Hi, I'm in a little bit of a rut. I would like to go into nursing and get my LPN. But I went and talked to a counselor if I should do this or not. She recommended with my grades (not being great) that I should try and get into medical assisting instead and come back to nursing later on. Are grades REALLY that important in nursing? I mean I know for a fact I could never make straight A's, maybe B's. My GPA is a 3.0 right now. But I'm just wondering if I have all my pre-reqs done, apply to nursing school at several different schools, that one of them would let me in. But if I go into medical assisting instead, money isn't that great and it'll be easier to get through. What do you think I should do? Is medical assisting the alternative for people with not so great grades? Thanks.

I think you should stay the course and go to nursing school. MA's do get paid less, have less responsibility and less education as well as less opportunities. I would also skip the LPN and go straight for the RN - it will give you the most flexibility, best earnings potential and most advancement potential. Good luck.

As TraumaRUs suggested, go for RN first. Do not settle for MA until you have exhausted every avenue open for getting into nrsg school. Is it possible you could repeat some of your courses w/lower grades and improve your GPA? Worth looking into.

Thank you for the responses. After the research I was doing yesterday and talking to a few people, I think I am going to stick with my goal to get into nursing school. It just seems that I should atleast try. If I don't get in though, I'm going to have to settle for MA. Retaking some classes to get my GPA up could be an option.