work and med school

[mdoclau]

I've heard that most med students don't work while going to school, how do they survive, I don't have money now and how do you pay to live, eat and what ever else without working or having your family support you

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[Buckeye4life]

win the mega millions jackpot, have the military pay for it, or apply for student loans. Or don't care so much about your gpa or class rank, go into primary care, and work as much as you need to support yourself. I personally would just do the loans through FAFSA because with careful budgeting, they will cover the expenses.

 

[spicedmanna]

I've heard that most med students don't work while going to school, how do they survive, I don't have money now and how do you pay to live, eat and what ever else without working or having your family support you

Yeah, sounds pretty incredible, huh? From what I gather, and I'll probably be going this route, most people take out additional private loans in varying amounts depending on the COL to make ends meet (i.e., food, shelter, etc.). For the school I'm going to attend, it's something around $15K (not exact) in addition to tuition.

Some people do HPSP, a program sponsored by the armed forces, which pays for your tuition (up to a given total amount), and gives you a stipend, in return for 1 yr of service for each year they help you (I think it's a min of 2 yrs). Some people dig it, others don't care for it.

The third option is through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) scholarship, or IHS scholarship in which the terms are similar to the HPSP, but instead of joining the armed forces, you get involved in public health and commit to do primary care in a medically-underserved area in which you are assigned. I didn't extensively research this, so I might not be accurate. Anyway, there are forums on SDN which address this and HPSP.

 

[Rita]

Yeah, sounds pretty incredible, huh? From what I gather, and I'll probably be going this route, most people take out additional private loans in varying amounts depending on the COL to make ends meet (i.e., food, shelter, etc.). For the school I'm going to attend, it's something around $15K (not exact) in addition to tuition.

Some people do HPSP, a program sponsored by the armed forces, which pays for your tuition (up to a given total amount), and gives you a stipend, in return for 1 yr of service for each year they help you (I think it's a min of 2 yrs). Some people dig it, others don't care for it.

The third option is through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) scholarship, or IHS scholarship in which the terms are similar to the HPSP, but instead of joining the armed forces, you get involved in public health and commit to do primary care in a medically-underserved area in which you are assigned. I didn't extensively research this, so I might not be accurate. Anyway, there are forums on SDN which address this and HPSP.

I know some info. About the NIH ( National Institute of Health) program. From what you've posted it seems that it would work similarily. Only, it is somewhat competitive, but they do pay well....$$$$

 

[mdoclau]

It seems as though no one can answer this question for me, but I am broke and I am going to have to work through med school, do you think that is possible, what does anybody else do, do you all have wealthy parents?

 

[lilzelda]

U just take out a lot of loans, and most people don't work

 

[spicedmanna]

It seems as though no one can answer this question for me, but I am broke and I am going to have to work through med school, do you think that is possible, what does anybody else do, do you all have wealthy parents?

Dude, didn't you read my above post? Most everyone takes out a huge loan to cover tuition and COL. Others do HPSP and NHSC, or have other scholarships. A very small percentage actually have other sources, such as rich parents. It's darn near impractical to work during medical school; most don't and the ones who do work do so on a very limited basis, and as such are unlikely to make enough to make a dent in their tuition payments and other associated costs of attending.

 

[lrobin15]

It seems as though no one can answer this question for me, but I am broke and I am going to have to work through med school, do you think that is possible, what does anybody else do, do you all have wealthy parents?

Medical schools actually discourage working and if you mention this, it may take its toll with adcom -they don't want to accept a student that is going to flunk out, burn out, or freak out.

If you are interested in primary care, NHCS really is a great idea. They don't assign you a location, you just have to pick from a list of hundreds of medically underserved locations with jobs that have been approved by them. The salaries and benifits are all nationally or locally competitive.

Many established schools have very good funding, like PCOM. If your parents are not well off, you may qualify for excellent grants or scholarships.

Also, if you are a minority, you have an excellent chance at getting a full ride. Especially if you apply to allopathic schools.

Good luck.

 

[Jack Daniel]

The third option is through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) scholarship, or IHS scholarship in which the terms are similar to the HPSP, but instead of joining the armed forces, you get involved in public health and commit to do primary care in a medically-underserved area in which you are assigned. I didn't extensively research this, so I might not be accurate. Anyway, there are forums on SDN which address this and HPSP.

As for the NHSC scholarship,
While it's certainly an option--don't hang your hat on it.
About 1400 apply, less than 100 get chosen.

The NHSC loan repayment option might be better, but that doesn't help much on the front end of things.

As for loans, you'll have plenty of empathy among your student-colleagues.
Once you past the $100,000 mark, you sort of compartmentalize it and the pain sort of disappears. It comes back again during residency and stays with you about 30 years.

 

[txkiteboarder]

i know couple of ppl who have a BSN and work on regular basis and attend umdnj. But didnt ask them how their schedule is like...

i figured with nursing, you can pretty much make your own shift schedule.

I am in grad school but think that you can definitely work. You just have to find a right type of job that can be accommodating to your schedule. like working at a coffee shop or a diner or some other stress free workplace.

At the same time, the amount of studying top tier students do + classes, any downtime you do have, you probably want to relax.

I say maybe save it for summer but even then you will other stuff going on...

So, it all depends on what you have available. Maybe your medschool might have a clinical research job you can do in offtime...

one my roommate is a cardiology resident and was complaining about making measly $47K. I told him that I would HIT that any day...