sticking with nursing, you can always find a different career path within your profession. For example, you can work in a school, law, a hospital, a clinic, a doctor’s office, day shift, evening shift, night shift, you can work internationally, you can volunteer for the red cross or in other disaster efforts, you can pick up extra work at vaccination events or in an urgent care center, you can do research or get involved in IT/programming if you want a desk job, nursing administration, sexual assault exams, etc. There are practically endless possibilities.

I’m a big proponent of doing what you really love if at all possible.
A biology degree would also open the door to all sorts of research, field work, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, zoology, etc. I think the most important question is can you see yourself in nursing with the long hours, extremely difficult emotional stress, caring for those with horrendous illness/injury?
Nursing carries a high burn out factor as well and is not for everyone.

Follow your instincts would be my advice.

My wife initially pursued a biology degree with the intent of going on to a masters in physical therapy. She started following physical therapists and decided it wasn’t for her. So she got her degree and worked a few years in front office positions at a medical specialty clinic.

She then went back and completed a nursing degree as well. She had most of the requirements met, but it took 2 years. She’s been a nurse for ~9 years now.

The difference in pay and options with the nursing degree is substantial. Her first nursing job paid almost twice her final hourly rate (after 2 years) working a front office job in which she managed several employees.

Get the nursing degree, it seems there’s very little downside. Doctors come from all sorts of undergrad degrees and areas of study, so it won’t preclude you from continuing, but gives you a good career, that will travel just about anywhere, in the mean time.

Have you looked into being a nurse practitioner? In many ways, it’s on par with a Phd in terms of responsibility and knowledge, but with a quicker path. I’m not saying you would pursue that rather than the degree you’re planning, but it’s one option that you can keep open with a BSN.

Nurses work very hard, are underpaid, and are very prone to early burn-out. But, nurses are also in great demand and highly employable.

Nursing school doesn’t negate your opportunity to become a physician. A nursing degree is an excellent background if you decide to go to medical school. Also, you’d have the option of getting an M.S. for nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, etc. Those advanced, clinical specialties pay more and are much less stressful than general nursing.

Hard decision. Very few nurses, no matter how well intentioned end up going back to medical school. I do have one friend, who in her 50’s finally became a Nurse Practitioner. If you are disciplined and think you will follow through on the Med School track then I say do it now, while you’re young and before the obligations of life begin to bog you down.

You could also think about becoming a Physician Assistant. The school isn’t as long as a physician but the pay is much better than a nurse. PA’s are very respected where I work. I know the ones in our office make $65.00 an hour. You should look into this, too.

Do you like being with patients? That would be my big question. If so, then I think go ahead and go the nursing degree and you can always continue on to be a Nurse Practitioner and specialize in what you’re most interested in. Someone above mentioned nurse anesthetist, my friend who does that work makes about $130k a year and they bring in lunch for the staff every day! I still fly out of state (to where I lived before) to see my nurse practioner for endocrinology. She was better than any doctor I saw for that. She just works three days a week.

It might be very little extra work to get a double major in biology. If you do continue in your nursing degree and decide after a year that you really don’t want to do it, you can still change your mind.

Contrary to what one jelly said above, nurses are paid pretty well in most places. The schedule has a lot of options, but the work can be grueling. It can be very physical and exhausting.

So it seems that a lot of you are suggesting going the nursing route. So two things could happen if I choose that path: I could fall in love with nursing, or I could still want to pursue medicine.

If I choose the nursing route I’d have to go back to school for a year and finish organic chemistry and biochemistry (everything else I’ve completed).

I guess my question is… After nursing school and working as a nurse for a year, will I even have the motivation to go back for medical school? That’s my biggest worry. Because I’m sure nursing school is not a walk in the park.

Or let’s say I get my nursing degree and don’t want to do nursing or medicine. Could I still apply to dental, pharmacy, PT, etc. school with a BSN?

If you want to become a doctor pursue it. It sounds like you do.

I think this is one of those questions where the best we can hope to do is give you some information or insights.

So, to that end, two things to keep in mind.

1) Acceptance rates for medical schools are low. Say 2% to 50%, depending on the school. A lot depends on undergrad GPA and MCAT scores, so you can find the rates of acceptance here and maybe see where you think you’d fit in from your current GPA and past standardized tests. If you choose to go that route, you probably want to plan accordingly for the possibility of some “down time”. My brother is in medical school right now, he applied more than once and did research work with one of the schools he applied to in the mean time.

2) Something changed your mind on nursing. Is it a feeling? Some part of the job? Did you have an opportunity to see what nurses do and didn’t like it? You don’t have to say, I would just suggest gathering at least that level of information about being a doctor as well before changing your path.

Good luck and hope you find the right fit for you.

If you don’t have the motivation to go back to school for medicine after working as a nurse for a year, then you don’t really want to be a doctor.

Can’t you add organic chem to your nursing class load?

Of course you can apply to those programs with a nursing degree. Call their admissions coordinators if you want to check.

I think you should probably seek advice from someone in an admissions department for the medical school/s you would apply to. I have no idea how an undergrad degree in nursing compares with one in biology when they look at your application.

Here’s a thing: medical schools are hard to get in to, even for students with top grades. So, what if you complete your biology degree, then can’t get into med school? Are you going to regret not being able to work as a nurse at that point, while you wait for an opportunity to reapply? Or does taking yourself into the working world, instead of to a graduate degree in a biology-related department, hurt your chances at your next round of med school applications?

Talk to an advisor who can tell you how those kinds of choices affect your chances at admission.

Maybe I’m the only one saying it but my advice is to pursue Medical school hard and get it done. If you don’t I predict you will regret it and I hate saying “I told you so.”

@Judi I’m saying it, too – I just think it’s important to think about which path will get the OP there, since it seems to be the one thing he or she ultimately wants. :)

@Judi I agree… but I think a nursing degree can get the OP to med school, and be able to provide a living in the meantime. I agree completely. Don’t settle. Follow your passion.

The odds are against him if he goes to nursing school. Most never go back to med school. It’s possible but unlikely. I wish I had the stats. I read an article about it once.

@judi – I think you’re seeing it as nursing school or medical school…

It’s get a nursing degree or get a biology degree and then apply for medical school either way.

Essentially everyone has said “go for it” on medical school.

It’s just that somethng happens to nurses with dreams of being a doctor. They rarely follow through. They get distracted or discouraged and I’ve talked to more than one nurse who was sorry they didn’t stay on the pre med track.

I thought it was nursing or biology, but when I saw later posts by the OP that she (is it she or he?) talked more about med school and I changed my answer to pursue the med school. I don’t think med school was mentioned in the original question. When I saw biology I was thinking lab work of some sort, or working in a field that needs biologists, which there are many, but not working with patients.

If someone is already inclined to be a doctor, and is ok with the years it takes, and the exhaustion, and is also ok with the financial situation of being in school that long, then I think go straight for it from the start.

Most people who become nurses either always only thought about being a nurse, not a doctor; were in undergrad and finally picked it as a major; or need a way to earn a living after a 2 or 4 year degree. Now, with nurse practitioner getting more popular I guess some people have that goal. I find that in some states that I have lived nurse practitioners are common, and in other states it’s physician assistants that are more common.

This gives an overview of the difference between NP’s and PA’s. One might interest the OP more than the other.

Thanks guys! I have til the end of January to decide which route to take. Both degrees have their pros and cons. My parents and my friend who just graduated nursing school and plans on going to med school all suggest to do the nursing route. Either way, I’ll be a practicing physician by the time I’m 30–32 (fingers crossed).

@Judi Did the nurses you know just lose motivation? Were there financial reasons? Why didn’t they continue? You’ve got a good point, and I definitely don’t want to settle for something I won’t be completely fulfilled in. But I also want to be prepared in case I don’t get in.

I think they just got pre occupied and settled in the routine.

@Judi I think many people with many different undergraduate degrees think they want to go to med school but fail to pursue it. I wonder if the proportion is higher among nurses. I know several people who wanted to go to med school but didn’t. None of them had nursing degrees. One even interviewed for med school but didn’t get accepted. She’s happily a PA now.

There are a lot of stats at the site I linked above – Association of American Medical Colleges FACTS

Including applicants and acceptance information for students by undergrad degree – here

About half of applications come from a majors other than biological sciences. There doesn’t seem to be a large difference in acceptance rates between biology majors and others, but others seem to be accepted at a slightly higher rate.

But, the raw numbers are there, everyone can draw their own conclusions.

There have also been a few articles about how some medical schools (I think Harvard is one) that are beginning to accept liberal arts degrees. They are finding that the diversity enhances the effectiveness of the doctors they produce.

Some links for @Judi‘s point

Harvard has Arts&Humanities@HMS (article)

NPR covered Mount Sinai’s HuMed program recently, which is what I thought of.

Coincidently, Harvard is pushing students to take a year (or more) off before going to medial school