mistycal27

Hey Pineapplepie! You sound a lot like me 18 years ago lol. As a HS senior I also loved science, being outdoors and helping/caring for others. I ended up getting a degree in Biology and easily getting a job as a lab technician straight out of college. I worked outside 25-50% of the time collecting samples. It was a lot of fun!! Pay was ok and my job stability was pretty good, I think this is true for most bachelors and masters degree holders. But I got bored and ultimately wanted something that was faster paced, instantly gratifying and working with the public. So I became a nurse and love my job! Like previous posters have already said, it is hard work! And it took me 4 months and ~50 applications to find a job after graduation. Pay is better than in science, but you definitely WORK for every dollar of it! Both jobs require innovation and logic. Try to honestly answer these questions: For nursing: Do you love helping others and meeting new people (constantly)? Are you quick on your feet? Do you enjoy being task driven and physically busy? Do you like the idea of clocking out and leaving work behind you? Can you handle being indoors all day? For science: Do you like working in small groups without a lot of new people? Do you like working on long projects with no definitive end dates? Do you like setting your own hours? Are you ok with working odd hours as experiments sometimes call for? Are you self-motivated? If you are still 50/50 I would suggest enrolling in school as undeclared and working in a lab one semester and as a CNA another semester. Good luck!!! And remember you can always change your mind at 30 like I did lol.

Thanks for the excellent posts maximilian333! I have a BA in Biology and have been taking prerequisites to apply to nursing programs beginning next year. I eventually would like to get an MSN, but don't want to do the direct entry MSN because of the cost of tuition and I would also like to gain some work experience before deciding on a graduate program. Up to this point I have only been considering accelerated BSN programs because I thought that was my only choice (other than direct entry MSN), but they are pretty expensive too. I could save $30K by doing the ADN program at my local community college rather than doing the accelerated BSN. Do you think that the quality of education is the same at the community college level as at the accelerated BSN level? Thanks!