Work And School Add Some Bills Too

[MzzMisty]

Well let me just ask this of everyone.. i was curious how many of you work full time pay for normal bills, rent, food, gas, etc. and still go to school full time WHILE trying to maintain your gpa's, ec's and everything else.. LOL .. i do have all of that on my plate and i dont know how im going to do it in Med school once i get there .. are there any people out there that can relate.. as opposed to the ones that have no job or no responsibilites no bills and get everything they do have taken care of for them?? Alrighty Let's begin...

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[ellemarii]

i think there are probably alot of us that can relate! i go to school full time, work 4/12s a week, volunteer for hospice and volunteer in an ER, and have done this my entire undergrad education...while trying to maintain everything else! but i think it's only preparing us to handle the vast amounts of work we'll do as physicians. so no complaints here.

 

[Spitting Camel]

Originally posted by MzzMisty
as opposed to the ones that have no job or no responsibilites no bills and get everything they do have taken care of for them??

Highly unnecessary comment... responsibilities come in many different forms. It's not my fault my parents love me more than yours love you.


Totally kidding (but not about how your comment was unnecessary, presumptuous and rude).

 

[MzzMisty]

ALREADY i wasn't specifically saying you.. but if the shoe fits... I was just saying that i know of others who have it much easier with going to school and also not having to pay anything .. and I was also posting this question to those people that happen to do everything and are also in MED school cause once i get there im not sure how im going to still do what im doing now.. Its a struggle sometimes... Just a simple question.. not to point any fingers at anyone around here...

 

[Spitting Camel]

Originally posted by MzzMisty
but if the shoe fits...

It doesn't fit, but there you go assuming again. I work 35+ hours a week to pay for tuition and room and board, carry a full course load, and maintain my ECs. It's not that difficult once you deal with it and accept it. You will never get anywhere if you keep nagging about it.

Originally posted by MzzMisty
and I was also posting this question to those people that happen to do everything and are also in MED school

Well, then I guess you should post this in the allo or osteo forums, now shouldn't you? I'm sorry you made that mistake.

 

[MzzMisty]

Originally posted by AlreadyInDebt
Highly unnecessary comment... responsibilities come in many different forms. It's not my fault my parents love me more than yours love you.


Totally kidding (but not about how your comment was unnecessary, presumptuous and rude).

Ok once again.. i wasnt commenting on people HERE i was asking them a question.. second i wasn't presuming anything.. and wasnt trying to be rude... It was a statement about how i live and how i see some other people live and was curious if anyone in here does the same thing .. those who are either pre meds or in medical school ...

 

[Mr Reddly]

I didn't understand why people would work and goto school. I could see the engineering internships that prepared the person for a future career, but not the minimum wage stuff like counter clerk. I mean with what an engineer makes, you can pay the loans back pretty quickly. And, if you work while in school, your taking away from your class knowledge (ie, while people were working, I was studying) which will adversly affect the size of the future pay check.

... just never made sense to me.

But on a similar note, I always loved how they called "work-study" financial-aid. Like I should be thankful for the 'aid'... a minimum wage job doing BS, and the school actually spends less on the worker because it's federally subsidized. IE, the school is the one making out on the deal, not the student. No thanks, I'll take the internship at company 'x' where they are offering more than minimum wage and aren't looking at me like I'm asking for a handout.

(sorry for the spelling... toooooo lazy to throw it into Word)

 

[Spitting Camel]

Originally posted by MzzMisty
Ok once again.. i wasnt commenting on people HERE i was asking them a question.. second i wasn't presuming anything.. and wasnt trying to be rude... It was a statement about how i live and how i see some other people live and was curious if anyone in here does the same thing .. those who are either pre meds or in medical school ...

You responded to the wrong comment, but whatever... you're wrong again. Have a great night!

 

[MzzMisty]

 

[Mr Reddly]

A friend of mine wants to be an architect. But yet she's doing poorly in her classes and works mad hours at Starbucks. I tried to tell her to stop working her butt off and start studying her butt off instead so she could land the dream job in a couple more years... But, she's still there at Starbucks asking "would you like cream with that?"

 

[MzzMisty]

Mr red. i know the feeling sometimes it would be great to not have to work

 

[zinjanthropus]

mr. redly-
your comments make sense but these people usually work long hours out of a misunderstanding of the financial aid system or a misunderstanding about income potential, projected earnings, and what they are actually making at present. in other words, they don't see how having thousands of dollars in debt but getting out of college and into a career fast, can certainly be more economical than having little to no debt, working away at starbucks or some other low-income servitude, and possibly extending their time in college or screwing up their college career with poor grades. furthermore, its unfortunate when students don't treat college as their job, as their career.

one thing you did miss though regarding work study positions...if students play these right, they can actually be great opportunities, providing an intership like environment. you just have to do a little legwork to get a workstudy that will be in your area and allow you to make some type of significant contribution

having said this, a 10-20 hour a week job is probably a good thing to have as undergrad for a number of reasons. first of all there is data showing a correlation between higher gpa and number of hours worked in a job up to 20 hours per week. second of all, it provides some regular structure to your week, third, it might reenforce a general work ethic, fourth it promotes better time management skills, and finally, it provides you with a life outside of school

 

[zinjanthropus]

oh, and for Mzmisty....as to how you are going to work full time in medical school? the simple answer is that you are NOT GOING TO WORK FULL TIME IN MED SCHOOL...why? you won't have time, med schools create budgets for you that are suffisive for living, med schools do not allow you to work, and it would be a disservice to your education/patient training etc.

 

[SarahGM]

Originally posted by MzzMisty

i do have all of that on my plate and i dont know how im going to do it in Med school once i get there

I believe it's called loans.... am I incorrect?

 

[Pinkertinkle]

My mommy and daddy pay for everything. I just gotta study and volunteer. Oh Woe Is Me.

 

[beriberi]

I can't believe it took so many posts before someone said it, but:

No one works in medical school.

There are a couple of reasons for this: most of us can't do anything other than minimum wage work so it is not worth our limited time. More importantly, you have little control over your time in medical school. Even as a preclinical student, you will be expected to be places (preceptor's office until they let you go, evening exams) based on some coursemaster's schedule and whiom. "I have to work" is never an allowable excuse. As a clinical student, you have even less time off and less control over your schedule. You can get the loan money you need (in most cases) to live a reasonable life style. You will pay it back when you have money to spare (because 75K as a fam practice doc is money to spare compared with 12K that you make full time as minimum wage).

Having said that, a few of my classmates have worked during the fourth year (because no one expects anything of us) and people do sometime work during the summers.

Get into medical school and you will be fine (as long as you act like a financially responsible adult.)

 

[camstah]

first of all, what the OP said about people who don't have to work and get everything taken care of for them didn't sound like she was putting them down...how else is she supposed to say that? it's just that some people have that luxury, and good for those that do, more power to you............
some of us HAD to work, despite financial aid etc, because we needed to.....not necessarily full time, some of us worked more than part time but less than full time, and still managed to do pretty well even with volunteering and research going on at the same time.....why there is this battle about woe is me i had to work versus my parents took care of it, i don't really know...if you felt you had to work, that sucks, because that just means you had a lot to deal with....and if you didn't have to work, lay off of criticizing her for doing so, because you don't understand where she's coming from..........
sometimes people on these boards get so hypersensitive it's amazing....

now, to what beriberi just said, thank you for posting what needed to be posted!! you don't work in med school....end of story.

 

[LJoo83]

already in debt--take your hostility to the everyone forum.

OP, I understand what you are talking about--sort of. I am fortunate in that I only have to work 20-24 hours a week thanks to my dad not making enough and that in turn makes me eligible for the full pell grant (among other financial assistance).

I know of some people who 1)work full time; 2)are a student full time; and 3) have families to take care of. And they manage to have better gpa/test scores than I do. They make me feel ashamed of my lack of motivation and overall laziness.

Keep up the hard work, misty!

 

[mdsiren]

Working and going to school is tough! However, ad coms like to see that you can time manage b/c it's necessary in med school. I remember reading somewhere....??? it was some kind of conference...and the dean of admissions was responding to questions posed by the students in the audience. The question was asked...Do you prefer employment or volunteer activities? And he responded employment because all of the adcom can relate.
Besides, when you are employed...it is more serious and formal...you can't just make a call and say that you can't make it because you got an exam. How many people do you know claim they volunteer but they really don't? I know plenty. Volunteering is based on the students schedule..more flexibility. Med schools should make more of an effort (if possible) to check up on students extracurricular activities. Imagine...you could say anything on an application...it's just not fair for those individuals who really do all those things and can find time to study and walk on water on the weekends. It kind of waters down ones efforts.

 

[Eraserhead]

Originally posted by Pinkertinkle
My mommy and daddy pay for everything. I just gotta study and volunteer. Oh Woe Is Me.

 

[MzzMisty]

Thanks to everyone that actually replied to my question with no smart A#$ remarks to make.. I wasn't aware of how the financial aspect of med school works out.. As far as loans im not sure if i would qualify for them once i get there i had some struggles in the past when i was younger with credit.. do they go by your credit score with loans for school? If not then I suppose i will qualify for something.. but i might still have to work part time to pay off my car ... anyways thanks for the advice and support again.....

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Originally posted by zinjanthropus
mr. redly-
your comments make sense but these people usually work long hours out of a misunderstanding of the financial aid system or a misunderstanding about income potential, projected earnings, and what they are actually making at present. in other words, they don't see how having thousands of dollars in debt but getting out of college and into a career fast, can certainly be more economical than having little to no debt, working away at starbucks or some other low-income servitude, and possibly extending their time in college or screwing up their college career with poor grades. furthermore, its unfortunate when students don't treat college as their job, as their career.

While I agree that this is the case sometimes I doubt it's the "usual" case. I know many of the students at my school have to work because they don't get enough financial aid and can't get the financial aid office to readjust their budgets based on their current school income. And even if we can get them to readjust it it's rarely enough to actually pay the bills. Many low/mid low income (anything below 25k-30k/year) fall through the cracks at my school. We barely make enough to live on without school and then we try to add school too and it just doesn't work out for financial aid cuz at that point all you are eligible for is the loans which really aren't enough to pay for tuition and books let alone everything else too. Plus our school will only readjust your EFC once in your career due to extreme circumstances such as getting laid off or quitting a job. Well if you're laid off you'll get unemployment for 8 mo which will then make you too much money for most financial aid and now that you have no income at all they won't readjust you again so you end up having to work a lot just to cover everything and now you're in a viscious cycle that there is no way to get out of.

I can't wait for med school where living budgets are actually somewhat accurate.

 

[Thundrstorm]

I'm fortunate in that I only need to work part-time. I just need money for food, airfare, cell phone, clothes, stuff like that. I can't imagine working full-time during school and still doing well. Kuods to you guys who do it. hmmmm... although I'm glad summer and full-time work are ahead since I can currently only afford to eat twice a day, and I had to sew patches on my jeans this week.

 

[zinjanthropus]

Originally posted by MzzMisty
Thanks to everyone that actually replied to my question with no smart A#$ remarks to make.. I wasn't aware of how the financial aspect of med school works out.. As far as loans im not sure if i would qualify for them once i get there i had some struggles in the past when i was younger with credit.. do they go by your credit score with loans for school? If not then I suppose i will qualify for something.. but i might still have to work part time to pay off my car ... anyways thanks for the advice and support again.....

mzzmisty...
in med school you will be eligible for federal loans that are not based on credit....you may also check into these now as an undergrad yo help ease some work hours