New job to facilitate school and working out finances.

[Andrew N]

Current job at about 70 hours a week is not very school friendly. I work in a plant as a technician and make excellent pay due to all the OT. Gross income is about 90k/yr - my background is some computer experience, maintenance, welding, basic programming (not enough to do freelance software engineering) and 5 years of avionics in the military. I want to give it all up for something more school friendly because I would like to be able to attend school full time and focus on making good grades and studying for the MCAT. I will receive benefits for my military service including the GI bill that will total up to about 3300/month. I would like to find something to cover an additional 1700/mo and make my net income about 5k/mo so that I don't have to put my wife and kids through any radical life changes like pulling them out of sports or downsizing the house. We're a family of 5. One of my other struggles thinking ahead is.. how will I pay for medical school AND support the family? I suppose it's pretty normal for people to just finance it, but I have the GI bill that will pay 100% of any school for 36 months of my choosing.. it almost makes me feel as if the better option would be financing undergrad and using the GI bill to cover the 3/4 of med school that it would. If I were to decide to do that, I would need to make 2900/mo instead of 1700/mo, which means I'm back to working full time - in which case I may as well just keep my current job.

It's a very frustrating thought process I've been going through. Any advice from other successful non-trads is greatly appreciated! It seems as if the most logical option is doing undergrad part time and continuing to work 40-80 hours a week. I've considered asking my wife to work part time, but she doesn't have the resume and experience to make enough to off set the cost of child care.

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[Andrew N]

Well I may have a solution. My wife's family has a business. They would hire my wife and I. Since we're family it would be extremely flexible. She would work in an office and I would drive a repo truck part time. 45 minutes down the road from there is University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where I could have the flexibility of going to school full time and working. Maybe classes in the mornings and work in the evenings. Our income would be about 5500/month net during the school year and about $1300 less per month on months I'm not in school as VA benefits will stop between semesters. Then obviously I could use the free time for volunteer work, clinical experience and of course - working to supplement that lost income.

Sounds good on paper but that requires moving across 3 states, being farther from my side of the family, and then being uncomfortably close to my in laws... arguably the worst part. Sort of stressful considering I just moved here for this job 7 months ago thinking I would still be able to squeeze school in.

Just thinking out loud. I still have a year before my rental lease is up so I will probably try a semester here part time or as much as I can handle with the little free time and energy I have and see how it goes.


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[deleted480308]

you take the loans for allowable living expenses (anywhere from 20ish-35ish) depending on the school and your wife gets a job and you live like you are poor, because you will be

NHSC has a program that gives a stipend but you lock yourself into primary care, national guard doesn't pay tuition but has a stipend with a VERY long service obligation, active duty pays tuition and stipend but then you are stuck in the military for residency and 4ish years, I believe the VA was working up a program that would pay like the HPSP (might be worth looking in to)

short version is loans unless you want someone taking their pound of flesh from you later

 

[Andrew N]

you take the loans for allowable living expenses (anywhere from 20ish-35ish) depending on the school and your wife gets a job and you live like you are poor, because you will be

NHSC has a program that gives a stipend but you lock yourself into primary care, national guard doesn't pay tuition but has a stipend with a VERY long service obligation, active duty pays tuition and stipend but then you are stuck in the military for residency and 4ish years, I believe the VA was working up a program that would pay like the HPSP (might be worth looking in to)

short version is loans unless you want someone taking their pound of flesh from you later

Yeah. I looked into these in addition to the Navy HSCP. After 5 years of active duty and 2 deployments I really don't want that kind of obligation hanging over my head again. I think I have several solid options for finishing undergrad but it will take a few more years - so maybe by then the VA will have come up with something better. I mean we could even tighten the belt a little, be without the BAH in undergrad and save the post 9/11 benefits for med school - I'd just have to work more hours during undergrad.


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