has this been done??

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kristiewh

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I am a single mother of 3 young children was accepted to all of the schools i applied to. I was so happy to have realized my goal of getting into med school until i realized how impossible this may be. I do not have family support and while ive managed to balance work ( im a midwife), school, and kids, all of the sudden am wondering if this is realistic.
These are the questions I'm trying to answer?
Does the average med student have 4-5 hours per day to do something other than study? I don't mind studying until 2 am if I can have the afternoons or evenings, and weekends to be with the kids. Does anyone know if this is a realistic schedule?
I welcome any advice.
 
Well I can't say that it is impossible. But it all depends on your study habits, time management, etc. Of course it won't be easy, and 4-5hrs is a big chunk out of your day, but thats what...from 3-8pm? Leave 9p-12am to study, plus weekends? Like I said, it'll depend on your study habits, and so forth. For one of my friends, she doesn't have to study too much in her classes, since she has already earned a graduate degree that encompass most of the med school curriculum. If that is your situation than you shouldn't be too concerned.

I know a few med students who have children (or will have kids). Most have some support structure set up (family, close friends), while 2 do not. In fact one med student actually lives 30 miles from the school, so has to commute that far every day, go to school, study, take care of his kid. But he did it. I'm sure there are probably a few people in these forums who can provide better input than I.

Lastly, if worse comes, maybe you can defer admission for this year, so you can set up a better support structure? Getting your children's lives in order is a worthy reason to ask the school to allow you to start a year later.

All in all, you are the best person to gauge if you can handle it. We don't know your abilities. You already know that this profession will require a lot of sacrifices, therefore one must look ahead....including how much time study is needed for med school, but also clinical rotations, residency, fellowships, USMLE's. I want to reiterate its not impossible to do, but beyond saying that its not impossible, all I can say is good luck, and I hope everything works out 😕

Maybe someone else can provide better feedback than me...because i'm tapped out on this one 🙁
 
kristiewh said:
I am a single mother of 3 young children was accepted to all of the schools i applied to. I was so happy to have realized my goal of getting into med school until i realized how impossible this may be. I do not have family support and while ive managed to balance work ( im a midwife), school, and kids, all of the sudden am wondering if this is realistic.
These are the questions I'm trying to answer?
Does the average med student have 4-5 hours per day to do something other than study? I don't mind studying until 2 am if I can have the afternoons or evenings, and weekends to be with the kids. Does anyone know if this is a realistic schedule?
I welcome any advice.
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I think a lot would depend on the curriculum at the school. For example, if it's heavy on small-groups, you'll be required to attend. Not only that, a large portion of your grade may come from participation, which would mean a whole lot of time needed for preparation. On the other hand, if it's just lectures, AND attendance is not taken, AND they're recorded and available online, you could probably spend very little time on campus and still get all the info.

And for clinical years, there will be rotations during which the 4-5 hrs you have per day had better be spent sleeping because the rest of your hours will be standing around holding a retractor or covering point as you endlessly circle the hospital. 😉

Honestly, I'm actually a little surprised schools let you in without a support structure in place being a single mother of 3! On almost all my interviews I was specifically asked about my support structure, how supportive parents and spouse are, etc. And I don't even have kids! I was always asked questions for them to assess that I knew what I was getting into, how much work and time it would be, etc. Did it not come up during your interviews?

How old are your kids? Are they able to look after themselves? Like relentless11 suggested, a deferment is an option so you can get a support system in place. It would make your job of getting through med school much easier if you don't have to worry about the kids every waking moment.
 
kristiewh said:
I am a single mother of 3 young children was accepted to all of the schools i applied to. I was so happy to have realized my goal of getting into med school until i realized how impossible this may be. I do not have family support and while ive managed to balance work ( im a midwife), school, and kids, all of the sudden am wondering if this is realistic.
These are the questions I'm trying to answer?
Does the average med student have 4-5 hours per day to do something other than study? I don't mind studying until 2 am if I can have the afternoons or evenings, and weekends to be with the kids. Does anyone know if this is a realistic schedule?
I welcome any advice.
Click to expand...

Hi there,
There are no guarantees of how much time your will have as a medical student. During the first two years, your free time depends on how much time it takes to master the huge volume of information that comes at you pretty fast. During third and fourth year, you probably will not have free time in the afternoons that you can count on.

Medical school is very time consuming if you plan on doing well. The people who fail out of medical school (yes this does happen more often than you think) are the people who fail to put in the time that it takes to master the material.

Get your support system together and plan on NOT having afternoon free time. Once in a while, you may be able to do things but this is highly dependent on your school and the curriculum.

njbmd 🙂
 
njbmd said:
Hi there,
There are no guarantees of how much time your will have as a medical student. During the first two years, your free time depends on how much time it takes to master the huge volume of information that comes at you pretty fast. During third and fourth year, you probably will not have free time in the afternoons that you can count on.

Medical school is very time consuming if you plan on doing well. The people who fail out of medical school (yes this does happen more often than you think) are the people who fail to put in the time that it takes to master the material.

Get your support system together and plan on NOT having afternoon free time. Once in a while, you may be able to do things but this is highly dependent on your school and the curriculum.

njbmd 🙂
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Thanks for the words of wisdom! No harm in planning now... I have a family I need to consider as well, so it's nice to have advice like this.
 
Check out MOMMD that is listed under sdn partners they probably have a thread dealing with this.
 
I agree with the above poster there is NO telling how much time YOU will need. I would be hard pressed to tell you that sure you will have 5 hours per night to spend with family ...Most medical students spend a lot of time studying with some more than others depending on how well they pick up a HUGE amount of material. So count on NOT having time and then if you do great! but going in expecting to have this time is kind of setting yourself up for failure. Most folks I know have a huge support network...specially come third/fourth year with call and whatnot.
 
All med students I have spoken to have described med school as similar to an 8-5 job in term of the workload; 20-25 hours class per week, 20-25 hours studying.

I would encourage you to borrow more money and work less. Private loans are avalible, not just the 10-15k the government gives you to live. Not to give up your job -- my job is a huge part of my sense of usefullness and self-worth, and I hope to hold on to it until my first day of residency. But try to cut your hours to 20 a week or less. That said, there are people who work 80 hours a week while raising three kids. They're called immigrants, and they still have enough time to destroy our Anglo-Saxon heritage and overburden our public services (as Fox would have it).

Full disclosure: I don't have kids and I haven't started school. So, I'm ignorant. But I have some experience with burning the candle at both end (for a while there, my candle was burning like a Menorah dunked in naplam) and my advice would be: get childcare you can trust, cut your hours at work, save money now, be prepared not to work during anatomy, and borrow like mad to pay for it all.
 
amk25a said:
Honestly, I'm actually a little surprised schools let you in without a support structure in place being a single mother of 3! Did it not come up during your interviews?
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And as a former premed divorced Mom myself, I can tell you that sometimes even the best made plans can fall apart at the last minute so planning before med school will really only take you but so far since none of us can predicts our futures. However, I'd assume that anyone smart enough to have the success of the OP won't have too many problems doing what needs to be done to be successful in med school. And obviously, the adcoms agree! 😉

kristiewh, if I were you I'd pick the school that has the schedule you need at least in the first 2 years. For me that would mean that an 8-5 in class all day would be out of the question. I'd also make sure that I had strong financial resources (student/personal loans, savings) for emergencies like babysitters. You won't have much control in the last 2 years but who knows, you could have a stay at home husband or live in nanny by then.

Speaking of nannies, I know of another young woman with 3 kids that had a live in nanny that she paid by giving her free room and board during med school. She's now in residency at a top school.

Congrats and good luck!
 
rsfarrell said:
All med students I have spoken to have described med school as similar to an 8-5 job in term of the workload; 20-25 hours class per week, 20-25 hours studying.
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Bear in mind, as others have suggested, that there is no "all med students" rule. Some need to spend this amount, some more, some less. Eg., your described studying hours sound quite light to me.
Also bear in mind that some people "get by" on this amount but most would need to work substantially harder if they hoped to get honors, AOA, a high class rank, or whatnot. And bear in mind that what occurs in an "average" week, will not necessarilly be the schedule for the week leading up to a big exam, so if the OP is looking for a guaranteed 4-5 hours EVERY day, it's simply unrealistic. Some days will work out that way. But there will certainly be days immediately prior to tests when you'll have very few waking hours to do non-school related work.
 
Agree, 20 hrs week for studying does not seem the "average" of most medical students...many spend 4hrs/day (M-F) and then might double up on weekends....again there is NO guarantee and you might need less/more. You will NOT know until you get there regardless of how well/bad you did in undergrad.
 
efex101 said:
Agree, 20 hrs week for studying does not seem the "average" of most medical students...many spend 4hrs/day (M-F) and then might double up on weekends....again there is NO guarantee and you might need less/more. You will NOT know until you get there regardless of how well/bad you did in undergrad.
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As a mom with a family, I'm "predicting" I'll need to spend at least 30-40 hours/week studying INCLUDING some weekend time. So Efex, I guess Mayo is completely OUT of the question for me even though a made that formula cut off for an interview!! :laugh:
 
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