Please excuse my ignorance, but I intend to be honest as I wish for honest responses.
I am a 36 year old divorced man living in NYC; I have 2 children, a 12 year old and a 3 year old.
I am currently working for an electrical engineering company as a technical support representative.
I, like many, had been laid off and was forced to take whatever opportunity given to me to make ends meet. I can barely make my bills; I have cut every unrequired expense from my life and am tired of struggling. Today finds me at a crossroads. I need to re-educate myself to get into a field that is rewarding on an emotional level and can offer me the ability to take better care of my children financially.
I have always wanted to be in the medical field but wasn't mature enough to hold to that decision. I went for the easy money instead and managed to do well until corporate greed took priority over employee loyalty and livelihood. I never want to experience that again, I need to be in a field of work that offers more job security.
In an ideal world, I would study medicine to the point of being a doctor, I've done the research and have a few friends and family that are- I know the dedication and commitment required. I am fully aware that may not be a practical idea for me due to my age and responsibilities. A healthy alternative would be nursing as it offers a good living and better opportunity than what I have today. If I go that route, I would like to leave the path of being a doctor available. Could being a pre-med student lead to being a nurse? That way I would have my pre-requisites completed should I choose to go to medical school later on? As opposed to going through nursing school, becoming an RN, then deciding I wish to continue on to being a doctor and have to go back to complete my pre-requisites before applying to med school.
Thanks in advance for any opinions and info offered.
Medical school prerequisites are quite different and include at the bare minimum a full year of pre-med Bio, two semesters of inorganic chemistry, two semesters of organic chemistry, biochemistry, two semesters of physics and two semesters of math (Calc I and Calc II and, possibly, statistics). I believe some schools have humanities prerequisite requirements. There are programs offered by universities that will let a pre-med student (who majored in a non-science) take all of these courses over the course of 1.5 yrs or so. Many of these programs have ties to medical schools so their graduates have a good chance of acceptance. These programs are NOT cheap. Medical school is NOT cheap. There is a way to go to medical school for free....get accepted into MD/PhD programs. You get two degrees, it takes about 7 years instead of 4, and it is free tuition plus you get the PhD stipend. (I have had many MD/PhD friends while I was a PhD student.)
@Spore2008 the med school I plan on going do not require calc. 1 and 2, they just need precalc. I have taken precal, statistics, psychology andChem 1 n 2 during my nursing pre-req. I took the inorganic n organic chem by the way because its also accepted for nursing...
spore2008
165 Posts
Medical school prerequisites are quite different and include at the bare minimum a full year of pre-med Bio, two semesters of inorganic chemistry, two semesters of organic chemistry, biochemistry, two semesters of physics and two semesters of math (Calc I and Calc II and, possibly, statistics). I believe some schools have humanities prerequisite requirements. There are programs offered by universities that will let a pre-med student (who majored in a non-science) take all of these courses over the course of 1.5 yrs or so. Many of these programs have ties to medical schools so their graduates have a good chance of acceptance. These programs are NOT cheap. Medical school is NOT cheap. There is a way to go to medical school for free....get accepted into MD/PhD programs. You get two degrees, it takes about 7 years instead of 4, and it is free tuition plus you get the PhD stipend. (I have had many MD/PhD friends while I was a PhD student.)