Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

Nursing as a second degree??


Linds

Recommended Posts

This is a very theoretical question, but am wondering if anyone has had experience with this.

 

I have completed my BSc and MSc. My first year science grades weren’t great, so I am taking them again part time now. However, as a plan B, I plan to apply to the condensed nursing program at U of O which would start in May 2020. I would only be applying to McGill in the fall of 2020 after my prerequisites are all redone.

 

Would it 1) look bad on my application that I would have started a whole new degree, and in nursing at that? 

2) would I have to complete my nursing degree first before entering med school?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you taking Nursing as a means to bump up your GPA ?   What is your current undergrad GPA  ? 

Why are you retaking the science courses - explain.   Is it to hit a prerequisite grade requirement for some school ?  

 1) It does not look bad and nursing is not a concern for admissions. Nursing is not a common degree for entry to Med as it can be hard to get high grades and can have alot of pass/fail courses which can be a problem for some schools or atleast impact weighted wGPA. 

2) It depends on the school - each has different requirements related to completing.  In most cases if you are accepted to Med you can bail on the nursing.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for your reply! 

I’m retaking my first year sciences because I did poorly in them and McGill weighs those grades heavily on the evaluation. The rest of my undergrad grades are competitive.

 

i would be doing nursing as a backup plan because I would really like to start doing some clinical soon and I recognize that it might take me a few cycles before I can get into med school if I ever do haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do believe Nursing is an excellent back-up career and it can give you clinical knowledge that can make you a better student and future doctor. My only concern is the fact that it is, from my understanding, very hard to complete the degree in a shorter period of time because of the fact that there are clinical placements involved. In my case, I did pursue a second undergraduate, in Kinesiology and I was able to do it in 2 years. Maybe look into it!

Best of luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/28/2019 at 7:17 AM, HoopDreams said:

I do believe Nursing is an excellent back-up career and it can give you clinical knowledge that can make you a better student and future doctor. My only concern is the fact that it is, from my understanding, very hard to complete the degree in a shorter period of time because of the fact that there are clinical placements involved. In my case, I did pursue a second undergraduate, in Kinesiology and I was able to do it in 2 years. Maybe look into it!

Best of luck.

-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do agree with others that getting high grades while keeping a full course load would be harder in nursing (if you wanna apply after 2020 with your nursing degree I mean). But I just want to point something out, make sure McGill replaces your new grades for the courses you're retaking right now on your degree GPA as well. Because I'm pretty sure, even though the science pre-req grades will be replaced certainly, in order to improve your degree GPA for McGill admissions you'll need to repeat the corresponding courses while still studying for the same degree, aka before graduation, OR do an entire 2nd degree and have the grades from the 2 years of that considered for admission purposes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/28/2019 at 9:17 AM, HoopDreams said:

I do believe Nursing is an excellent back-up career and it can give you clinical knowledge that can make you a better student and future doctor. My only concern is the fact that it is, from my understanding, very hard to complete the degree in a shorter period of time because of the fact that there are clinical placements involved. In my case, I did pursue a second undergraduate, in Kinesiology and I was able to do it in 2 years. Maybe look into it!

Best of luck.

Did you do your first undergrad in bio by any chance? and did you get a BSc kin or BA kin? do schools let you get a BSc twice?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...