Keep in mind that if you decide to apply to medical schools in the United States at some point, you will have a huge uphill climb taking classes in another country in college.
@WayOutWestMom can explain.
Also, being a nurse will not likely increase your chances of getting accepted to medical schools here.
Hi! I’d just like to make a little money on the side as a nurse, rather than accumulating debt. It doesn’t have so much to do with being accepted into medical school. Thank you so much for your feedback. This is my first time on College Confidential and I’m so happy the community is so nice.
I think you are doing the right thing by looking at your options before you are knee deep into something that might not work.
In this country, it is really not possible to work while you are attending medical school…except doing things like tutoring or the like. But I don’t know what’s what in Korea. So research that too.
Medical school in Korea follows the model of most countries. It is a 6 year long program that allows direct entry from high school. Korea does not offer a graduate entry (after the completion of a baccalaureate degree) option for medicine.
If you are planning on attending medical school in Korea, you probably need to contact several of the ~40 medical schools in South Korea to see if any will accept US high school credits/US high school diploma and whether having US college credits will hurt your chances in admission.
Since each medical school will have slightly different entry requirement, you will need to check with every school you plan to apply to.
Admission to medical school is extremely competitive so I wouldn’t assume that you will easily gain and acceptance.
Here are some of the most common requirements:
Medical school admission is extremely competitive in Korea. Do not assume you will be able to gain an admission.
P.S. Your US associates degree in nursing likely will not be recognized by the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute or KHPLEI. Korea requires nurses to hold a baccalaureate degree to be licensed in the country. There are only a limited number of universities in Korea that the government recognizes as offering a valid nursing program. You will need to check the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s (MOHW) website for the list.
Korea has an oversupply of nurses and only about 41% of nursing grads are employed as nurses.
From your information, it actually sounds like there is no pathway for a nurse to become a medical doctor in Korea since nurses require a baccalaureate degree but medical schools won’t accept students with baccalaureate degrees. Am I understanding that correctly?
Likely yes, that is the case.
Unless a nurse graduates from a foreign medical school and goes thru the qualification process for foreign doctors. (academic and clinical proficiency exams, residency training in Korean hospitals, etc.)
There used to be a graduate entry option for med school Korea (Master of Medicine) but these programs were extremely unpopular in addition to being more expensive than the direct entry programs and were discontinued rather recently. (In 2019 or 2020, I think)
ETA: There are still 2 graduate entry medical programs in Korea. The rest have been discontinued.
@WayOutWestMom is CollegeConfidential’s med school admissions specialist 
To recap…
CC nursing classes do not prepare you for med school (Also, health professions try not to “poach” from one another !)
US med schools do not like it if many science courses were taken in CCs and generally expect more advanced courses from a 4-year college
a US Nursing Associate will not be recognized in Korea
Note:
-the US has some direct entry to Nursing programs. They’re extremely competitive. The path is HS->Nursing school&BSN (4 years). There are other paths, including RN-> BSN. Many states now require a BSN.
You can then specialize or become a NP.
-The US also has Physician Assistants: 4 years of college with MANY hours of clinical practice + 2 years of professional school.
*= 4 years each in English/Humanities and Social Science/History, including AP/DE; math through precalculus or calculus; the highest level you can reach in a world language- for you I assume it would be Korean; biology, chemistry, physics, and preferably AP or DE versions of bio and/or chem; subjects you like, art, music, robotics…
For nursing, replace calculus with AP/DE stats and Physics with Anatomy&Physiology
You can work as a nurse as a part time job while in college, I suppose. You could also work as a CNA or EMT.
There will likely be many different ages in your cc class. Be reassured: to a 40 yo, 15 and 18 look more or less the same (young). 
And 18 year olds will simply assume you look young for your (their) age.
What online college classes have you already taken?
What is a COMMS class? Speech and communication ? 
Good luck -I’m sure it’s intimidating but surely you chose it because you were interested and felt ready? 
What you need is high school and a chance to be with kids your age. This is a key component to building emotional and social maturity. That’s something you can’t accelerate either.
That is just uncalled for. You sound really out of touch and this is not at all supportive or helpful for this poster. My kids went to somewhat traditional high school but they have many friends in the homeschooling community. By and large those kids are very mature because they haven’t been emotionally stunted by traditional high schools. Sure there are some kids who are less mature but I’m not getting that from this poster at all.
The home school kids we know had a lot of opportunities to get involved in their communities and interact with people of all ages whereas the traditional high school kids had much more limited time for interaction with non teenagers.
Hi Staymoa.
I wanted to take the opportunity to respond as a mom whose daughter also started DE at a community college at a young age. My daughter started college coursework at 14, and she was apprehensive about in person classes at first too. I think I can put your mind at ease, it was actually a great experience for my daughter. Community College students tend to be pretty easy going and don’t care about socializing, so she really blended in pretty effortlessly. The professors were very supportive, as were most of the students.
There are a couple of things you need to be mindful of:
DO NOT take courses in an attempt to seek an Associates Degree if you want to go on to graduate studies (med school). Just call yourself ‘non-degree seeking’ Dual Enrollment- then you can transfer the classes wherever you decide to go for your 4 year degree and still be considered a first year student. This is important because there is a lot more funding and scholarship $$ for first years. If you are really interested in med school, focus on Bio and Chem classes, but as someone else already posted - be careful to maintain a good grades as they will appear on your permanent transcript. My daughter’s first class at CC, btw, was Gen Chem 1. She LOVED it.
Don’t worry about graduate schools supposedly looking down on Community College classes. NOT TRUE. Once you move on from Community College to a 4 year school, all your upper level classes will be from that school and that’s all they care about. In fact, often community colleges offer stronger core coursework because they are taught by actual professors, not TAs. But that’s a whole other discussion.
My daughter ended up being very successful in her academic career and starting classes at CC worked out very well for her. It was a great experience.
Oh, and she collects plushies too. Good luck!
Are you a US citizen or permanent resident? Are you a S. Korean citizen?
I’m assuming that you’re living in the US right now, a US permanent resident or citizen, and that you have dual citizenship in S Korea, through your parents.
I’m under the impression that medical school in S. Korea would not be possible for you. The college admissions process there is hypercompetitive, and if you have not gone through their schooling system, I really doubt that you could get into medical school there, which is a 6 yr program right out of high school.
I don’t know why you chose to homeschool, but if you are feeling socially unsure of yourself, in-person schooling of any sort, including community college, is better than nothing. Best would be for you to attend a good, in-person high school, establish a good high school academic record and have age-appropriate peer friends from school, but if this is not an option, then definitely as many classes at the community college as is possible. Try to also get involved in any youth activities that you can - church youth group, 4H, any sorts of clubs and activities for high school students.
For a home schooler, I kind of like the idea of a nursing path to medical school in the US, eventually, because you could get your RN to BSN very young, then work to gain clinical experience, take the pre-reqs for med school at your local 4 yr public college while doing some nursing shift work, take the MCAT, and apply. You could also easily move to work in nursing in a state with lots of in-state medical schools with cheaper tuition, like Texas, and apply as an in-state resident there. Honestly, you could be starting med school at about the same age as others, but with a big head start on clinical knowledge and experience. And if at any point you find that the med school path is too challenging, you could become a nurse practitioner.
I hope that your community college class is going well. If it does, perhaps you’d like to simply do dual enrollment with full time community college starting in the summer semester, and just work on your “gen eds” to get them out of the way, as dual high school/college credits. You could be starting a nursing program even by age 16, at the community college, and then transfer to a 4 yr college’s BSN after a year or two. If you feel up to it, you can even take med school pre-reqs at the 4 yr college while doing your BSN, if you can fit some of them in.
I wouldn’t recommend this path to students who have the option of an in-school high school experience, because it cuts out crucial social development, but since that is apparently not an option for you, I feel that your best option is to maximize in-person classes at the community college, as soon as possible.
My daughter skipped the high school experience all together and never had a single regret. She is happier, healthier, more successful, and more well adjusted than the vast majority of her peers.
My two other kids chose the more traditional route. They are also very successful.
The point is, everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for another. The dual enrollment homeschool model is a great option for a lot of high ability kids. High school ‘socialization’ is often vastly overrated and damaging for some kids.
No question that for kids who are being bullied, or who are being enticed/pressured into criminal activities that can adversely affect them for years to come, can be better off with the straight to community college route.
But this young person is lonely, socially isolated, anxious about in-person school, in any setting. Seems that a trial of school in a peer setting might be appropriate.
LOL. My kid was neither bullied nor involved in criminal activities. She was just way beyond the public school system and her peers intellectually. Anxiety and apprehension about entering the unknown is a perfectly normal reaction for all people - especially teens.
My daughter was anxious too… but that’s NORMAL.
I think it’s a good idea for this student to attend community college, in person. If they plan to apply to and attend medical school, and someday be a doctor, they will need to be comfortable about communicating with others easily. While they do some of this, it seems doing more would benefit them in the long run.