Question about major change?

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Hello!

I'm an entering freshman to Texas A&M University this fall with plans to become an RN, and I had a few questions about what major change I should select. Currently I am a Biomedical Sciences major (A&M doesnt have a nursing major), but I am looking to switch majors because I don't feel a BIMS degree would be right for me. I am stuck between choosing Nutritional Sciences (B.S.) and Allied Health (B.S.). Both will allow me to complete my pre-requisites needed to attend nursing school, but the courses specific to the major are different. Nutritional Sciences, in addition to a bunch of nutrition courses, also contains much more chemistry courses that I wouldn't need for nursing but would need to graduate with that degree. Allied Health doesn't require any extra sciences than what would be needed for nursing school, and its degree specific classes are all Health related. With either major my pre-reqs would be completed and I could apply for the 15 month accelerated BSN program at TAMU's nursing school.

So my question is, is there anyone on here who graduated with a Nutritional Sciences degree and went on to nursing school? Did you find the major to have helped you at all in nursing school, or were the extra science classes unnecessary? If there's anyone who majored in Allied Health and then continued to nursing school, any suggestions would be helpful as well as to whether that degree prepared you well enough. My concern is with getting a degree that will give me an edge and maybe help make a few nursing school classes easier.

Also, what can one do with an Allied Health degree alone? Same with Nutritional Sciences. I'm just worried that, were I not to make it into nursing school, I'd want a degree I could fall back on and possibly make a career out of.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I don't know that I would actually graduate with an Allied Health degree without having plans to

enter some sort of allied health program like Physicians Assistant school, or a second degree nursing program. And I wouldn't graduate with a degree in nutrition unless you actually want to

be a nutritionist or are planning on continuing on to some other program.

If I were you, I would declare the allied health major and stick to prereqs to NS and general education reqs for TAMU. iIf you complete all of those courses and don't end up going to nursig school. it's feasible that you could change your major to something that will lead to a job and still

complete the new degree in two years and graduate,

If you major in nutrition now, spend a lot of time taking nutrition classes, and don't go to NS, you'll probably be behind if you choose to change your major.

Just my 2 cents.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Good advice from PP.

There really isn't any such thing as a "nursing major". Nursing is a "program" rather than a "major". This is an important distinction, because once you get into the clinical part of a nursing program, you're pretty much stuck. This portion of your education doesn't really transfer anywhere, and degree completion must include a specific number of clinical hours in various different specialty areas. That's probably clear as mud, right?

Anyway . . . Unless you have a lot of extra time and money to burn, I would suggest that you go directly for your BSN rather than wasting time gathering other degrees & hoping for success in an accelerated program. You may not actually be accepted into an ABSN program - then what would you do? ABSN new grads find it much harder (than ADN or BSNs) to get that crucial first job. Hiring managers in my organization have found that they lack sufficient acculturation in to the nursing profession and insufficient clinical exposure/experience. Those are huge hurdles to overcome.

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I agree with the other posters. I wouldn't go through an entire degree, just to then complete a nursing degree IF I knew I wanted to be a nurse.

Are you completing this degree only so you can get into the accelerated program?

But if you want a flat out answer, I'd go with the nutritional sciences. Seems like you'd be able to do "more" with it down the line if nursing doesn't work out.

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I think overall there is some confusion about second degree nursing programs. They are meant for people, like myself, who went through school and graduated with a BS/BA and then decided to go into nursing. If you know as a freshman, look for a nursing specific program. If your school doesn't have one, transfer to another school that does.

Nursing is somewhat unique in that core skills for nursing are taught at the BSN/ADN level which means, you can't go beyond them. For most other areas of study, if you had a BS/BA in one thing, you could get a MS/MA in almost anything else. You might have to take a few undergrad courses but the basics taught to you in your undergrad would prepare you for somewhat for almost any MS/MA degree.

On the other hand, for BS/BA degree holders, they have to do a bit of backtracking to get the core skills. I can't speak for all BS/BA holders but I think most of us would agree that it would've been a lot simpler if we had chosen nursing the first time around.

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If you know you want to be a nurse and A&M doesn't have a program, I would transfer schools. I go to UMHB so I don't know a lot about A&M, but I would waste time and $$ going after a degree you won't use

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.
If you know you want to be a nurse and A&M doesn't have a program, I would transfer schools. I go to UMHB so I don't know a lot about A&M, but I would waste time and $$ going after a degree you won't use

A&M has a nursing program, just not an official pre-nursing major.

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