Difficult Decision: Earn MPH at Tulane since I’m a public health major there and they tend to accept their own students more or go for ADN in nursing at Delgado with the possibility of not finishing nursing school/not getting in and possibility of not getting MPH later
Recently I have seen a lot of post saying that nursing does have high stability and growth and that MPH is over saturated. I know that now. However, there is a possibility that if I go for ADN in nursing first, I might not be able to get in and finish nursing school because the job does not suit my personality overall.
My family said the job/political climate will be different in 2029 and that the hiring freezes and defunding is an anomaly, that this is temporary.
I am determined to succeed in a field to get a job but if I cannot make it, I will lose 1-2 years and if I reapply for MPH at Tulane, I might not be able to get that degree either. And if I want an MPH, I think I would do Tulane over LSU because of the name and connections. I am at this stage where my parents agree to pay for my accelerated MPH so I will not carry debt and get a 35% tuition discount and will have taken 12 credits (total pay for the program will be ~40k).
They told me I should do this because they don’t see me working well in the nursing environment or having better luck finishing ADN because of my traits being anxious, really careful attention to detail, bad at multitasking, bad at thinking outside the box and preferring concrete steps and math rather than flexibility. They said I wouldn’t be the type to memorize many things very quickly. If I choose nursing and not finish it, I will lose 1-2 years and might not be able to get accepted to the MPH as easily as I would now. Even if nursing is the field that is the opposite of who I am, if I do do nursing I will work really hard and still be determined to succeed.
I checked out 2024 graduate outcomes for MPH and those that cannot find jobs with master could get a job as a clinical research coordinator. Yet the job pays ~40k a year but it’s an office job with 9-5 so I can avoid jobs requiring manual labor like being a waitress. Then I can choose to do nursing later. If I do nursing, I’ll do it at Delgado and lose a chance for the Tulane’s program later on. Then I would have to pay 2x the money for MPH and find a harder time. If so, there’s a possibility I would probably not get the MPH later on and end up with nothing..