Work during med school?

[Dog&CatLover]

Anyone successful?
I am a first year student. Currently, I am tutoring high schoolers both online and in person and love it! It’s flexible hours, as many or few as i want each week. I’m currenlty doing 8-10 hours a week.

Do you think be able to make it work all 4 years? Do you think there is a better source of income during med school? What else did people do?

By the way, don’t say don’t work... I have substantial debt from undergrad and a lot of illness in my family so I need to be working at least a little unfortunately.

(By the way, DM me for a referral, they are hiring... $50 for me and you if you do even one lesson).

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[atomi]

Worked 10-20 hours a week during med school and residency. Work for myself. I don’t see how it would be possible or worth it unless you are self employeed, work from home, and can earn minimum $50/hour for your effort. Any one of those three things not true then you prob should just focus on school. Setting your own hours is also essentially mandatory. Payoff will come later. While the finacial comforts have been nice, it has come at a huge cost and in retrospect huge risk.

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

Anyone successful?
I am a first year student. Currently, I am tutoring high schoolers both online and in person and love it! It’s flexible hours, as many or few as i want each week. I’m currenlty doing 8-10 hours a week.

Do you think be able to make it work all 4 years? Do you think there is a better source of income during med school? What else did people do?

By the way, don’t say don’t work... I have substantial debt from undergrad and a lot of illness in my family so I need to be working at least a little unfortunately.

(By the way, DM me for a referral, they are hiring... $50 for me and you if you do even one lesson).

You’re on the road to burnout my friend. Talk to your school about your situation. I’m only 4 weeks in and couldnt imagine pulling a job on top of this

 

[aldol16]

You could probably make it work during the pre-clinical years but it'll be harder to do that as a clinical student.

 

[Oso]

Bad idea

 

[atomi]

I know someone who burned out/failed out trying to work a skilled labor job (think like $15/hour) every night. Made it through first 2 years then mysteriously disappeared after step 1 and the start of clinicals. I will readily admit that I am the exception and not the rule. And I know for a fact my grades and step 1 were lower because of it. Not to mention the hit on my social life and relationships. Don’t do it.

 

[DocWinter]

Highly advise against it unless you have circumstances that allow you to do a few short hours on your own time for a great payoff.

 

[hannahrenee]

I worked ~15 hours a week at a library first year...cutting back to 12 hrs second year. The important thing about my job is I get to study for ~50% of the time and socialize for a few hours. My grades actually improved when I started working, I'd been struggling with feelings of isolation and depression before. I don't think most people could work in med school. I know four other students that work- a few at the school gym and one tutor. All of us do well above average in classes, I wouldn't try to work if I had to work my ass off to pass classes. I would wait a few months to see how you adjust to school before adding work to the equation.

 

[Goro]

Anyone successful?
I am a first year student. Currently, I am tutoring high schoolers both online and in person and love it! It’s flexible hours, as many or few as i want each week. I’m currenlty doing 8-10 hours a week.

Do you think be able to make it work all 4 years? Do you think there is a better source of income during med school? What else did people do?

By the way, don’t say don’t work... I have substantial debt from undergrad and a lot of illness in my family so I need to be working at least a little unfortunately.

(By the way, DM me for a referral, they are hiring... $50 for me and you if you do even one lesson).

If you are great at time mgt, then it's doable.

But I've seen too many students crash and burn because they tried to med school and something else.

I have to warn you than med students have to be somewhat selfish. You can't keep running home because of medical emergencies, not be the financial support either.

 

[atomi]

I have to warn you than med students have to be somewhat selfish. You can't keep running home because of medical emergencies, not be the financial support either.

Doesn’t end there. I watched an im resident get formally reprimanded for leaving for 30 minutes because his wife was locked out of the apartment.

This is what you are signing up for. “My kid is sick” is not automatically a valid excuse. “My boss made me stay late at my second job” is never a valid excuse.

 

[PickleRick19]

It's possible, I've seen some people do it first year if they've adjusted well to the curriculum and study schedule. Med school is all about time management.

That being said, I know money might be tempting, but I personally used my free time to do med-school related stuff and volunteering (I want to go into FM so that kind of matters more for me). At the end of the day, it's completely up to you. As long as you know yourself and when to cut back if it affects school. i also agree with the above sentiments, if there's any time to be selfish, it's now. And there's nothing wrong with that, med school will arguably be the toughest reality check of your life.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

I have heard people say that certain loans or scholarships forbid you from working during medical school? Is this true?
(It sounds fake to me, but I couldn't find any information on it)

 

[Taddy Mason]

I have heard people say that certain loans or scholarships forbid you from working during medical school? Is this true?
(It sounds fake to me, but I couldn't find any information on it)

Some schools have policies that med students aren’t allowed to have jobs outside of school.

 

[IMreshopeful]

I have a residency classmate who used to work part time in an engineering firm while in medical school. Ended up doing well in his class, good IM residency, and now in a competitive fellowship. It’s rare but usually those who do it are probably not the kind of people who need to study 4 hours a day after preclinical lectures lol.

I personally wouldn’t recommend it. We did have some “work study” options - proctoring, tutoring, etc - which can supplement income without wasting inordinate amounts of time. I never did because I valued my time to study

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I'm working a few hours a week (as an instructor for an activity that I won't specify for anonymity reasons). It's manageable so far but similar to @Kuratz I'm only able to do it because it's very flexible and allows me to participate in my otherwise very expensive hobby while earning a bit of cash for beer money. I'd be spending time (and money) doing this anyway even if I wasn't getting paid for it, and I'm fully prepared to drop the job if it gets in the way of school. I don't think I would recommend it to anyone else unless they had very similar circumstances.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Totally depends on what kind of learner you are. I would not be able to manage that schedule as I worked very hard in med school to get a competitive residency. My wife on the other hand could easily. She went to class to socialize and graduated in top 10% of her class. Be HONEST, with yourself, run your own race . Dont do it unless you are an exceptional student. Good luck and best wishes!

 

[toedrag]

Federal work study library job is ideal

 

[ADSigMel]

I work a little - a couple of hours whenever I have the time, independent contractor kind of gig, pays about $75/hour. I’ve been in school for three weeks, and it’s going fine so far. Honestly, it’s kind of nice to get paid to make myself take a study break every now and then. And it helps me maintain my identity outside of being a medical student.

 

[Oncmudphud]

If you enjoy tutoring, maybe consider peer tutoring med students? That forces you to stay on top of material, earn a little extra cash, and gives you extra material review.


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[Lnsean]

Anyone successful?
I am a first year student. Currently, I am tutoring high schoolers both online and in person and love it! It’s flexible hours, as many or few as i want each week. I’m currenlty doing 8-10 hours a week.

Do you think be able to make it work all 4 years? Do you think there is a better source of income during med school? What else did people do?

By the way, don’t say don’t work... I have substantial debt from undergrad and a lot of illness in my family so I need to be working at least a little unfortunately.

(By the way, DM me for a referral, they are hiring... $50 for me and you if you do even one lesson).

I work every other weekend (M2 now and still doing it)...with extra shifts here and there. I'd only do it if you're getting at least 50-60/hr.

 

[puahate]

Unless it is tutoring seems like a waste. Yes loans are expensive but it will pay off. Time is better spent sleeping or studying

 

[holdthemayo]

I have a friend who works as a nurse every weekend. She is also a single mom. She is also my hero. It's possible, but it helps to be ****ing wonder woman to pull it off.

 

[W19]

One of my co-interns worked 40 hrs/wk in med school as a RN... Not sure how he was able to pull that off..

 

[SouthernGent]

Is it doable? Yes. Is it practical? No.

Currently working 8-10hrs/wk in the mornings in the same line of work I had before school. My work is in the medical field and I am constantly trying to apply what I am learning in class to what I am seeing at work. I get to work whenever I want which is the big kicker and allows me to keep doing this. It makes things crazy every now and then and I am going to stop come spring for STEP studying, but I will say my grades have never been higher.

 

[MSTP18]

Do you think be able to make it work all 4 years?

All 4? No. MS1-2 and MS4 is probably doable though.

Do you think there is a better source of income during med school?

Tutoring is almost certainly the best income stream a med student can have. If you can work your way up beyond high school (e.g. college, MCAT, med school, or Step 1) you can increase your hourly rate and if you are tutoring something like Step 1, you have the added benefit of the material being more applicable to your daily life than high school chemistry.

What else did people do?

Babysitting was the other big one, especially if in the evenings and the kid has an early bed time. Then you're basically being paid to study.

By the way, don’t say don’t work... I have substantial debt from undergrad and a lot of illness in my family so I need to be working at least a little unfortunately.

Food for thought: are the high paying specialties on your radar? Taking away several hours/week at 50/hr to tutor high schoolers in exchange for a 400k/year paycut over 40 years because you couldn't match ortho, nsg, derm, etc. is not worth it.