Part-time job & commute during vet school

[kittensmeow]

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I'm hoping to keep my current employment part-time during vet school, since it is easy work that pays very well and I'll need to continue helping support my family while studying. The challenge is that I would have to drive 5 hours back to my home town two or three weekends per month (leave Friday evening, come back Sunday evening). I know this isn't ideal but is it possible? The actual work hours for my job are minimal (8-10 hours on the weekend when I'm back home) but it's the commute that concerns me. I could study in the car, en route - I assume a lot of studying in vet school involves memorization, which I could do while driving....?

Any thoughts on this? And has anyone done anything similar while in vet school?

 

[KCgophervet]

Not sure how you plan on studying while driving but unless you're just listening to lectures, don't do it. Distracted driving is a no no.

I think you would be better off finding a local part time job near your school rather than making that commute - that's 10 hours of your life those weekends that could be better spent doing almost literally anything else. Not to mention the miles on your car and the gas.

All that being said, yes technically it could be doable. I worked some 22 hour weekends in vet school (at an emergency clinic) so you can survive vet school while taking time to work. I just can't imagine working 10 hours would be worth a 10 hour drive.

 

[battie]

I second kcoughli. Your time would be infinitely better spent getting a closer job, if not at the vet school itself. You could still do the 10 hours of work, and then you'll have 10 extra hours to study or work or relax or nap or etc

 

[britzen]

Also consider that you will be paying for gas round trip. 10 hours round trip would probably cost me like $40-$50 in gas. Taking a $4-5 dollar per hour pay cut near your school would still net you the same end amount of money without the hassle of all that driving.

Definitely worth asking if you can still work at your old job during breaks though. I know lots of people who do that.

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile

 

[kittensmeow]

Thanks for the replies. It would be hard to find a replacement that pays as well for the time I spend working - I make approx. 40K from this part-time job, and it has a health/dental plan and pension, so the gas money, etc. would be worth it.

As far as studying while driving, I was thinking I could go over concepts in my head, recite things out loud to reinforce memorization, that sort of thing....maybe I could chat with fellow students using speakerphone?....I promise I'll keep my eyes on the road.

 

[mmmdreamerz]

To me, this sounds like it would be miserable. Vet school is hard enough and burn out is real enough without adding a 10 hour commute every weekend.

 

[PippyPony]

As far as studying while driving, I was thinking I could go over concepts in my head, recite things out loud to reinforce memorization, that sort of thing....maybe I could chat with fellow students using speakerphone?....I promise I'll keep my eyes on the road.

It is harder to do this than you might think, especially the further you get in school. There is a lot of memorization, but the thing about memorizing is that you don't have the things committed to memory yet, so I wouldn't expect to make a lot of progress this way.

Similarly, at this point, I don't think I could even find any other students anymore who were on top of the material enough to quiz me over the phone, let alone pay them enough to make it worth their time.

I do commute to school (only 30 min) and listen to lectures sometimes while driving, and that is a strategy that can help...but I have found it works best when you are listening things for a second or third time (sometimes I pop one on in the car on the way to a test if I found it to be a particularly hard lecture.)

But even with that -- the further you go into school, the harder this gets. I can't only listen to the lectures now, because at least half of them are looking at radiographs, or of pictures of caseous lymphadenitis on gross pathology, or blood smears of babesia. Or, they includes slides where the lecturer says "here is a summary chart of all the common eye medications we use; we will not discuss these individually due to time constraints but expect exam questions on all the material in this table."

Honestly I've started listening to Harry Potter books on tape on repeat to chill out during my drives because it's a better use of time than trying to "study"

 

[that redhead]

I would strongly advise against this.

Some vet school courses require memorization- anatomy for example. But simply listening to origin/insertion/action/innervation for hours isn’t going to help unless you are purely an auditory learner. And even then, you will realize quickly that you will need to adapt your learning strategy for each class and that just listening to things isn’t going to keep it in your head.

There is also the fact that you will lose out on wet labs over weekends, forming bonds with your classmates, your mental health and other less tangible things that are still very important. And yes, your grades are likely to suffer for it. I don’t think it’s worth it, even with easy work and decent pay.

 

[TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo]

I wouldn't do it personally.

I think you would also want to see how your exams are set up. At my school, all exams (other than finals week) are at 8am on Mondays and Thursdays. Working all weekend and getting back Sunday evening would absolutely not be an option.

Having time on weekends to study before Monday exams, hang out with friends, and get to know my classmates was a life saver. I wouldn't have given that up for anything.

I've taken on a few temp/part-time jobs this year to help with money, but even those are still not as much commitment as 2-3 weekends a month. The few people I know who work weekends in reception at the teaching hospital only can manage it because they are allowed to study at work when it is slow.