Working a job as a pre-med.

[rothguy]

Currently a senior in high school, and I will be a pre-med student at my local state university next year. I was wondering if anybody can give me advice on whether or not I should continue working in college. I'm likely going to end up paying for the majority of tuition myself, and at the moment have enough saved for my first years tuition. However, I would like to be able to devote enough time to academics and extracurriculars in order to make me as competitive as possible for med school, which means this is how I'll probably spend a lot my time.

Is it possible to strike a good balance between school (academics, ECs, etc.) and work in college? I've managed to do so in high school working about 15-20 hours per week, but it can be a challenge at times. I'm just not sure if the university workload allows for this. For reference, working full time I would make $24,000 a year, which is nearly double my annual tuition. Any advice is appreciated.

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[chemdoctor]

Working a job is fine. Work experience is highly valued by adcoms as well. Good for you! Try not to take too many overwhelming classes at once though. It is definitely possible to strike a good balance and there are many other people that have done it successfully.

 

[Shayla Flowere]

15-20 hours a week in pre-med will most likely not work. Currently working two jobs and I feel the burn from the 10 hours a week that I work. Maybe its just me but I find that I need more time to study in college than I ever needed in high school. I say get adjusted to the college course work and then decide if you can handle that many hours a week.

 

[curbsideconsult]

What's the job? If I had it to do over again, I would get a job as an LPN or CNA or EMT-advanced and work per diem shifts. This way, you get relevant experience and money.

 

[RNthenDoc]

I have always worked and gone to school.

I completed full-time premed at a rigorous private ug while working at least 25hrs/week in a very high-stress RN job.

If I had the CHOICE.... Heck no, I would have been one of those blessed kids who gets to get a 4.0 and shadow/volunteer for months and months instead. But some of us have bills to pay...

 

[calivianya]

I always worked full time and went to school full time - made over a 3.85 after I decided I was going pre-med... before then, not so much. It's doable if you care enough to make it work.

 

[Gilakend]

I worked 20 hours a week freshman year. Definitely doable.

 

[Welshman]

if you must work then work in a clinical field, if you just want to work then work a cush job

Edit: I worked at in IT and as an EMT during school

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

OP it looks like the jury has reached a verdict.

As for my contribution to the answer pool, I believe that have worked at least 8hrs per week (on average of course) since I started my first job at 16!

Never stop working, but never stop having fun either!

 

[boogiecousins94]

I worked as a snow shoveler for my school and I loved it because I got paid to exercise and they paid a lot more than other on campus jobs because let's be honest who wants to shovel snow at 5am

 

[Neutropix]

Currently a senior in high school, and I will be a pre-med student at my local state university next year. I was wondering if anybody can give me advice on whether or not I should continue working in college. I'm likely going to end up paying for the majority of tuition myself, and at the moment have enough saved for my first years tuition. However, I would like to be able to devote enough time to academics and extracurriculars in order to make me as competitive as possible for med school, which means this is how I'll probably spend a lot my time.

Is it possible to strike a good balance between school (academics, ECs, etc.) and work in college? I've managed to do so in high school working about 15-20 hours per week, but it can be a challenge at times. I'm just not sure if the university workload allows for this. For reference, working full time I would make $24,000 a year, which is nearly double my annual tuition. Any advice is appreciated.

I work 40 hours a week and go full time. It’s doable, but I’m absolutey obsessed and have time management skills like no ones business. My relationships aren’t the greatest but my GPA and extracurriculars are better than most. If you can get by on 20 hours a week I think that’s a good number. If you have to do 40 it’s doable but if you want the near 4.0 or 4.0 you gotta grind. Good luck OP and if you do decide to go full time work and school forget about your mental health.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

In general if you can’t work 15-20 hrs/wk and go to college full time then you need to work in your time management skills.
Also I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a school not allowing undergrads to work...at least not this century

 

[Neutropix]

Also @mimelim posted something before about how for a person working 40 hours a week and being in class 30 hours and getting 8 hours of sleep they still have 40 free hours in the week. My grammar is atrocious as I am half asleep so not sorry

 

[Shayla Flowere]

Revised answer: I realize that I answered speaking from my own personal experience as a double major, with one major 20+ hours should definitely be doable--especially as a freshman. Though I do say take on less hours until you become comfortable with the workload. I wouldn't want you to do poorly your first year because you took on to much at once.

 

[mimelim]

Also @mimelim posted something before about how for a person working 40 hours a week and being in class 30 hours and getting 8 hours of sleep they still have 40 free hours in the week. My grammar is atrocious as I am half asleep so not sorry

I work over 100 hours a week. I don't have much of a life outside of the hospital, but I do have one. Married, no kids, pretty regular exercise, etc. If I can do that, you can do something other than study/go to school. Yes, it will mean sacrificing other aspects of your life. You have to pick what is necessary and important to you going forward in your life. You can do (most) anything, you just can't do everything. 168 hours a week, 56 of which are sleeping, that means 112 hours of time to live life. How do you spend your time?

 

[deleted804295]

Get a job that will help you in med school admissions. I worked research and was fortunately paid.

Hours were very flexible and they had money to spill so I could work as much or as little as I wanted.

 

[freedoctor17]

I have worked 10 hours a week throughout freshman year and 15 to 20 since then. It's definitely doable. Half of it is hands on work and the other half I can do homework while getting paid haha. You can get a desk job at the library or something like that and just do homework or study while not helping anyone.

 

[RNthenDoc]

I work over 100 hours a week.

 

[deleted804295]

I work over 100 hours a week. I don't have much of a life outside of the hospital, but I do have one. Married, no kids, pretty regular exercise, etc. If I can do that, you can do something other than study/go to school. Yes, it will mean sacrificing other aspects of your life. You have to pick what is necessary and important to you going forward in your life. You can do (most) anything, you just can't do everything. 168 hours a week, 56 of which are sleeping, that means 112 hours of time to live life. How do you spend your time?

I'd divorce you just saying. It's one thing being a provider and a completely other thing being negligent with your marriage and not dedicating time to your wife.

 

[freedoctor17]

I'd divorce you just saying. It's one thing being a provider and a completely other thing being negligent with your marriage and not dedicating time to your wife.

Yeah they pretty much just said all they do is work and sleep...

If you work over 100 hours a week and sleep 56 hours that leaves you with less than 12 hours for everything else. Not to be harsh here but that doesn't sound like much of a life (which I guess you said yourself). I'm curious as to why you work so much?

 

[mimelim]

I'd divorce you just saying. It's one thing being a provider and a completely other thing being negligent with your marriage and not dedicating time to your wife.

Who said anything about being negligent with my marriage and not dedicating time to my wife? Maybe you can't imagine a functional marriage where someone works that much, but I assure you, some of us can.

 

[mimelim]

Yeah they pretty much just said all they do is work and sleep...

If you work over 100 hours a week and sleep 56 hours that leaves you with less than 12 hours for everything else. Not to be harsh here but that doesn't sound like much of a life (which I guess you said yourself). I'm curious as to why you work so much?

I never said that I sleep 56 hours a week. That was a generous, simplistic calculation that is thrown out as a generally upper bound. I sleep about 30-32 hours per week.

Why do I work that much? I'm in residency at a competitive program in a competitive field. In a typical surgical program, residents work over 80 hours per week. That is pretty normal. If you are in a busy program that has expectations of production outside of your clinical work, that easily expands to 100 hours per week. I am on call tonight. After spend a couple hours with my wife this evening, she went to sleep while I started finishing my op notes and other documentation from today (and also spend some SDN time). I am on call right now (from home) and have a dissection transferring in that I will need to go in and see in a couple hours. I will probably stay at the hospital at that point since there is no point in me coming home to have my wife drop me off at 5am like she normally does. In addition to my documentation and clinical duties, I presented a case yesterday (2-3 hours of prep work), am presenting at SCVS next week (25-30 hours of research + 2-3 hours of prep work for presentation), then there are program related stuff (call schedules, organizing didactics, etc) that take up time. I choose to do a lot of what I do that is non-clinical, because I enjoy it. I gave up many hobbies to do those things. Many people would not do that.

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

Always makes me laugh when pre meds say they don’t have time to work. Off the top of my head I’ve got 8 friends/acquaintances that don’t have a job. Mind you one of them says he is going to apply for FAP to pay for the application process and says his family can’t pay for it. Don’t get me wrong. I thinks it’s great disadvantage people can get stuff like FAP but it’s just funny to me that this guy talks about not having money and talks about getting FAP when he doesn’t even have a job. And it’s funny how someone can say they’re disadvantaged when they have the privilege of not having to work. Working part time you can make 6-10 grand in a year. Since you’re not paying any bills that’s your application fees right there. I’ve got another person who doesn’t work and told me during spring break he was going to go home and make some money. You should have seen the look on his face, he thought he was something else. I don’t have to work but I do. I’m from a middle class family (closer to upper class) but my dad was a first generation college student and believes you should work your way through school. My mom also worked through school. It’s what they believe and my kids will work too. There is no reason you can’t work at least 10 hours a week. Funny thing is even though I’ve worked every semester 18-30 hours a week I’ve got more extra curriculars than friends/acquaintances who don’t work. Because they’re partying or going to the gym. And during breaks from school they’re traveling. In my experience they use their extra time for stuff they don’t even need to do. Working during school has taught me time management skills and to always put my time to good use. The first couple jobs I had were fast food and grocery store jobs. It was humbling and really taught me the value of a dollar. These people work to their grave for every red cent. I’m a pharmacy tech now but I don’t regret those jobs. Now you’ve got people going into residency who’ve never had a job! Sometimes it makes them self entitled too. Sorry for the rant. It’s just one thing that bugs me about being pre med.

 

[freedoctor17]

I never said that I sleep 56 hours a week. That was a generous, simplistic calculation that is thrown out as a generally upper bound. I sleep about 30-32 hours per week.

Why do I work that much? I'm in residency at a competitive program in a competitive field. In a typical surgical program, residents work over 80 hours per week. That is pretty normal. If you are in a busy program that has expectations of production outside of your clinical work, that easily expands to 100 hours per week. I am on call tonight. After spend a couple hours with my wife this evening, she went to sleep while I started finishing my op notes and other documentation from today (and also spend some SDN time). I am on call right now (from home) and have a dissection transferring in that I will need to go in and see in a couple hours. I will probably stay at the hospital at that point since there is no point in me coming home to have my wife drop me off at 5am like she normally does. In addition to my documentation and clinical duties, I presented a case yesterday (2-3 hours of prep work), am presenting at SCVS next week (25-30 hours of research + 2-3 hours of prep work for presentation), then there are program related stuff (call schedules, organizing didactics, etc) that take up time. I choose to do a lot of what I do that is non-clinical, because I enjoy it. I gave up many hobbies to do those things. Many people would not do that.

Ah ok I was thinking it would make sense if you were a resident haha.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

I never said that I sleep 56 hours a week. That was a generous, simplistic calculation that is thrown out as a generally upper bound. I sleep about 30-32 hours per week.

Why do I work that much? I'm in residency at a competitive program in a competitive field. In a typical surgical program, residents work over 80 hours per week. That is pretty normal. If you are in a busy program that has expectations of production outside of your clinical work, that easily expands to 100 hours per week. I am on call tonight. After spend a couple hours with my wife this evening, she went to sleep while I started finishing my op notes and other documentation from today (and also spend some SDN time). I am on call right now (from home) and have a dissection transferring in that I will need to go in and see in a couple hours. I will probably stay at the hospital at that point since there is no point in me coming home to have my wife drop me off at 5am like she normally does. In addition to my documentation and clinical duties, I presented a case yesterday (2-3 hours of prep work), am presenting at SCVS next week (25-30 hours of research + 2-3 hours of prep work for presentation), then there are program related stuff (call schedules, organizing didactics, etc) that take up time. I choose to do a lot of what I do that is non-clinical, because I enjoy it. I gave up many hobbies to do those things. Many people would not do that.

What field are you in?

 

[HelpAddictedtoGreys]

Hey friend just chiming in. First of all, I commend you for working through high school and being mature enough to save your money towards your education.

I worked all throughout college in a non-medical related job about 16-20 hours per week and it worked out fine. Academics should definitely come first because your grades and such matter so much more in the long run. Also if you feel yourself burning out or whatever ask for an academic leave from your job too (these options exist! I did it when I took about a 2 month leave to study for the MCAT). But in short, it’s doable.

As a side note, definitely list it on your application too! I got asked about it on nearly all of my interviews (how I was able to do school and ECs while working) and it definitely shows that you have time management skills. I agree that although a lot of people do work as premeds, it still sets you apart from those applicants who have a lot “handed to them” in that they don’t have to worry about paying for school/can focus solely on grades and ECs.

Anywho, take this advice with a grain of salt. In the end of the day, you know yourself a lot better than strangers on the internet but honestly I think it’ll be fine!

 

[Dwight Snoot]

It depends on how much you usually study but working around 20 hours per week is easily doable. My advice would be to find a clinical job or at least something where you could end up in a leadership position. This would allow you to improve your application while getting paid at the same time. Also, maybe hold off until halfway through the first semester to see what you can handle.

 

[bioboy23]

I'd divorce you just saying. It's one thing being a provider and a completely other thing being negligent with your marriage and not dedicating time to your wife.

No one asked lmao

 

[Goro]

I never said that I sleep 56 hours a week. That was a generous, simplistic calculation that is thrown out as a generally upper bound. I sleep about 30-32 hours per week.

Why do I work that much? I'm in residency at a competitive program in a competitive field. In a typical surgical program, residents work over 80 hours per week. That is pretty normal. If you are in a busy program that has expectations of production outside of your clinical work, that easily expands to 100 hours per week. I am on call tonight. After spend a couple hours with my wife this evening, she went to sleep while I started finishing my op notes and other documentation from today (and also spend some SDN time). I am on call right now (from home) and have a dissection transferring in that I will need to go in and see in a couple hours. I will probably stay at the hospital at that point since there is no point in me coming home to have my wife drop me off at 5am like she normally does. In addition to my documentation and clinical duties, I presented a case yesterday (2-3 hours of prep work), am presenting at SCVS next week (25-30 hours of research + 2-3 hours of prep work for presentation), then there are program related stuff (call schedules, organizing didactics, etc) that take up time. I choose to do a lot of what I do that is non-clinical, because I enjoy it. I gave up many hobbies to do those things. Many people would not do that.

When do you have time for rock climbing?

 

[mimelim]

When do you have time for rock climbing?

Things have shifted and I don't climb as much as I used to. My intern/PGY2 year a friend or my wife would pick me up from the hospital, I'd take a 30 minute nap on the way to the rock gym, climb for ~2 hours, catch a 30 minute nap on the way home. Then I'd eat/study/whatever and go to sleep. Every couple of months we'd go climbing outdoors ~10 hours away. Get out of the hospital Friday ~6pm, drive all night across several states, climb all day Saturday. Climb all day Sunday, drive back starting about 2-3pm, get dropped off at the hospital early Monday morning, catch a nap and shower in a call room and start work Monday morning. In no way saying that that isn't crazy. In retrospect, I'm amazed that we did that as often as we did, but that is what I prioritized, so that is what we did. Again, only possible because my wife climbs as much or more than I do.

 

[Planes2Doc]

I have a different opinion when it comes to working jobs as a pre-med. When I was in college, I delivered pizzas once a week that helped me pay some small bills. Otherwise, I concentrated most of my time on studying. If you want to see my long take on entry-level clinical jobs as a pre-med, then check this out.