Would it be helpful to become a licensed agent?

[Carmen Lewis]

I live in Dayton, Ohio. I am actually going to school for nursing but I am a bit obsessed with real estate. I want to flip houses. For now I'm just reading and gathering information. I am about to end up on a year long waiting list for my school's nursing program, then the program itself is at least 2 years. So I was thinking, in the meantime, maybe I could become a licensed real estate agent. But would that really be very helpful if I want to flip houses? I took the required courses 15 years ago! But I was talked out of the profession (that's a whole other story). I don't remember any of the material. So I would need to repeat the courses, which is 8 weeks here. Anyway, just wondering if it would make a difference being licensed as opposed to reading books and networking. Thanks for any advice you can offer!