For people who have worked regular office jobs, how does the med school time commitment compare?

[bngli]

I'm a non-trad who has worked an office job for the past 3 years. Minimal stress, ~40 hours per week. How does med school compare? I'm not looking to go into a surgical field or anything, psych or PM&R would be fine with me. Considering that, is 40 hrs/wk sufficient for med school (on average) or am I looking at a much larger time commitment?

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[Bonne Nuit]

I'm a non-trad who has worked an office job for the past 3 years. Minimal stress, ~40 hours per week. How does med school compare? I'm not looking to go into a surgical field or anything, psych or PM&R would be fine with me. Considering that, is 40 hrs/wk sufficient for med school (on average) or am I looking at a much larger time commitment?

I worked about 50 hours/week on average in my former career (project management at a tech company). Maaayyyybe 55-65 hours/week (some of it working from home) if I was facing a big deadline.

My M1 baseline was about 60 hours a week for class/studying/required activities (I don't attend lecture), but I will pretty much study round the clock with breaks to eat and sleep if I feel like I'm falling behind or if I have a major exam coming up. But in normal weeks, I'll do medical school stuff starting at 8AM and then try to transition into personal time by about 8PM in the evenings. No studying other than Anki on weekends, unless it's a major exam week. This was enough for me to maintain good exam scores and pass all my classes by a comfortable margin.

For whatever reason, my medical school schedule doesn't feel nearly as stressful as when I was working, even though I put in more hours now - this is partially because I attended Zoom SOM in my pajamas for most of the year, partially because I actually LIKE what I'm studying most of the time, and partially because I f'ing despised my former company. A 60 hour week at my old job would feel like a miserable chore, but a 60 hour week in med school feels like no big deal.

I think I'm going to bail on the extreme AnKing grind for M2, as I am probably doing way too much for a P/F Step 1. That might give me back a few hours of my day. Or maybe I'll just find a way to fill up that time with more studying - we will see how it goes.

 

[Osteosaur]

Jobs end when you get home.

Medical school doesn't.

A job will help you with navigating more of the interpersonal stuff during third year.

 

[moonbeam28]

I worked 40 hours a week and even though I def spend more hours studying (prob 70ish) there is a huge difference that makes med school way better IMO and that’s more freedom of choice. The fact that you can do things completely on your own time, and you don’t need to do annoying tasks just because someone told you to. You get to focus on what *you* think is important and whatever *you* want. If you don’t want to study a certain area for school, you just eat the consequences. If you don’t want to do something for work, then too bad your boss needs it in 2 days. 3rd year is a diff story but at least for preclinical I think you’ll find it to be a positive transition

 

[IWishIWasBuff]

Worked 50 hours

med school like maybe 70-80 hours lol, though I’m pretty inefficient when it comes to studying and likely have attention issues