work more, school less?

This is similar to a thread posted earlier and I wanted to get a little feedback concerning my situation. I am not a degree seeking student or anything, and I have the opportunity to do research with a professor. Currently I am registered for 12 hours. Would it be a bad thing to drop down to 11 hours and have a little more time to do research for him? He actually wants me to take fewer classes than that to have more time to work but I would really like to take classes to prepare for medical school. At the same time, I think it would be cool to jump into a lab and get a few publications and research experience. Do you think that taking 11 hours shows an inability to handle a tough course load? I took 14 hrs this semester and will ace all the classes, on top of working a part time job.

 

I have already interviewed, and I was wondering what kind of effect dropping below full time will have. I don't want it to seem that I'm just slacking it.

 

In all honesty I thought some went well and some not so well. I really didn't get the chance to talk about some of the things I am interested in. Most of the interviewers did express sympathy for me regarding the roads life has led me down and wished me all the best. I was appreciative for that. Hopefully I can hear some good news soon. I had talked to my friend about what would be best for me next semester. He asked me what my original plan was and to follow that. I think it is pretty good advice. So I'm going to go full time student and then try to swing working full time around it. School should come first now. About the nobel prize bit, that is funny. It would make for a good conversation piece during the interview...
"Oh, I see you were not a full time student...".
"Yes, but I won the nobel prize at that time."
Funny.
In all actuality we are working on a project now that should finish before the end of the year which should get published. It involves a new method of bacterial identification. Not bad at all.
Are you a current DO student?