Post-Bacc Pre-Med Program

Applying to College
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Hi,
My daughter is studying second year BSN nursing.
After finishing her BSN she wants to do Post-Bacc Pre-Med Program in a different college.
My question is, can she finish the required pre-med subjects in the summer in community colleges?
Post-Bacc Pre-Med Program is expensive? how many years this course is?
Can someone help me don’t his questions?

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Why get a nursing degree if she wants to become a physician?

Costs for each program should be on their website. There is typically no financial aid for these programs.

Calling @wayoutwestmom

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OP- your D can major in English (or history, or poli sci, etc.), take the pre-med requirements as an undergrad, complete her Bachelor’s in four years and then apply to med school with no need for a post-bacc.

Why a degree in nursing if she wants to be a doctor?

Med school is expensive enough without adding Post-Bacc costs to the mix!

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Some things to know:

  • Nursing coursework typically will not fulfill pre-med requirements even though the names of the courses may be the same. (e.g. microbiology) This means she will need to start over in her science and math classes if she plans on med school.

  • Med schools are reluctant to admit individuals with other health profession degrees UNLESS they have worked for a few years in their field. (Applicants from nursing will need to have a very, very good answer to “Why Medicine and not Nursing?” This is hard to do well unless they actually have a few years of on-the-job experience)

  • Career changer programs typically last 2 to 2.5 years half-to-full time and may or may not include summer sessions. This is due to the sequencing of the required chem coursework which requires 5 semesters to complete. (2 semesters gen chem is a pre-reqs for 2 semesters of ochem which a pre-req for 1 semester biochem)

  • Community colleges do not offer all the needed coursework (biochem, for example) and taking CC classes during the summers while at the same time attending a 4 year college is not a good look for pre-med hopefuls. It signals to the adcomm that they are trying to avoid hard classes at their home university. It’s MUCH better to take pre-med sciences at a 4 year university or LAC. Taking premed coursework in the summer while simultaneously taking nursing classes during the rest of the year signals to med school adcomm she is not fully committed to medicine.

If your daughter is sure she wants med school, why is she studying nursing?

She should commit fully to pre-med while she’s still in college OR she needs to finish nursing, work for a few years THEN go back to complete the pre-med coursework.

If her college has health professions advising office, she consult with an advisor there to determine what is her best course of action.

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Rereading your question–

If your daughter is planning on working full time as a nurse after graduation while taking 1-2 pre-reqs classes on the side, then taking some of her coursework at a CC will be OK. (Though not all pre-reqs are offered at a CC so she will eventually have to take classes at a 4 year college.) Adcomms understand that people need to work and support themselves.

Now if your daughter is planning on finishing her nursing degree and going straight into a career changer post-bacc-- please excuse my bluntness-- that’s just stupid AND expensive. (Plus adcomms will worry that she will bail on medicine just like she bailed on her nursing career. It will badly hurt her chance to get a med school admission.)

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Initially, she wants to become a BSN nursing now she wants to go for a doctor.
Not sure why she changing her path.

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Can she change her major and focus on the prerequisites?

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Initial she want go for DSN , now she is asking me after BSN she want try MCAT. I am not sure why …
Now a days she is shadowing a doctor’s office, after that she started asking me this new path.

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Thanks for helping my questions.

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I will request her Focus on BSN and DNP.

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How would she feel about this?

I would not ask her to focus on a career path that she doesn’t want.

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Does your daughter want to be a nurse…or a doctor? She needs to be satisfied with her choice…sorry…not you, her.

As a nurse, she will need to work for a couple of years and pursue her NP. Nurse practitioners practice in many many different medical fields. And the schooling is far less years, and therefore far less costly.

But some folks want to be doctors.

Perhaps your daughter should spend some significant time shadowing a nurse, and NP as well. Soon. Because as noted, the courses for doctor vs nurse don’t align exactly.

If she will be entering primary care…becoming a NP isn’t a bad option. But she should also know that every medical school applicant should have primary care fields on their radar.

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Your daughter sounds like she’s getting cold feet about her career choice.

That’s the thing about growing up: you have to make decisions that close some doors because you simple can’t do everything

Medicine is not nursing,

And nursing is not medicine.

She needs to pick one and pursue it.

Nursing is a very secure & employable pathway. Pre-med comes with a high risk of failure.

(Not necessarily academic failure, but a failure to get into med school despite having all the “right” grades and test score and all the “right” things on her CV. Every year more than 60% of those who apply to med school don’t get a single acceptance to any med school. 20% of students with 99th percentile MCAT scores and 4.0 GPAs–essentially perfect stats-- don’t get into med school.)

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Does she like the nursing classes? These are different than what she would take as a premed.

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She like Nursing class (got very good GPA in last 3 sems) , not sure why started asking this Med questions.

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Maybe she realized that she doesn’t want to be a nurse.

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Is there a reason why you have American University tagged?