Paying for ugrad and med school

[mconnell]

I am currently working as a nurse in California and am wanting to go back to school to fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor. I still need my Bachelors degree. At the rate I'm going it will take me a lifetime to finish my BS. Has anyone considered quitting their jobs to return to school? Would it make sense to leave work and go to school full time (racking up all the debt from undergrad study)? How can I pay for my undergrad education and my living expenses if I am not working full time? Private loans?

Thank you for any help/assistance you can provide!

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[oldpro]

Why quit and do agency Nursing while in school? Yea borrow the money for undergrad to finish then when you go to Medschool it is deffered while in. BTW I'm an RN too.

 

[calliMD]

I'm also thinking of using another degree (PharmD) to fund my medical school expenses. Luckily pharmacy pays quite well and it's fairly easy to find flexible part-time hours. Anyone know how realistic it is to work part-time (~10-20 hours/week) while in med school?

 

[chocomorsel]

I'm also thinking of using another degree (PharmD) to fund my medical school expenses. Luckily pharmacy pays quite well and it's fairly easy to find flexible part-time hours. Anyone know how realistic it is to work part-time (~10-20 hours/week) while in med school?

You must really love school. Wow, that's a lot of schooling. One thing's for sure, you'll be ahead of your classmates in some of the classes. It's actually realistic to work one 12hrs a week. Definetly your first year, not so much second and third, but definetly again fourth. I say this, cuz I had a lot of free time first year and had previously thought I was gonna put in 12hrs a week working to supplement my income. I'm an RN. Well, I ended up partying my a$$ off pretty much every weekend instead. And do not regret it. Hell I needed a break, been working since I was like 15. So anyway, you can do it, especially if you have a family or wife and have gotten the partying out of your system. I was still sorta young when I started at 25 with no responsibilities. But I actually plan on working now in the latter half of third year when I have easier rotations, and definetly fourth year.

 

[chocomorsel]

I am currently working as a nurse in California and am wanting to go back to school to fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor. I still need my Bachelors degree. At the rate I'm going it will take me a lifetime to finish my BS. Has anyone considered quitting their jobs to return to school? Would it make sense to leave work and go to school full time (racking up all the debt from undergrad study)? How can I pay for my undergrad education and my living expenses if I am not working full time? Private loans?

Thank you for any help/assistance you can provide!

You can quit working full time and get a job part time or agency and focus on school full time. I was an LVN all thru undergrad and worked part time. And of course it will not be the money that you are used to, but you can supplement with school loans. As long as you are in school more than halft time, you get to defer all federal loans. I'm not sure about private. This is definetly the realistic way to go, otherwise it will take forever, trust me. I know people who've been talking about going to medical school for a while but don't want to give up a good paycheck, and are still working the floors. I on the other had am 70k in debt, but two years closer to my MD!!! Good luck. And yes, it is possible to work 12hrs a week during first year. Not so much 2nd though. And with clinics, depends on which rotation you are in.

 

[Empress]

If you don't have a family to support, I think you could work PRN and schedule working around classes, use student loans to pay for school, and still be okay. You may have to downsize your lifestyle, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing.

What I am doing is working part-time (I'm married and my spouse works) to pay for classes at the local CC for the general education requirements (english, humanities, social sciences, etc), and then transferring to a university to complete my BS. Would something like that be an option?

Good luck!

 

[calliMD]

You must really love school. Wow, that's a lot of schooling. One thing's for sure, you'll be ahead of your classmates in some of the classes. It's actually realistic to work one 12hrs a week. Definetly your first year, not so much second and third, but definetly again fourth. I say this, cuz I had a lot of free time first year and had previously thought I was gonna put in 12hrs a week working to supplement my income. I'm an RN. Well, I ended up partying my a$$ off pretty much every weekend instead. And do not regret it. Hell I needed a break, been working since I was like 15. So anyway, you can do it, especially if you have a family or wife and have gotten the partying out of your system. I was still sorta young when I started at 25 with no responsibilities. But I actually plan on working now in the latter half of third year when I have easier rotations, and definetly fourth year.

Thanks for the response Choco. I'm glad to hear that someone was able to get in some fun amongst countless hours of studying. From the way some people talk, I expected everyone to be studying while shackled to their desk/computer during all 4 years of med school.

And no I really don't love school that much, although i can definitely see why you'd think so. I originally pursued pharmacy kind of like the "practical" alternative to medicine.. only 4 years plus a year long residency. I wanted to have a family, etc. etc. Well after 4 years of pharmacy school, I've finally decided to heck with it and to go for an MD as well. I don't think I'd genuinely be happy with myself if I never gave it a try. Screw being practical. I'm still hoping to be able to incorporate the PharmD in practice as well.

-Calli

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

You must really love school. Wow, that's a lot of schooling. One thing's for sure, you'll be ahead of your classmates in some of the classes. It's actually realistic to work one 12hrs a week. Definetly your first year, not so much second and third, but definetly again fourth. I say this, cuz I had a lot of free time first year and had previously thought I was gonna put in 12hrs a week working to supplement my income. I'm an RN. Well, I ended up partying my a$$ off pretty much every weekend instead. And do not regret it. Hell I needed a break, been working since I was like 15. So anyway, you can do it, especially if you have a family or wife and have gotten the partying out of your system. I was still sorta young when I started at 25 with no responsibilities. But I actually plan on working now in the latter half of third year when I have easier rotations, and definetly fourth year.

Hey, thanks for the insight about this. Another question that I had was about summers. It seems that the med. schools that I am interested in are not in session in the summer, so what do med. students usually do in the summer? If I could work during the summer (perhaps as a contractor back at my old job or something) that would definitely improve my financial outlook even more.

 

[chocomorsel]

Hey, thanks for the insight about this. Another question that I had was about summers. It seems that the med. schools that I am interested in are not in session in the summer, so what do med. students usually do in the summer? If I could work during the summer (perhaps as a contractor back at my old job or something) that would definitely improve my financial outlook even more.

Between first and second the schools in texas have 2 months off. The majority of medstudents shadow doctors, or do research at my school. You can do an 4 or 8 week preceptorship or research for 8 week or you could be a straight up lazy bum like I was. The good thing to doing the schoolstuff during the break, is that it counts towards your electives 4th year and you can finish your rothations as early as 5 months before graduations if you go straight thru with no breaks. But even if you don't at my school and take every break you can, you still finish rotations at the latest a month before graduation. I think that most of the TX schools are this way except Baylor cuz they are private. Anyway, just log on to whatever school you are interested in and check out their calenders to kinda see what their summers are like. Really the only summer you get off is bet 1st and 2nd because 2nd and 3rd, you got boards to study for. (Which is what I have been doing for months now. A few more days, and the hell is over Then there's the Christmas breaks, automatic 2 weeks year 1 and 2 and optional 4 weeks year 3 and 4. Anyway, you can work in those breaks if you want. As long as you do try to give yourself some free time towards the end of fourth, just in case you have to retake something, or some family issue comes up. Anyway, that' s all for now.