@rmedicald
It all depends on what your goals are. This is a very personal decision. What’s right for one person might not be right for you.
Medicine is the longer and more difficult pathway. It may also be the more expensive pathway, but physicians are very well compensated and are usually able today off their student debt fairly quickly–that is within 5-10 years of finishing residency. (Assuming they don’t make stupid financial decisions along the way like taking out huge loans for undergrad.)
Going to college as a pre-med has definite risks. More than 55% of those who apply to med school don’t get a single acceptance. However, once you’re accepted, then there’s 97% chance you’ll graduate, match into a residency and become a physician specialist.
Both my daughters (who are physicians) speak highly of the NPs they work with. NPs have a place on the treatment team, but if you are a person who needs to be in charge, then you’ll probably be frustrated as a NP since they aren’t the boss. If you are interested in managing complicated illnesses, managing high risk pregnancies, working with premature infants, or being involved in surgical fields, this is beyond the scope of a NP’s training. Only physicians can do those things. NPs mostly do routine primary care in out-patient setting.
NPs often have shorter work weeks and better work hours than physicians. However, a physician’s hours, workload and ability to find a work-life balance varies widely by medical specialty. Some specialties are much more family-friendly than others.
I would suggest that you try to do some volunteer work in a hospital or other medical practice site so you can see that day-to-day difference between nursing and medicine. Each operates from a different philosophical approach to the patient.
One other option is to defer choosing one or the other right now. Unless you plan on applying to direct entry nursing programs, you won’t be able to apply to the nursing program until near the end of your college sophomore year. During your first 2 years of college, the coursework for pre-med and pre-nursing is pretty much the same (biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, math, psychology, English…) This will give you more time to explore both options and become a bit more certain about your priorities and life goals.
BTW, it’s a myth that nurses can’t go to med school. They certainly can and do every year. The only thing is that medical school adcomms will expect you to have worked for at least a couple of years as a nurse before you apply to med school so you have the personal experiences to back up your reason for leaving nursing to pursue medicine.