Everything you say is true. But the fact is, it is still ridiculously easy to get into nursing school compared to medical school, you save 5 yrs of education time and cost, and it is MUCH less stressful, far fewer hours than the MD path. Many of the people who are reaching for nursing would never, ever be able to get into med school, so for someone who is bright and high-achieving, it is a relatively easy path. The science classes are all science “lite” compared to the premed courses, and unless you want to become the dean of the nursing school at Penn, it really doesn’t matter whether you go to local state college, or flagship state U, or even community college RN to BSN at state college or U. You still can find an APRN program that will take you. Heck, they’re even advertised as cheap online certifications. And as long as you can finish it, you can practice. Honestly, the biggest stress is if you are a woman, you have to deal with extreme cattiness of other women in your training. The saying is, “Nurses eat their young.” But once you get past that floor training stage, into the APRN program, you don’t have to deal with that anymore, so it’s relatively brief.