Advice on work during PT school?

[trainxchoo]

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Does anyone have any advice on working during PT school? If I was awarded work-study, should I take it? Or am I signing up for a boatload of stress and failure

 

[dobsonek]

Does anyone have any advice on working during PT school? If I was awarded work-study, should I take it? Or am I signing up for a boatload of stress and failure

I know that most programs (meaning all except hybrid programs) strongly discourage working during school because of the heavy workload/long days of classes. If you think you can handle it go for it, but I know personally I won’t even begin to entertain the thought of working while in school.

 

[JMarcusDPT]

Does anyone have any advice on working during PT school? If I was awarded work-study, should I take it? Or am I signing up for a boatload of stress and failure

I didn't work, but I did some freelance writing. Many of my classmates worked part time and lots of people do this. No one studies 24/7, so if working is important, it just may come at the expense of other non-school activities. The best would be if you find a job with downtime that will allow you to study, and that is flexible so you can ramp down during exam weeks.

 

[kdubz7w7]

Does anyone have any advice on working during PT school? If I was awarded work-study, should I take it? Or am I signing up for a boatload of stress and failure

It really depends on you. I worked very part-time through PT school, it gave me some balance and an escape from school stress. If I had had to work ~15+ hours I would have hated it, but I had classmates working 15-20 and they seemed to be doing fine. The majority did not work at all though (but then again, they came from wealthy families so didn't need to). It can force you to study more efficiently, and get out of your PT student head.

You will find lots of people say absolutely not and lots of people say yeah go for it, I've seen a lot of these threads. I think it is hard to say until you find out how YOU are in PT school (undergrad is not much of an indicator, PT school is very different) & how you balance school life with everything-else life. If money is a thing for you, then try it and see how it goes. Hopefully it has some flexibility so you can decrease hours near mid-terms and finals.

 

[bmxpt2]

I’ve been working a prn aide job (average 2-3 shifts a month) in acute care during my 1st year and have straight A’s on my transcript except for 3 classes so far (B’s). It’s doable, but don’t overdo it.

 

[trainxchoo]

Thanks for all your responses 🙂

 

[ya1]

Does anyone have any advice on working during PT school? If I was awarded work-study, should I take it? Or am I signing up for a boatload of stress and failure

Don't work during the 1st semester. Allow yourself time to sense the environment and workload. If during the 1st semester you feel like you do have spare time to work, start working during the 2nd semester. You will also get an idea after the 1st semester how many hours you will be able to devote to work.
It's too risky to start working during the 1st semester because if you do not have enough time to study, you may fail classes and will have to retake them which will cost money and maybe time.

 

[Have.A.Gait.Day]

I too am on the fence about working part-time and looking into other options. Does anyone have any side job ideas or ways to earn some money here and there?

I've been suggested Doordash. Trying to think of other options since driving isn't exactly my forte .

I also would like to share that my friend worked the desk at a YMCA and was able to study on the job. That could be a possible job option for some of you. In the case of my undergrad, a lot of the campus jobs are relaxed (checking id's at the gym, game room, info desk). So it might not be a bad idea to take the work study if it's anything like my school's jobs.

 

[FutureDPT_MN2015]

I have worked part time through PT school all but the first month of my first trimester of school. I work as a server anywhere from 20 hours a week to just 8-10 depending on where we were at in the curriculum. Some weeks I could work more than others, so it really just depends! I agree with other posters that some of my classmates didn’t work at all and would say that they couldn’t imagine working... however, I honestly never really had an issue with it unless I overloaded a week that had a lot of exams (my own fault - so sleep was sacrificed in order to study).

All that said, good planning and a flexible job is completely doable in my opinion! But you know you better than anyone else! Whatever you choose, good luck!