This may seem like a crazy question...

[atomi]

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[Depakote]

I am scheduled to start med school in August.

However, to retain my retirement earnings at my current job (~$10k), I need to remain an active employee through September 20th, which is my 3 year anniversary with the company. If I leave before then, I will give up all $10k of my savings. Seeing as how it's only about a 40 day difference between the start of school and my service date, I pose this question:

How impossible would it be to retain my job for those 40 days and not manage to get kicked out of school? It would be a 1.5 hour commute to and from work and school. Obviously, I would have to miss every single class, but these are all streamed on the internet. I am assuming I would need to attend the labs or anything else that is mandatory, which I don't know how many times a week they are. My job is flexible enough for me to disappear for a morning without a big deal. My work is largely self-directed and there is nobody checking when I am present at work. The goal here would be to last 40 days without (1) getting fired from work and (2) completely ruining the rest of med school. Additionally, that extra 40 days of work wold net me about $5500 in cash, which wouldn't be too bad either, so we are talking about $15k here, or about a year's worth of tuition, which is not trivial to me.

Is this scenario at all possible, or do I just need to put it out of my head now and either request a deferment of admission to the following year or just kiss the money goodbye?

By the way, the law that says companies can keep retirement savings from being 100% vested for up to 3 years is bogus! In my case, the company stretches it to the maximum legal limit and makes it an all or nothing kind of thing.

no good will come of this.

 

[Keona]

It says very difficult, which school is it? It would depend a bit on your labs and things, but I doubt you would be sleeping at all during those 40 days.

 

[PepperMD]

I had a decent-paying 20 hr/week job before starting med school and was able to drop down to one 8-hour shift every other weekend (mainly because I enjoyed the work, not because of the money). Even this tiny time commitment became too much when faced with the realities of med school. You might be able to swing it, but you better get used to the idea of failing those first tests and having to make a mad scramble to make up the points. Easier said than done.

 

[Lena2548]

You know, I think it reallly depends on which school you're going to and the specific schedule there. In my case, our first year is on block scheduling, which means for the first 3 months or so all we studied was molecular/cell biology. This was known as a class which "eases" you into medical school, and a lot of the topics were things you likely have seen in undergrad, so to hold a job for that first block may have actual been possible (you may not be the "honor" student, but I do feel it would be possible to pass). However, once anatomy hit later in the fall, all hell broke loose, and to this day im not sure how I made it through even without any other committments!

 

[atomi]

I had a decent-paying 20 hr/week job before starting med school and was able to drop down to one 8-hour shift every other weekend (mainly because I enjoyed the work, not because of the money). Even this tiny time commitment became too much when faced with the realities of med school. You might be able to swing it, but you better get used to the idea of failing those first tests and having to make a mad scramble to make up the points. Easier said than done.

That's an idea. I guess I could talk to my boss and see if they would be willing to let me work one day a week to keep me on the pay role. But as an entry-level person, I don't really do much valuable work for the company and the only reason they keep me around is in hopes of training me for a more senior position down the road where I will be valuable. I have a feeling that if I showed up and told my boss that I am thinking of switching careers and asked if he would work with me so I could meet that 3-year service date, he would probably fire me on the spot.

 

[richse]

Do you have vacation days? I know people that have saved up vacation days and used them all right before they are supposed to leave a job. This generally allows someone to continue their health insurance for an extra month and gives an extra pay check. Then you generally just have to come back for a day or two when the vacation is over to quit.

 

[Depakote]

does this sound like the premise for either a:

-sitcom
-reality TV show
-movie with Ryan Reynolds

to anyone else?

 

[mjl1717]

This part of the saga:

Its super easy to be distracted! (eg. family, refridg, FEDEX, whatever)... And in your case get trapped in "a membraneous labyrinth"..

Either do an Osler and forget the money for now.... Or be a "BIG risk taker" and postpone med school..

 

[mjl1717]

does this sound like the premise for either a:

-sitcom
-reality TV show
-movie with Ryan Reynolds

to anyone else?

yes, there is a good amount of drama

 

[atomi]

This part of the saga:

Its super easy to be distracted! (eg. family, refridg, FEDEX, whatever)... And in your case get trapped in "a membraneous labyrinth"..

Either do an Osler and forget the money for now.... Or be a "BIG risk taker" and postpone med school..

What is the risk in postponing med school for a year? Do you mean that it will be hard to get re-admitted to the same schools a second time, or even to any schools at all a second time around after receiving acceptances the first time?

Ideally I could work a deferment out with the school, and I don't think that would be too unreasonable (i.e., work through the fall and then agree to do community service or something in the winter and spring - given that I'm aware that schools don't consider working for profit a valid reason for a deferment - something I don't really agree with, but oh well).

 

[atomi]

Do you have vacation days? I know people that have saved up vacation days and used them all right before they are supposed to leave a job. This generally allows someone to continue their health insurance for an extra month and gives an extra pay check. Then you generally just have to come back for a day or two when the vacation is over to quit.

Not 30 of them. The ideal situation would be they lay me off (which given the state of the business is not unlikely). I wonder if there's a way to approach senior management and hint "you know, if you guys are looking to cut people, I'd like to volunteer." Probably not the best idea. Geez, there's got to be a way to make this work. 40 frickin days...

 

[ForeignBody]

I say go for it as long as you don't have a lot of 'mandatory' stuff.

The first month of med school is not that hard at most places b/c it is mostly review type stuff that you have learned in undergrad.

I graduate from med school in 2 months. Now sitting on 200k in debt, I would love to have had an extra 15k..

 

[cpants]

You can always apply for a deferrment. Not sure you are likely to get it, but if you could get yourself a cool experience for the rest of the year, they might go for it. Just remember that med school is the most important thing. If you are failing or missing mandatory labs/classes, you can get yourself in serious academic trouble really quickly. 15k isn't worth risking your career.

 

[njbmd]

How impossible would it be to retain my job for those 40 days and not manage to get kicked out of school? It would be a 1.5 hour commute to and from work and school. Obviously, I would have to miss every single class, but these are all streamed on the internet. I am assuming I would need to attend the labs or anything else that is mandatory, which I don't know how many times a week they are. My job is flexible enough for me to disappear for a morning without a big deal. My work is largely self-directed and there is nobody checking when I am present at work. The goal here would be to last 40 days without (1) getting fired from work and (2) completely ruining the rest of med school. Additionally, that extra 40 days of work wold net me about $5500 in cash, which wouldn't be too bad either, so we are talking about $15k here, or about a year's worth of tuition, which is not trivial to me.

Is this scenario at all possible, or do I just need to put it out of my head now and either request a deferment of admission to the following year or just kiss the money goodbye?

Your best option if the $15K is that important to you is to defer for a year. To do otherwise is to set youself up for a failure situation that you can't recover from. If you have any labs (Gross Anatomy etc), you really need to be there for these. You can't just show up here and there and then play "catch-up". The biggest cause of failure in medical school is that something keeps a student from putting in the time that the curriculum requires. Get that something out of your way and then do school but if you are going to attend medical school, be prepared to give it 100% of your attention until you can prove that you are able to perform well otherwise.

A 1.5hr commute is lunacy. Even a 30-minute commute is a pain during exams. Even if you find that you don't need any sleep at all, driving 1.5 hours is not going to be much fun. Trying to listen to lectures and drive is not a good thing either (listening is best done if you are using public transportation). Long commutes make for easy and quick burnout even though you are talking about 40 days, That could easily wind up being 40 days of pure torture in addition to study time and rushing to keep up with things.

Try a practice week of your commute with your course hours figured in and see how you do. At least you would have some idea of how you fare under these conditions. I am not saying that this would be impossible but I am saying that this commute & school plan might cost you far more in the long run that that $15K. If you find that you are not a total "whack-job" after a week, you may be able to pull off the 40 days. The worse case scenario would be that after a week or two, you change your mind and quit your job. The best case scenario is that you get through your 40 days with minimal damage to your psyche and your GPA.

Just remember, if you get behind in medical school, catch-up is awful.

 

[soonereng]

By the way, the law that says companies can keep retirement savings from being 100% vested for up to 3 years is bogus! In my case, the company stretches it to the maximum legal limit and makes it an all or nothing kind of thing.

But that's only for the money that the company contributed themselves, not the amount that you contributed (if any). Also, since most of these are in tax deferred status you won't be able to get at that money without paying some stiff penalties/taxes, so it isn't like you actually have 10K in hand either way.

I say try saving whatever vacation days you have to give yourself at least two full days per week at school and hope you don't get fired while hoping that you do get laid off. If you can't swing that, just consider the money lost and know that you will make it up in the future.

 

[soonereng]

A 1.5hr commute is lunacy. Even a 30-minute commute is a pain during exams. Even if you find that you don't need any sleep at all, driving 1.5 hours is not going to be much fun. Trying to listen to lectures and drive is not a good thing either (listening is best done if you are using public transportation). Long commutes make for easy and quick burnout even though you are talking about 40 days...

Definitely person specific. I've been commuting 1.5 hr one way an average of 3 days/wk for over a year, and listen to lectures without much problems and I'm in the top 25% of my class. YMMV

 

[TMP-SMX]

I say go for it as long as you don't have a lot of 'mandatory' stuff.

The first month of med school is not that hard at most places b/c it is mostly review type stuff that you have learned in undergrad.

I graduate from med school in 2 months. Now sitting on 200k in debt, I would love to have had an extra 15k..

Most places? Most people didn't take anatomy and even fewer people took histology in undergrad so I don't know how much of it is review. Not to mention the anatomy in med school is more detailed and are things that don't stay memorized for long. The first month is one of the hardest due to the adjustment. Perhaps you forgot since it has been 3 years.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

You need to feel this out with the medical school and your boss, but I think it's best if you could swing this.

1) Defer admission one year.

2) Work for your company until your requirement is met, then drop to part or quarter time until school starts next year.

3) Find a job as a research assistant in medical school.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

do I just need to put it out of my head now and either request a deferment of admission to the following year or just kiss the money goodbye?

Yes, you need to do one of these two things. People here frequently state that class is overrated, but I still can't imagine missing your entire first month and a half of lecture. You don't know yet how challenged you will be in your first semester of med school; trying to be an absentee med student for the first month is not a good plan. Plus, at least at a lot of schools, a surprising amount of your time will be spent in sessions like labs, dissections, and small groups where your presence IS expected.

 

[number]

What is 10k now compared to the loss of a year of post residency income? Do not defer. If you cannot schedule to continue working once school starts, take out an extra 15k in loans if having the 15k now is that important to you.

 

[NRAI2001]

Sacrifice the $10k...finishing med school a year earlier (rather than defering) will amount to making 200K a year earlier.

To put it in prespective people spend 10K on usmle classes....get use to loosing money

 

[Depakote]

previous facetious responses aside:

Some people are able to breeze through the first month of classes, for others it is a major adjustment. It's hard to predict which one you'll be.

Med school isn't something you can back-burner for a month while you work full time, especially before you've adjusted to the work load.

I suggest you devote your time to your studies.

 

[cpants]

Sacrifice the $10k...finishing med school a year earlier (rather than defering) will amount to making 200K a year earlier.

To put it in prespective people spend 10K on usmle classes....get use to loosing money

What?! I've never heard of 10k on the usmle....jesus. I plan on spending about 1.5k, and that seems like a lot.

 

[utorontograd]

Choose school. Quit job.

Start your year off strong. Ace your first couple of tests, then you'll be
compelled to keep this pace up.

If you do poorly at first, it will be more difficult to turn things around.

 

[itsallthesame]

Also, since most of these are in tax deferred status you won't be able to get at that money without paying some stiff penalties/taxes, so it isn't like you actually have 10K in hand either way.

There is a penalty exemption if the money is applied directly to tuition.

Note: This does NOT count if the money is used directly to pay off loans.

 

[bobsagat]

OP, I think you ought to take a long look at the classes you'd be flaking out on. If your first set of courses is biochem/cell bio, and you were a cell bio major in college, you may be able to swing it. However, I know of a med school that likes to pound their MS-1's early and ease off the pedal just a bit after things get rolling.

You should talk to current MS-1's at your school and ask them their advice, since different schools like to take different approaches for their first semester. Step #1 is to find out which type of school yours is.

 

[mjl1717]

Sacrifice the $10k...finishing med school a year earlier (rather than defering) will amount to making 200K a year earlier.

To put it in prespective people spend 10K on usmle classes....get use to loosing money

This has truth to it..

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

OP: I was in a very similar position, and I was able to pull it off. Now, I didn't have a 1.5 hour commute (more like 15-20 minutes) but I WAY more than passed the classes that I was taking by doing another SDN Allo "no-no": I got ahold of the syllabus for the class(es) that I was taking at the time and pre-read/pre-learned the material that I would be covering during the time that I would be working. I started WAY early to give me time to go over the material many times, so I had it down cold. All I had to do was go to anatomy lab. I used vacation to cover that. Everything worked out great.

However, you need to be honest with yourself to know whether you will be disciplined enough to pull it off. You can use the 1.5 hour commute time to listen to lectures. I'll be honest with you that those days (it was approx. a month for me) SUCKED, but that's all over now.

Best of luck to you!

 

[atomi]

Thanks all for your help. I have a feeling this is all going to come together from forces I cannot control and eventually work itself out. I probably shouldn't be too upset about loosing that much money. The stock market continues to wipe out more than that from my savings, and I'm not loosing too much sleep over that .

But if I can find any way to make it work, I'm going to give it a try. No sleep for a month would just be good training for residency, right?

I'll pull this thread backup in October if I actually do it.

 

[NRAI2001]

What?! I've never heard of 10k on the usmle....jesus. I plan on spending about 1.5k, and that seems like a lot.

Ya I know a lot of people from my school take some of those all inclusive Kaplan type courses where class tuition is 3 - 4K and then another 4-5k where they put you up in a hotel and give you lunches..

 

[cpants]

Ya I know a lot of people from my school take some of those all inclusive Kaplan type courses where class tuition is 3 - 4K and then another 4-5k where they put you up in a hotel and give you lunches..

I thought that stuff was mainly for FMG's. I am taking Kaplan's highest plan offered at my school (a month of live lectures and 3months of qbank) and it was 1150.

 

[scarletgirl777]

I thought that stuff was mainly for FMG's. I am taking Kaplan's highest plan offered at my school (a month of live lectures and 3months of qbank) and it was 1150.

That is cheaper than an MCAT course!

 

[McPoyle]

I assume that your retirement is set up the same way as mine: I contribute x number of dollars and my employer matches this amount up to a certain percentage of total income. Now, every penny that I myself contribute is mine-I can do with it what I please, if I withdraw I pay a penalty. However, the money that my employer contributes is merely earning interest until I became "vested", I think mine was at my five year mark. After that point, I could do whatever I wanted with the total of both our contributions-it was all mine.

I assume what you are talking about is becoming "vested" at three years, which I wouldn't worry about because all you will loose is money that was never yours in the first place. you can still keep the money you put in.

 

[Anka]

How much vacation and/or sick time do you have?

 

[BigRedBeta]

A 1.5hr commute is lunacy. Even a 30-minute commute is a pain during exams. Even if you find that you don't need any sleep at all, driving 1.5 hours is not going to be much fun. Trying to listen to lectures and drive is not a good thing either (listening is best done if you are using public transportation). Long commutes make for easy and quick burnout even though you are talking about 40 days, That could easily wind up being 40 days of pure torture in addition to study time and rushing to keep up with things.

Definitely not lunacy for everyone. I had several classmates who lived between 50 and 75 minutes away from school and commuted every day. Several even did this all through 3rd year. Certainly not the way I would choose to do things, but they managed and the OP's problem is at least very temporary.

I think the biggest thing is what you're med school schedule is going to be like. My school, there were enough PBL cases, required labs and mandatory small group sessions in the beginning that it would have been pretty near impossible. Throw on top of that, that we use a "core" format so the first ten weeks are just anatomy and embryology with exams at the end of weeks 2, 5, 7 and 10, it just would not have been feasible.