Becoming an NP while already an RN?

High School --> Nursing (colleges!) --> NP or MD?

• Okay I'm a junior in high school right now and I'm planning on doing nursing.. become an RN.. then ultimately, either become a nurse practitioner or a doctor. I have no idea what the path is for the latter. Well anyways, I don't want to go to a community college because I wanna get my BSN in four years and I don’t want to deal with the whole transferring thing. I've looked at a few colleges and my first options are CSU Stanislaus or San Diego State. But then... I saw that UC Irvine also had a nursing program and it looks like a good school. I've always wanted to go to a UC.. My grades are good and my SAT scores are good enough (540 Reading 630 Math 560 Writing.. I’m about to take my Subject tests on Biology, US History, and Math2 next month.. I’ll retake the Reasoning one next year to try to get a better score.) Is it true that it "looks better" than just going to CSU? Would it be a stupid idea financially? What are my best options? Then! After I go through with all of that.. getting my BSN and whatnot.. I work as an RN for a while, right?.. Then try to get a masters to be an NP.. That's how that works, right? Well how would it be if I wanted to be a doctor after becoming a registered nurse? I really need help because I wanna plan out what I have to do for my senior year and stuff. I don't like the feeling of "not-knowing" what to do.... =(

• Answer:

  If you want to become a doctor, you need to take the premed classes as an undergrad along with the classes you need for your major. There's no overlap with the nursing classes so that's a lot of extra work on top of what you're already doing, and if you do decide to apply to med school, you spent 4 years getting specific training for a job you're not going to do. Med school is another 4 years after college and then 3+ more of training (residency).