MDBoy

I don't know...I don't think you really need to be a "top" student necessarily. Put forth some decent effort and you should be able to do well enough to get mainly As and a couple Bs in the prereqs. If you have a avg to slightly above avg IQ you have the raw materials to succeed enough to gain entrance to a program.The main important courses to do best in are AP 1 and 2. Put on a strong showing in those and you can get in quite easily in most cases.

I love this answer!! Thanks

Yea the low 140s is kinda the cutoff I believe, at least it was last semester

You're likely going to have a beard in your final exams week like it or not!

I am very hesitant when touching patients, and want to be as delicate as possible, but I know that in the long run this is going to be a detriment to providing the best level of care I can. Is it just a matter of getting more and more experiences and becoming more insensitized to it? I am very conscious of the fact I'm a male and my appearance is somewhat intimidating as I am a big guy so I overcompensate in the other direction I suppose....

How much of a path to an MD/DO is there from the nursing path? is there a point after becoming a BSN that there is an entry into it that isn't as long of a time to finish as the typical route? I figure there are many programs that most people aren't usually even aware of that could exist but I just haven't been able to research as intensely as I usually can lately.

Anyone have an opinion on the fact that my part time marketing job makes as much if not more than an RN? Should I try to work full time instead and just pare down on school stuff atm? I do only take 1 core nursing class per semester (its "tiered" ....they won't allow me to finish in less than time than anyone else in the cohort) Is this the norm btw? Seems ridiculous but nursing school is different shall we say.

Nothing.

I don't believe what you are saying, "it's too late to be an MD" is just showing me you have either a lack of ingenuity, a predilection toward conventional (read: "wrong" ) wisdom and lack an ability to seek any and all other opportunities out to find a solution. Don't mean to offend, but I don't buy into the same self limiting fallacies you seem to. This has always served me well when I didn't sell myself short so far, and it has always led to regret when I didn't just go for the gusto before, that is why I am wondering why I shouldn't just do what I most want to do. I'm sure I'd like to be an NP, but I know in my heart of hearts I would have rather been a Dr. Also, I do know myself, and if I were to find the right work/lifestyle balance, I would have no trouble with acing MD school and that's just a statement based on what I know of my raw intellectual ability, not saying I'd be able to do that at will however.

Whats with the thyroid workup by the way? Just curious what sparked that comment.

As far as I know, as long as its not the Coast Guard (limits 27 yrs old) or Marines, I do not think the Army, Navy and air force have traditional age limits, its just based on how in shape you are and ready for the scope of the work you must perform. I worked in restaurants as a server then bartender since 18. I saw the older guys bartending back where I am from and they looked miserable in ways... like no reaching out for more out of life and many just were alcoholics I think in the bartending world... I was of the opinion bartending was cool and fun and then I think when I hit about 24-25 suddenly was scared shitless of becoming an older guy bartender, in my 40s, possibly an alcoholic, without having any prospects or having even tried... I wanted to at least say " I was a contender" at the very least & having thrown my hat into the career of my choosing.(law being my first passion tbh but ultimately much less of a sure bet and too narrow scope for me... so I discovered that medicine was something I should have looked into but funnily enough hadn't considered much... I had a rough transition to adulthood, lost my father pretty badly in final years of High school and I dropped out I was so devastated by what happened actually and it took at least until I was about 25 even to get out of the house and go anywhere or try to do anything productive. I had been taking the general courses needed for some type of medical program during my off season from work in wintertime, but only really found myself determined like crazy after my last birthday, when I was turning 32. I Have woken up every day since then and had major experiences I had always dreamed of come into my life as this steady march of opportunities, its very exciting to see them so clearly and realize life is easy if you just want certain things you will get them without much effort... I am "grandiose" yes Korky, but when it comes to learning things I am very good and cannot find many people who have as much intellectual curiosity that is self driven as I have. I also do not care what people think about me, I gave up caring about being perceived as weird and have found it to be among the most freeing things I've done. Now I rejoice in my uniqueness and find much solace in being who I am. I know my beliefs have been formed in the crucible of self reflection and are sturdy enough for my liking. I would rather risk putting my foot in my mouth instead of being a shy person who is afraid of trivial things such as that... I do care about people misunderstanding me however, and on that note, I did want to clarify something... I did not intend to characterize cutting up dead bodies as being "cool" at all... My sloppily formulated comment was my attempt to illustrate my tendency to be drawn by my interest in such things as human biological forensics, effects of different pathologies, postmortem processes, diagnoses of the bodily systems (I am both led around by as well as driven by my interests, not for the immature reasons you speculated on, but merely because that is how my mind operated, my interests draw me to many diverse things and I thought that the different labs in med school would be particularly stimulating, as they would allow me to be exposed to many things I would not otherwise. That is what I was attempting to relate. (& God no, not for any morbid reason like that and I would never be anything other than utmost respectful towards another human being especially in that situation...)

Not to get too personal but I have pretty bad adhd which probably explains your observation.

Not trying to brag, but confidence in my academic prowess is not something I lack.I know I'd stand a good chance of getting into any program I chose really, its more a question of which approach is most conducive and how best to discover said approach?

I have been contemplating not really even working as a CNA and just sticking to my main source of income which is doing promotional marketing. I can make about 50k/yr on less than full time hours even and I have not much work obligations outside my actual shifts. Should I just stick with that you think or would it be wise to gain entree into a place like Duke by squeezing a few shifts as a CNA there into my schedule?

Yes, I realize I may have been too overeager this first semester. I have one clinical day per week which is supposed to last from 3:30pm-9pm. The rest of the days of the M-Thur. week are aprx 4 hrs with theory and lab scattered in. I am now planning on only working and doing that one nursing 111 class which is 8 credit hours. I have to move to that city which is about 30 min from me so I can be closer, so that will be alot of work in itself. I think it would be a mistake of me to try to load too much I.e. physics and ochem on my plate during this fragile moment in my journey. I kind of want to..dare I say...enjoy my life a bit too and not be burnt out by it quite yet theres still a ways to go. What do you think is that sound thinking on the matter? I am still tossing around the idea of mainly working my current job maybe closer to F/t hours...Seems the job I lined up to work while attending my nursing curriculum stands to garner me a substantial amount of money (48k/yr p/t, or 60k/yr f/t and doesn't require much time outside of my shifts. Considering that, I am now becoming greedy while thinking how I am going try to maximize the money I am able to earn from that fortuitous employment opportunity while I am able to. Plus I quite enjoy it for the foreseeable time so I am unsure if I can do what I had envisioned prior, which was to work shifts in the floating pool as a CNA at Duke. I had seen this as a major win just a couple weeks ago when a person from Duke said they could get me in as a CNA. IDK if I could do it more than once in a while considering how much harder the work would be and the facts its less pay by a bit. Is that not wise of me?