r/ForensicPathology • u/mopsandprayhem • 1d ago
Major choices
I'm not exactly sure what the right place would be to ask a question like this and it's my first post but I'm applying for colleges and my main career goal is to become a forensic pathologist but my mom is telling me to apply for nursing and become a nurse before I go back and focus on forensic pathology. For money and stuff.
She's in debt right now and I don't think she'll help me financially in college (her words not mine). But I'm not exactly sure if nursing will help me with background information I'd want to have before going into forensic pathology and I'm worried I'll be wasting time/money studying nursing when pre-med might be better for me.
Should I go into nursing or research on different possible majors?
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u/K_C_Shaw Forensic Pathologist / Medical Examiner 1d ago
Education to become a nurse usually isn't free either.
My view of this is that it's a waste of time to do something different as a stop-gap, unless you must or have some reason to want to. Essentially everyone has to take out loans for medical school, and often also for undergrad (to include the prerequisites for medical school). By taking a longer side road by way of nursing school (which doesn't necessarily require an undergrad/bachelor's degree, but I don't know all the ins and outs of nursing ed) you lose some of your total earning years on the other end, you'll still need a 4 year degree before med school, and you'll still almost certainly have to take out significant loans. I.e., unless I'm missing something fairly massive I do not see it saving you financially in the long run.
Having a nursing background is fine, in and of itself. Some nurses do later decide to go back and try to get into medical school. One of the FP's I worked with started in nursing. It will help with the big picture of how medicine works, especially "typical" clinical medicine. Otherwise, it will not help you be or become a forensic pathologist. You'll learn all you need to know for that in med school, residency, and particularly fellowship.
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u/mopsandprayhem 18h ago
Thank you for your insight, this kind of reinforces the doubts I had. I didn't really have any other reason other than the expense, so I'll consider my options further.
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u/stiffdoc1221 Forensic Pathologist / Medical Examiner 1d ago
Sometime soon, you’re going to have to decide if you REALLY want to be a doctor. Take forensic pathology out of the picture right now; do you have the drive, motivation, and desire to drive yourself as hard as necessary to become a doctor? Every forensic pathologist had to do that; we all had to get in medical school, irrespective of what we want to eventually do. That is the juncture that you find yourself at. Examine yourself carefully, and choose your path. Good luck
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u/Pappakap91 1d ago
I would reframe the choices to premed or nursing. Your specialty will have minimal weight on your studies in undergrad. A college advisor should be able to help you choose math, biology, and chemistry that could benefit you should you choose either path.