Sources of income while in med school

[Maran]

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Most of the folks I deal with are finishing up their residencies/fellowships, and they're usually still carrying quite a lot of debt from all those years of school.
<img border="0" alt="[Wowie]" title="" src="graemlins/wowie.gif" />
So I'm wondering, what kind of options for part-time jobs, etc. are realistic for med students?

 

[Skye04]

On a related note, how much time is there to do extracurriculars in med school? Is there really that much more class time and work that most people just study and then go out occasionally on the weekends? I feel like it has been really crucial to my sanity in college to have a few other major time commitments/activities outside of classes, one of which for me is working ~15 hours per week as a waitress. Even if it does result in a pretty hectic schedule, I am a lot happier and actually do better academically. I hope that I wouldn't have to give up this type of balance in med school.

What are some med students' experiences with this?

 

[Starflyr]

Well, I dont know about *JOBS* that really work well, I mean there's always work-study at the library, or what have you, but that only works during your first 2 years.

However, most medical schools are at major medical centers and there is a lot of research going on - and sometimes, well...they'll pay you to subject yourself to testing. One study here is paying $800 - granted, you have to be on a liquid diet for a month, but, hey its a lot of money. That's all I can really think of...

Star

 

[lilycat]

Skye -- It totally depends on the school. Some schools have a very flexible, easy-going curriculum that will allow you a lot of time for ECs, work, etc. Other schools will be more rigid and structured during the first two years. The best advice that I've heard is to give yourself the first semester to feel things out at your particular school -- you will learn very quickly what you have time for and what you don't. Personally, I worked 20-30 hours/week in college, plus was a volunteer in a research lab and usually took 20 units/quarter (the max. number of units allowed) along with the usual social outlets. I can't imagine working in med school, but that's just my experience. Your school and your time management skills may be completely different.

Maran -- Keep in mind that most part-time jobs will not make a significant dent in your debt level. Decide if you would rather use that extra time for something else, or if the extra money is more important.

 

[neilc]

personally, i worked my a$$ of undergrad, and it was nice to have the money and all, but it felt like i was ALWAYS working. i never felt like a "student". so, now with the loans, etc, i don't have to work, and i love it. i think the class load is not bad at all. i go out all the time, ski, whatever and i love it. i think if i worked and combined it with the study that it would make school a lot less fun. so, try a semester without working..it is great, you may just love it!

 

[Maran]

Wow! If $800 is considered a lot of money, I think this new proposal here at my company is going to be popular. We've been talking about recruiting 3rd and 4th year med students to help us distribute information to residents. The early projections look like it would pay about $1000 per month, and it's the kind of thing you can do just going through a typical M3/M4 rotation routine.

Do you think med students would be interested in that kind of thing?

 

[Barin]

One girl inhaled some benzohexonium for 300$ at Hopkins...

 

[AntGod22]

Wow Med SChool students really arent that bright I guess. I wouldnt be any lab rat for no amount of money, but hey thats me.

 

[tulanestudent]

You might possibly be able to continue working 10-15 hours a week depending on how much study time and sleep time you require. If your school does not require class and has a noteservice, you may be able to skip a lot of lectures and gain extra time that way. My school encourages extracurriculars and outside interests, but most people don't commit to sustained employment b/c of the erratic schedule med students have. There will be times in the first two years, near exams, where you will want to do nothing but study and sleep. This is not most of the time, hopefully, but close to those exams you probably won't want to be worrying about going to a job.

The main reason I think most student's don't bother getting a job is that school costs so darn much that making $10/hr at a part time job will not even make a dent in paying it off. Many older doctors report that almost 1/2 thier med school classes had jobs, but this was back when it was $1000/yr tuition, not 30X that!

I do know a lot of students who have picked up cash by being research subjects. One study involved taking a new anti-malarial drug at varying doses and spending a night in the hospital on an EKG monitor to look for cardiac side effects. Another of the more-invasive involved taking a bone marrow biopsy from the subject's hip bone - an experience one student's wife told me was more painful than childbirth. But each of these paid about $800 and to a lot of us, that's worth a few minutes of pain. So whoever was talking about a way to make money just by distributing information to residents DEFINITELY has a market for it among med students.

 

[Fermi]

I'm currently a first year and I'm going to try starting a research assistantship @ ~10 hours/week. I found that I had a decent amount of extra time first semester (not that I used it very constructively...) and I figure that research is an integral part of my education, so it's not just wasting valuable time to make a few dollars. And the financial benefits can be good. At my school, if you secure a research assistantship and work 10 hours/week for the entire semester, you will earn not only about $2500 in salary (pre-tax), but you also receive about $1500 in tuition credit. That makes a much bigger dent in your future debt than you think.

Of course, I'm still willing to volunteer myself as a pincushion for the sake of medical science (and several hundred dollars).

 

[Maran]

Great news!
My company is definately moving forward with hiring 3rd and 4th year medical students to help with marketing activities!

If you're not familiar with Practice Opportunities (TM) you can visit our web site at <a href="http://www.practice.org" target="_blank">http://www.practice.org</a> Right now, you'd still be seeing the old (very old -- pre JAVA) web site, but the new one should go up in about a month. We are the oldest, most established agency specializing in physician placement. We maintain the largest database of physician opportunities anywhere. We are currently listing over 9,000 employment opportunities for physicians, which we update regularly through aggressive marketing with medical practices all across the U.S.

We are projecting that a motivated medical student will *realistically* earn $1000-$2000 a month while engaging in their normal rotational activities. The only "extra time" would be e-mailing a weekly activities report and a weekly phonecall (worked around your schedule) with the Marketing Director. That would work out to $10,000 to $20,000 a year!

If you or someone you know would like more information about this, please e-mail me directly. We are starting with about 10 Medical Student Representatives, each with a unique territory. This will most likely expand to 20-30 Medical students over the next year.

You can reach me at: [email protected]

 

[SicVic]

Ever since freshman year, I worked. Through, junior and senior year- I had had atleast two jobs. Tutoring, research tech., sorter - I loved having my own dough and not be restricted when it came to social events, or spending generally- dinner, and other outings. Plus this is my year off: basically working and chilling and having a bum time.
But soon I would have to quit!!! Arrghhhhh
I'm going to miss my JOB - Pays so well $35K.

Going to turn into a BROKE med. Student - I can see it now - Me, rummaging through my clothes looking for spare change to buy a can of chicken noodle soup. <img border="0" alt="[Pity]" title="" src="graemlins/pity.gif" />

 

[Kluver Bucy]

This thread is just a marketing ploy for a greedy headhunter to develop an espionage network using medical students as moles.

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Maran:
•Great news!
My company is definately moving forward with hiring 3rd and 4th year medical students to help with marketing activities!

&lt;snip&gt;

We are projecting that a motivated medical student will *realistically* earn $1000-$2000 a month while engaging in their normal rotational activities. The only "extra time" would be e-mailing a weekly activities report and a weekly phonecall (worked around your schedule) with the Marketing Director. That would work out to $10,000 to $20,000 a year!

If you or someone you know would like more information about this, please e-mail me directly. We are starting with about 10 Medical Student Representatives, each with a unique territory. This will most likely expand to 20-30 Medical students over the next year.

You can reach me at: [email protected]•••••

 

[Maran]

In response to the above poster: Practice Opportunities does not employe headhunters. We are a physician placement company. Traditional recruiters (or headhunters) seek to fill the openinging presented by a small number of paid clients. They work for the employer, not the physician.

Seven years ago, our company started out helping physicians with J1 and H1b visas obtain placements with facilities eligible to sponsor the immigration waivers they needed to work in the U.S. We continue to do this and are the unsurpassed leader in this field.

Now we are expanding to offer physician's agenting services to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. We work for the physician to find them a placement that meets their needs.

Did you know that according to JAMA (Vol. 280 No.9, Sept 2, 1998)research on residents seeking employment indicated that 29.5% reported significant difficulty in finding clinical positions?

The database of over 9,000 clinical opportunities that we continuously develop is provided free of charge to any physician who would like to use it.

For physicians who choose to have one of our Physician's Agents represent them, we can guarantee a starting salary $25-$30,000 higher than they would receive working with a traditional recruiter or headhunter.

We know that residents want information about our services, regardless of whether they choose to use them or not. There are hundreds of ways to market to them. We don't need to recruit "moles" or conduct "espionage" to do this.

Employing medical students in our marketing efforts is just one of many ways that we are trying to counter the downward economic pressures that have been placed on medical professionals. Do we make money doing this? Yes. Everyone wins.

I started this post because I was curious about the need for employment among medical students. I had considered medical school myself, and I have personal experience with the difficulties of juggling different kinds of work schedules while in graduate school. And medical school is EXPENSIVE! (No news to you all.)

Most grad students I interacted with (except the law students) had various scholorships and research or teaching jobs provided through their programs (I had all of the above.) I wanted to know if medical students have any options like these, or if they are living primarily off loans.
I suspected that traditional part-time employment would be rare and difficult. I had no idea about the prevalence of participating in medical experiments for money! As I ask around in various places (not just here) I am discovering that this is a fairly common practice (along with donating blood plasma.)

I hope that helps clarify who I am and why I started this thread.

 

[SicVic]

Still a Ploy
I didnt realize you (Maran) started this thread

 

[pre-doc]

Hi,

As far as money goes, i work every saturday from 9-5. My wife is also a med student and she works with me. A lot of people ask me how i can work and go to school at the same time - of course you have to keep your priorities straight, but at times, that 8 hour break is relaxing. It provides what i would call a nice study break. Kepp in mind too, that both my wife and i do quite well (i am not tooting my own horn here, just stating that working isn't that bad), so if you can, i would recommend it. Who knows, perhaps it will work in your favor down the road.

 

[Maran]

I try to be very up front about when I'm posting regarding anything related to my job. If my post is completely personal (like when I post an opinion, or something related to my academic interests but not aspects of physicians and employment, I don't use my business signature, but just my personal name.

Anything that has to do with doctors (or med students) in the work force, I always list my business signature so that there is no question that I am involved in this professionally.

I guess that's the academic in me coming through -- always list relevant sponsoring agencies so that readers can be alerted to possible biases. I always stay as above board as possible with everything I do.

 

[PainMan]

Maran you are not ever CLOSE to providing the largest number of physician opportunities. PhysicianWork.com has over 120,000 realtime postings...you have a ways to go. good luck

 

[PainMan]

PS Maran-medical students dont like leeches, unless you are a Hirudo medicinalis, which I assume you are not. No matter how empathetic you feel, you are messing with one of our vulnerabilities, which is a lot of debt and lack of money. We dont want others telling us how to solve our problems. We will seek it out. You are trying to force feed veggies to a lion here.

 

[lord999]

This is actually one of the few times when it is nice to have a degree in an allied health profession. Several of the students at U Arizona moonlight at Walgreens as pharmacists (~20 hours at $35-60). I know a couple of RNs who also moonlight at area hospitals ($28-54). There is a caveat, usaually the practice rules forbid working in an institution that you are studying in.