My daughter is a junior. We have spent a significant amount of time researching and visiting nursing programs as she has always wanted to “be a nurse.” She came to me very upset the other day that “she wasn’t sure and just maybe wanted to go to med school or explore other options in the healtcare world.” Not upsetting to me at all as my thought is WHY start a specific program like nursing if you aren’t 100%??? I think it’s a great revelation. SO given that and her desire to maybe “just major in Bio/BioChem and see where it takes me…” what reccomendations do the masses have? She is an excellent student with a 1410 on first pass at SAT. We are not talking Harvard, Tufts, etc…Throughout this process it has come to light that she def likes private/Catholic, small-medium sized, and wants to stay in the Northeast or close enough. Any suggestions are welcome. Villanova, Providence, and Fairfield University are on the list 100%
Fordham, St Joseph’s and Seton Hall come to mind. All are strong in health sciences.
Quinnipiac and Marist, not Catholic and easier admits than those mentioned, but lots of health sciences and huge overlap in applicants with other schools on your list.
Maybe Stonehill or Holy Cross? Endicott?
Many students enroll in college unsure about majors or careers. She probably wants to look at colleges with a broad menu of majors.
Read this site. It talks about lots of health care professions and allied health care professions.
Your daughter is a junior in high school. She should not feel she needs to choose her career or college major right now.
As the parent of a student interested in the health field, I encourage your D to get as much volunteering/shadowing of health professionals as possible. High school through college my D shadowed NPs, PAs, CRNAs, pediatricians, orthopedists, ophthalmologists, internal medicine, etc. We particularly wanted her to understand the difference between nursing careers vs MD as that would inform her plans post-undergrad.
As a non-medical person myself, I secretly hoped she’d find one of the nursing paths more appealing as it requires less time for education and, in my mind, has a better work-life balance. But it is her life and her decision and she’s still on the MD path. But I feel better knowing she’s had exposure to various options and is making an informed decision.
Best of luck to your D. Here is a link to the many careers in healthcare that may be of interest to your D as she considers her future.
(Cross-posted with thumper 
)
Loyola Maryland might be worth a look see.
We loved Endicott! Thank you!
That is exactly what I told her…and Thank you for the link
Thank you! She has been volunteering in our local hospital 3 hours a week for over a year and is registered for the EMT program this summer…she is WAY more focused than I ever was!
UScranton and/or Siena could be nice safeties.
Springfield College is another thought.
St. Joseph’s was the first school to come to mind for me, so definitely seconding that one. They merged with the U. of the Sciences within the last couple of years, which has expanded a lot of their offerings in those fields. Seconding U. of Scranton, too, as I’ve heard lots of good things about it for people interested in the health fields. Frankly, you’ve gotten lots of great suggestions! Another school she may want to look into is Sacred Heart which would be easy to combine in a visit to Fairfield, as they are in the same town.
When my youngest was a junior in high school, she came to me a bit concerned and a bit sad because her friends knew what they wanted to do with their lives, but she had no idea. I pointed out that yes her friends did know what they wanted to major in and what careers they wanted, but in six months they will have a different idea, and then a year from now they will have a still different idea.
It is very common for a student to change their major after arriving on campus at university. At the point that I graduated university (with a degree in mathematics), I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my career (I did eventually figure it out, but it took a few years). This is common. We try a bit of this and a bit of that, and eventually we figure out it.
Becoming a doctor is a long path. It takes a lot of work over a long period of time. It also requires the ability to find a way to pay for 8 years of university.
Many students who major in biology or biochemistry end up with some form of graduate school. PhD’s are typically fully funded, but with a stipend that is barely enough to live on and some parent financial help can make the marathon a bit easier to handle. Master’s degrees, MD’s, and DO’s are typically not funded.
With an undecided daughter who is interested in biology or biochemistry I think that you should try to avoid debt for a bachelor’s degree if you can reasonably do so.
And of course there are lots of opportunities in the medical world other than getting an MD.
It sounds like your daughter is thinking about the right things, and asking the right questions. There is lots of time to figure this out.
As are we! She is applying to Fairfield but on her “maybe too close” list. 10 minutes away lol
My daughter is a nurse practitioner at a major NYC hospital. My GS is a first year nursing student. We also have a doctor/administrator in the family at a major East Coast research hospital. So, we’ve seen this from different perspectives.
I had a significant role in guiding my GS toward nursing after he suffered a major injury in high school sports. I have encouraged him to keep an open mind about his future options because nursing is not limiting but expansive with career options:
- Nurses have dozens of areas in which they can specialize.
- Nurses can pursue the management/administrator path.
- Nurses can obtain an advanced degree (PhD) and teach at the college level.
- Those who become disenamored with clinical work can move into the business sector. A friend of ours with her PhD in Nursing now makes a fortune as a pharmaceutical rep, a job for which the PhD is not required. Big companies seem to like nurses in this role because they can go into hospitals & doctors’ offices and have instant credibility. They talk the same language.
- Our daughter in the big NYC research hospital tells us that her staff must go through training on new equipment up to half a dozen times a year. The trainers from the companies are always nurses. Another alternate career path with excellent pay for which nurses are preferred by those doing the hiring.
Another college to add to your list is Providence College, who just opened a nursing program last year and just added a brand new building for the School of Nursing last month. Two of our daughters and one son-in-law went to PC and all loved their 4 years there.
Endicott, UVM, UNH, URI, Quinnipiac and Stonehill would all be safeties for her. My guess is Providence would be a great target. I wouldn’t rule out Tufts—you never know, especially if she has great rigor (lots of APs) and a high GPA. I’d throw in BC too.
Boston College sounds like it fits your wants
VERY helpful. Thank you! We have discussed most of this with her and I couyldn’t agree more! Providence is 100% on her list, nursing or not…she LOVED it. As as Fairfield and Villanova. A few came off (Sacred Heart Univ bc it is way too close but does have a solid nursing program) because they were on it for nursing only so looking for a couple to add! Thank you!
Thank you so much everyone. This is very helpful!
I have several Pre Med students that are women that work for us in my medical clinic. All but one is going into PA school. It seems to be a hot in demand profession with good pay and flexible hours depending where you are.