Registered Nurse to MD

[aspiring_medstudent]

Hey everyone! I wanted to reach out to you all about applying to MD programs. I took the nontraditional route and went to nursing school. I am currently working as a registered nurse and I am looking to apply to medical doctor programs. I know you may be wondering why I don’t become a nurse practitioner instead. However, I have developed a strong interest in medicine and have decided that it is the route I would like to go.

I am not sure if I should go back and get a bachelors degree in biology or just take the medical school prerequisite courses. Would this be enough to establish a strong knowledge base in medical school and prepare me for the MCAT? I feel as though I would need a bachelors degree in biology in order to do well on the MCAT and in medical school. However, I have heard from some that it is not necessary. I do not know how to go about navigating this situation.

I appreciate your advice.

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[Bavestry]

I think it's really cool that you've decided to do this. You don't need to do a whole degree in biology or another STEM field to do well on the MCAT or prepare for medical school--the pre-requisite classes will be enough in my opinion. I graduated with a degree in music and just took the pre-requisite courses - some of my friends who completed degrees in biology did worse on the MCAT than I did. I don't think completing the degree would be worth it in your case to be honest.

 

[Lawpy]

I feel as though I would need a bachelors degree in biology in order to do well on the MCAT and in medical school.

The people who destroy the MCAT are those who majored in anything but biology/health sciences. The MCAT stresses on reasoning and analysis skills that typical biology curricula do very very poorly on due to their inherent emphasis on rote memorization. Humanities, math/physics/CS/engineering, philosophy etc are the majors that’ll really sharpen critical thinking skills that will be of massive help both on MCAT and long term

That said, you don’t need to go back to college. Focus on completing all the prerequisites and then studying for the MCAT using the many strategies found in the MCAT forums. If there is one thing you can do to sharpen reasoning and critical thinking skills early, i’d suggest reading novels or nonfiction or well written compelling essays and really spending the time digesting and analyzing texts. That will pay off huge down the line

 

[Durse]

Hi I am currently a nurse and will be starting med school this summer, feel free to ask any specific questions you have