before starting school...

[Chrisobean]

what would you do in this situation?

quit your full time job at the end of june, and have 1.5 months to travel and party and get your act together before starting school...

OR

work one extra month, make another 2000 bucks, have less free time, miss out on alot of summer, and have .5 months off before school...

MONEY OR FUN?

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[jlee9531]

what are you gonna do with the extra 2k?

if the answer is nothing significant...then why? it sounds like in the first situation you will have the $ to travel and have fun anyway.

 

[Celestron2000]

I'm going to have to make that same decision myself. I'm leaning towards 1 week of work + 2 weeks of travel + 1 week of recover/move. Whadayathink?

 

[MNgrrl]

I am in exactly your situation, and personally I am choosing option #1 - $2000 isn't going to be enough money to make a huge dent in your loans, and you won't have time/money to travel for a month and a half for quite a few years once you start med school!

Based on the tone of your post, it seems like you've already made up your mind...

 

[Chrisobean]

i will put that 2k in the bank with the rest of my fortune.. lol.
maybe by a fancier laptop or make a huge dent in my car loan... i really dont know. i still have some money to have fun. and i sort of hate my job. the idea of being a beach bum this summer is VERY appealing, but the prospect of having another $2k is just hard to pass up...

 

[celticmists18]

I was in the same situation as you guys . . . spend the summer splitting cells in the lab earning money or backpacking in Europe with my friends. It was actually my dad who helped me make the decision. He said "you have to remember to live life while you are going through it"(this coming from the man who works like a lunatic and is throwing me to the sharks when it comes to paying for med school). So my advice . . . go have some fun, there is plenty of time to make money later!

 

[Paws]

I have been thinking about this one as well. I am leaning towards taking some time off as well. Or, I could stay and work like a dog for the summer months of may/june/july in order to finish up the work I am doing. In the bigger scheme of tings, I don't really want to be left with 50 hour work weeks and then be exhausted for school in August, when I can just walk away in May or so and take some time for myself.

Life is short and what we have ahead of ourselves is going to be hard - cool and totally awesome! - but hard as well. I don't really want to go into it tired and worn out. I'd like a couple of weeks in Europe, too.

 

[ken37]

Well, wouldn't the proper analysis be make $2000 or spend $x travelling? ie if you spent $3k travelling, then your net gain from working is $5k, not $2k. That is, of course, unless you travel free. Personally, though, I'd go for it, because you'll be working hard enough during med school.

 

[turkdlit]

I was trying to figure out the same thing for myself...my last day at work is May14th I figure we've got plenty of time to stress out during school, and make money after school, now is the time to enjoy yourself. Just my opinion...

 

[rebeclette]

I'm in the same boat, I'm leaning towards not working, and relaxing. I'm not a super big fan of my job, and its my last real bumb time for a really long time. I just have to decide on something fun to do to make up for the loss of $3000.

 

[Integra96]

Be a bum. You're going to f'in regret not partying and relaxing for that last little bit...

Now where's that smiley of the guy hoisting a beer up???

 

[Xmulder]

Extra $2000 dollars?? what job would be doing to make that much.... that's a lot!

 

[rebeclette]

It is a lot, I work as a lab tech at ucsf and make about that much. The joys of finally having a BA!

 

[lizzylu]

TRAVEL!

I'm finishing my work at the end of May and leaving for Europe 5 days later

There's no way $2000 will make you that much happier in the long run, esp w/ $150,000 + in loans coming up

 

[Xmulder]

rebeclette, do you mean $2k as gross or net income (i.e. after taxes, living expenses, etc)?

 

[usmaple]

That $2K is going to be slowly pissed away over the next 4 years in the form of increased Expected Contribution in your financial aid calculations, so it really isn't worth it. Personally I'm giving myself at least two months of break time before starting, but we've saved up enough so that bridging the gap will be pretty easy....

 

[Chrisobean]

my 2k is take home, its like 2800 pre-taxes..

im a research tech too, MSKCC

yeah, i have decided to take the time off... after all, how can you start med school without a great tan???

 

[lukeday99]

I think that we should have a massive "people entering med school party" on a beach somewhere. It'll be just like these forums, only with more beer and less annoying little smily faces. We can dance in an uninhibited manner, hook up with John Hopkin's kids to see if they really are smarter, and chug all the beer we didn't in college because we were taking biochem and learning about alchohol dehydrogenase, instead of synthesizing it.

 

[Superwuwu]

I just have one question... Where the Hell are ya'll getting all this money to travel from?

 

[Brickhouse]

Originally posted by Superwuwu
I just have one question... Where the Hell are ya'll getting all this money to travel from?

Eh, what's an extra $2000 worth of debt anyway. I'm maxin' out my cards!!


Chrisobean come to Cali and party with me! Let's travel! Plans are in the works!

 

[finnpipette]

screw work. i'd take out 2000 dollars in loans and live it up...what's another 2 compared to 120k.

 

[Chrisobean]

Originally posted by Brickhouse
Eh, what's an extra $2000 worth of debt anyway. I'm maxin' out my cards!!


Chrisobean come to Cali and party with me! Let's travel! Plans are in the works!

no no, come to NYC!! or we can do both, or meet in the middle!

so far i'm planning a cruise.. me + plane =

 

[rebeclette]

Originally posted by Xmulder
rebeclette, do you mean $2k as gross or net income (i.e. after taxes, living expenses, etc)?

That's how much I take home every month, most of us lab techs at universities seem to make about the same amount.

 

[darkcity998]

What about if you had an option to make an extra $4000 take home? Do you guys think there's a big difference?

 

[IrishOarsman]

Instead of sending out graduation announcements, I'm considering sending out "I'm a vagabond" announcements where I detail my plan to break in all my friends' and relatives' new couches all summer long. Oh, the joys of mooching in new and fantastic places.

If that fails, I'm going up to a park in Alaska with a huge bag of rice, a la Christopher McCandless (except I'll bring my cell phone). (aside: i'm way too wimpy to go for weeks with just rice so there's no way i'll save money going this route... nonetheless, it sounds cool)

 

[omarsaleh66]

Hey dude

I worked before med school and took a month off before school and I vacationed to Miami and Toronto b4 med school orientation. Anyways,
when med school started I wasnt in the right mind set. I was still in party mode and my first block grades werent all that cuz I didnt even have books until the 3rd week of classes. Big Mistake. Its alot harder to catch up in med school. Screw work, in med school u need to relax and live off loans and live nice to make life as least stressful as possible. Also get alot of rest and get all the partying out of ur system so u start med school in the right mindset and are motivated to work hard.

Get ur mind right. Get all that bull**** out of ur system, whatever u want to do, travel, sleep make sure u get it out of ur system and for me a month b4 med school wasnt enough. I need 3 months to have fun and chill b4 med school and im not a lazy person but really get it all out of ur system and be lazy b4 med school starts

peace

Omar

 

[docmemi]

i vote for fun. sadly im working almost 40-50 hours a week, at a few diff jobs, no pay!! im trying to get a couple months of time off to go travel, sleep, party, etc. i dont think we can do that again for the rest of our lives....med school, residency, and then a family and work.

 

[dtreese]

I'm gonna have to go with work.

 

[supereagles]

Originally posted by dtreese
I'm gonna have to go with work.

me too

 

[darkcity998]

Anyone still debating to quit work now and starting to have a life now before med school starts? Anyone who will be working throughout the summer with little vacation before med school?

Still stuck in the same situation....

 

[Xega]

I'm working in a lab right now as well and will keep working until a couple of weeks before med school starts, but it isn't that bad since I hang out with friends pretty much everynight and am enjoying what I do at lab as well.

 

[Thundrstorm]

Compromise: work an extra 2 weeks, put the 1k in the bank, lay on the beach for a month.

 

[BubbleBobble]

Anyone still debating to quit work now and starting to have a life now before med school starts? Anyone who will be working throughout the summer with little vacation before med school?

Still stuck in the same situation....

I'm (hopefully) going to get some work in during the summer. All these threads make me wonder though...only $2K? For how long? I was thinking maybe 5-6K, and a lot of my friends made $12-15K last summer...

 

[docmemi]

i vote for fun. sadly im working almost 40-50 hours a week, at a few diff jobs, no pay!! im trying to get a couple months of time off to go travel, sleep, party, etc. i dont think we can do that again for the rest of our lives....med school, residency, and then a family and work.

haha, that was so long ago. ive since completed almost all of my jobs and im chillin. workin a little for pay. but its certainly good to finally care about myself.

go have fun!! unless you need to work to get by.

 

[Ragzpie]

Hey ChrisOBean,

Is the point of your break to travel or to just relax? If it's to relax, you could get a fun part-time job, make SOME money, and then just enjoy your summer.

I'm leavin my tech job in mid-June, then workin for Kaplan for the rest of the summer. It pays well and I can work as many or as few hours as I want. I'm plannin on takin a bunch of weekend trips to go kayaking, climbing and to weddings (six this summer!!).

If you have money to travel, do it. You're only young once and you need to take advantage of this time.

Good luck!

 

[southbelle]

Extra $2000 dollars?? what job would be doing to make that much.... that's a lot!

$2000 for working an extra month is a lot? I work a job considered "low paid" now and make more than that/month.

 

[missbonnie]

Um, I quit my job about a yr ago
Sure it's been a little rough and I could've used that $$ for paying for med school, but I haven't regretted it at all! I've been doing whatever I want, sleeping whenever I want and traveling.

An extra $$XX in loans won't kill you and I'm pretty sure you ll be glad u had some fun before med school, residency and beyond.