Part time and Full time work while pre-med

[Scarletbegonias]

I was just curious to know how many people had to or chose to work while attending school as a pre-med major. If you worked, how many hours on average per week did you work? Do you think it affected your grades? If your grades were affected negatively, do you think this made it harder to get admitted to a medical school? If you had to work to help pay for schooling or something like that, do you feel like you are at a disadvantage to other students who didn't have to work for some reason or another? This subject interests me and I would just like to know how other people feel about it.

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[acl3623]

i had to work (if i wanted to pay my rent!) and i think it helped me manage my time. college kids have wwaaaayyy too much free time, if i hadnt worked i wouldve driven myself crazy. i dont think my grades suffered much (except for organic, which i took while i started 2 part time jobs=30hrs/week) which sucked. but i think adcoms look at it as a positive attribute, you gain a lot of real world experience from a job. i learned a lot of things about people in general and how to deal with them in difficult situations.

 

[BSEMD]

I feel like there may be a slight time advantage to being unencumbered by a job. I work about 35 hours a week, though I am going to take a reduction in hours this spring semester. I held a 4.0, but didn't take a full class load either. Balancing what time I have with school, work, research, and my wife (and my dog) is a tough trick. On the flip side, people with less free time sometimes are forced in to practicing better time management techniques. It's all in what you make of it. Don't let your grades slip, though. any job you have now will, ideally, be a temporary situation. You're trying to become a professional, someone who dedicates his/her life to their passion. No job you have in college is worth trading your dreams for.

IMHO,
Bryan

 

[Skaterbabe74]

I haven't applied to med school yet, but having a job has definitely negatively affected my grades. While having a small part time job (whatever your school suggests for the number of hours you're taking) does improve time management when you get to full-time+ credits and work 20+ hours per week there often just isn't enough time in the day. It's like trying to hold down a full-time job plus a part-time job...doable, but you're so exhausted you don't have the energy for anything else. It also depends completely on the job. For example, my first semester I was working 24+ hours of retail every week (Fri, Sat, Sun) in a commission store so I couldn't sit and study at all during work and had an hour commute on top of it. I was taking several time-intensive courses (A&P, calc, gen chem, and spanish) and there was no way I had enough time to actually study enough for them. While I didn't fail anything I definitely didn't get a 4.0 either. I've always had to take 15-18 credits and work ~20 hours per week and I have yet to acheive a 4.0 in any given semester cuz I'll just run out of time for something during the semester. Now I try to find jobs where I can study some while at work though.

Good luck!

 

[acl3623]

this is true, if you work, dont get a job that is going to be really tiring and make you want to kick your ass on top of school. being a receptionist is perfect, or working as an RA.

 

[Brain]

I have a lab job and I work about 15-20 hours a week. It's a great job to have because there's usually some down time that I can use to do school work and my boss is cool with me taking off during exams. The research experience looks great, it's given me a couple of publications, gotten me people who can write letters for me, and helped me make connections in the department. If you do decide to work, be sure to talk to your potential employer about the fact that you're a student and make sure they are understanding of that fact.

 

[Ross434]

Do med schools give you any slack in terms of extracurriculars if you are working a lot?? for example, i volunteer a good amount, and will also be working 20-25 hours / week at a local hospital in the future. Will I be okay not having any outstanding EC's if my stats are good? I'm not looking at *top* schools.

 

[dave613]

I have a lab job and I work about 15-20 hours a week. It's a great job to have because there's usually some down time that I can use to do school work and my boss is cool with me taking off during exams. The research experience looks great, it's given me a couple of publications, gotten me people who can write letters for me, and helped me make connections in the department. If you do decide to work, be sure to talk to your potential employer about the fact that you're a student and make sure they are understanding of that fact.

Agreed. I just recently landed a part time research assistant job at a big shot Alzheimer's lab in Columbia. However, what's really nice about it is that the PI is very understanding and he respects that I really can't put in more than 15 hours a week, and he also knows that during final exams, I won't be able to make it to work. >>I believe this is what undergrads should strive for, if they are pursuing research that is.

 

[PineappleGirl]

I'm working full-time (40 hours a week) while taking 2 post-bac pre-med classes in the evening. It's a bit overwhelming in the sense that I don't really have any time to myself. I get up, come to work, then after work go straight to class. By the time I get home around 9:30, I'm exhausted and it's time for bed. Thankfully though, my day job is really easy and I can study a lot during the day (or, um, spend a lot of time on SDN). 😀 My grades suffered a little bit last semester (nothing tragic, but I didn't get my desired A) because I wanted more of a social life than my schedule allowed me. Consequently, I often opted to go out when I should have been studying. I suppose I felt kind of cheated by my schedule and wanted to claim some time back for myself, to my ultimate disadvantage (well, at least that's my pop psych analysis and I'm sticking to it). I'm going to continue with the full-time work-part-time school schedule until September. Then I'm going back to school full-time to finish the rest of my pre-reqs. Hopefully, I can get by without working. Aside from the time I spend studying, working this job just feels like wasted time. It's not at all healthcare related.
Also, I just wanted to add my $0.02 about working in a lab during ugrad: DO IT! If you decide to take a year off after school, you can easily get a job as a lab tech at a university or a hospital, especially if you have a bachelor's in the sciences. I wish I had worked in a lab instead of in an office during ugrad. Then I could have gotten a job more related to medicine instead of one sitting in a cube.

 

[OSUdoc08]

I worked part-time (on weekends) as a paramedic.

 

[UTKB]

I had a work-study job during undergrad: worked part-time (anywhere from 9-30 hours a week, depending on course load) for the School of Biological Sciences at UT-Austin. Great lab experience and loved working with students and faculty. My grades didn't suffer, they actually improved. 👍

 

[Scarletbegonias]

Seems like there is a variety of experiences with full time or part time work while going to school. I have had a part time job (15-20 hours/week) almost the whole time I have been studying at the undergraduate level to pay for living expenses. Except for summers when I took 3-6 credit hours, I was a full time student with at least 12 credit hours per semester, earlier usually 15 credit hours on average. I was not as fortunate as others to have a job that allowed me study on down time. If I were to do it again, I would try to find a job like that. There were other reasons that I won't mention here as to why I stayed at my current job for more than 3 years. Although I have been able to maintain a 3.72 gpa (only 1 C ever), I feel like working has made a difference in some important science classes such as Organic Chemistry and Physics as to whether I earned a B or A, not to mention cutting into study time for the MCAT. I don't want to seem like I'm making excuses for myself because I could have worked harder, but I feel like I was at a disadvantage working. Simply working 10 hours per week means 10 less hours you have to study (or 10 less hours for extra curricular activities such as organizations, volunteering) compared to someone who is not working those ten hours. Working also has the effect of making a person tired, which can also affect the quality of studying. I don't know how much consideration admissions boards give to those aspects of working mentioned above.

 

[Twitch]

I work full time. Most of the time it feels much more than that though. Here's a one week in my life:

I work 50-60 hours a week during regular business hours and then some. Then I goto class till around 9:30-10pm. If it's the week I'm on call then I log on from home and work somemore whenever the pager goes off. This can be several times in the middle of the night - 1am - 3am - 5am whenever. Some nights I'm up all night fixing the problem and still have to go into work the next day. Ofcourse there is class after that. What can I say it's almost like MSIII. Sleep.....ha...that's be nice.

On the positive side, the pay is rather cosy, but it's killing me. Last semester was painful because I was wrapping up grad school and then going back to an undergrad institution to pick up some prereqs I still need.

This year, atleast I can focus completely on science classes since I'm done with grad school. Due to my full time job schedule, I can only squeeze in two science classes.

Did it hurt my grades? Yes and no. I got 1 B in a non science class in grad school that I didn't care for and never opened the book once. Also never attended a single class all the way through other then the first one. Can you tell I disliked the instructor but needed the class to graduate. Other than I made straight A's in my science classes and the other grad classes for the semester.

Other than work and school, I work out and volunteer (4hrs/wk) at a level I trauma every week with my buddies. If I'm really bored I'll play some fps online - usu css.

I can't believe the semester is about to start again. I'm taking Bio II and Chem I. It's been a while since I've posted, hence the lengthy post. Actually ER is on right now but I'm DVRing it so I don't have to watch the commercials.

 

[dkang]

i have three jobs...one of them is a "whenever you feel like coming in just clock in and get paid," another is serving as a tutor/mini-program director, and the last TAing. in the end, it's how well you can manage your time.

i agree that we have a lot of time on our hands as college students and making some extra bucks and also networking can't hurt 😛 also, look for jobs that are flexible or have free-time potential (e.g. research).

i didn't have to work, but it's been worth it. did it hurt my gpa? probably a little. but then again, i might have wasted that time doing other nonsense anyways. also, the connections i've made through my jobs have given me employment opportunities for the yr off i'm planning to take. so it's worked out for the best in the end 😀

 

[blebl34]

EKG tech, work about 18 hours a week while being fulltime student (junior year).

It is hard, but managable. Social life sure does suffer though.

 

[RangerD]

I was just curious to know how many people had to or chose to work while attending school as a pre-med major. If you worked, how many hours on average per week did you work? Do you think it affected your grades? If your grades were affected negatively, do you think this made it harder to get admitted to a medical school? If you had to work to help pay for schooling or something like that, do you feel like you are at a disadvantage to other students who didn't have to work for some reason or another? This subject interests me and I would just like to know how other people feel about it.

I worked anywhere from 40 to 80 hours per week throughout my entire undergrad experience. That meant it took much longer to finish undergrad, attending night classes a couple at a time or so. However, it did not have a negative affect. I graduated Summa Cum Laude (3.94 GPA). It just takes a lot a discipline. I worked to support my family...I would have loved to not have to work and to just go to school full time. However, I did not have that luxury. It made things more difficult, but it is manageable if you are disciplined.

One good thing about that is that I currently work as a medical device rep. I spend about 60% of my time on the job directly caring for patients. I spend the other 40% of my time working directly with physicians and their staff. I found this experience was impressive for the admissions committees. Any experience you can get with direct patient interaction is good. Most people volunteer. However, if you can get paid for it...all the better!

 

[moogy]

I worked about 21 hours/week last semester as a clinical assistant and didn't do as well as I hoped (half A's & half B's). I think working helped me with my time management a little. Much of the time I was working would have gone to waste watching TV and stuff. I'm going to be working 16 hrs/week (night shifts on Friday and Saturday). I should be able to study/sleep on the job more than I did last semester since there aren't as many cases in the OR during the night. It may be tough having to change my sleeping schedule twice every week though. I hope it goes well 🙂

 

[MizzouDrWannabe]

I work at a hospital and my shift starts really early. I only work 10-15 hours a week so it's not bad, just the getting up early thing wears on me after awhile. I've learned to sleep in short shifts though 😀

 

[sunnyjohn]

i had to work (if i wanted to pay my rent!) and i think it helped me manage my time. college kids have wwaaaayyy too much free time, if i hadnt worked i wouldve driven myself crazy. i dont think my grades suffered much (except for organic, which i took while i started 2 part time jobs=30hrs/week) which sucked. but i think adcoms look at it as a positive attribute, you gain a lot of real world experience from a job. i learned a lot of things about people in general and how to deal with them in difficult situations.

I agree. Unemployed college kids do have alot of free time. Unfortunately they are often to inexperienced to realize it. I remember burning more than a few hours the first time through undergrad. When I finally did get a part-time job I was better able to manage my time.

 

[melimi]

I really think i had the best job ever as an undergrad.
i got paid TO STUDY.
basically, i got hooked up mad sweet for work-study.
they gave me a job at the library..... get this....... basement......microfilm
OBVIOUSLY no one uses microfilm now a days, so i just sat there and studied. i would actually take the same job again during med school if i can.

 

[Parscope]

I have lots of undergrad loans (to really pay the bills) and I choose to work about 20 hours/week.

I see my work more as fun and as a chance to understand what I am studying in school better, so it is definitely worth the time it takes up. I work/intern in a microbiology lab at UTSW.

 

[Shrami]

I started working about a month or so ago and my grades are improving tremendously. I'm not sure if there's a correlation, but I now value time more and I'll think twice before doing anything that I think may be unproductive.