Working, School and Good Grades

[LatinGuitarrist]

Hey guys, how many of you work ( how many hours weekly and doing what) and how many classes you take while working? How do you handle to do good in school and still working?

Ed

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[justin5790]

I am a little older (25), and have had to work throughout college..I averaged about 30 hours a week and 15 credit hours. It is not easy, and judging by how many EC's, 4.0 GPAs, etc. there are on this site, I don't think most of the students on SDN do this, but I could be wrong. I just hope ADCOMs take this into consideration when reviewing files.

 

[momtwo]

My daughter is a senior applying for medical school. She works ~10 hours a week in the lab, ~6 hours as a pharmacy tech, and works ~30 hours a week as an EMT on two squads. One squad is volunteer one isn't. She also hopes the admissions people notice this effort and ability.

 

[riceman04]

In undergrad I worked approx. 20 - 25 hrs/ week (but they were jobs where I could sometimes study) while full time (usually around 16 semester hours)....yeah...somehow I managed to do all the EC's too

Now I am a full time research assistant and I am in grad school

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

My daughter is a senior applying for medical school. She works ~10 hours a week in the lab, ~6 hours as a pharmacy tech, and works ~30 hours a week as an EMT on two squads. One squad is volunteer one isn't. She also hopes the admissions people notice this effort and ability.

I've heard of AMCAS and medical schools checking up on numbers that don't add up. That's 46 hours a week - plus say a typical senior year we're looking at around 14 hours of class = 60 hours of stuff a week, not including study time. Unless she has absolutely no life and no ECs, that kind of looks suspicious. If she does it, great, but if she doesn't I'd advise her to fix those numbers.

 

[eeynihs]

During my 4 years in undergrad, I worked 20-25 hours a week while being a full-time student (14-16 credits). This is in addition to EC's - running with a volunteer ambulance squad, ski patrolling, etc.

For the past 1.5 years (post-bac premed program), I've been taking 12 credits and working full time (40-50 hours a week). I'm still running with an ambulance squad, and in the winter, my full time job is ski patrolling. I've managed to squeeze all my classes into 2 days a week, and I work the other 5 days each week.

Yeah, not much time for anything else, but I still manage to have a decent social life, and my fiance doesn't complain too much. So all in all, it's doable as long as you're good at managing your time and are efficient. BUT, I've learned that if you get behind once, it's all over... it's imperative that you stay on top of things.

 

[mdvargas]

I've worked non-stop since I turned 16, but while in college I do 30 hours per week doing office work for a clinic, in addition to 5 classes per semester (or 15+ credits, sometimes not including labs). I'm also involved in EC's and have made it to the Dean's list a few times. In the beginning, I resented having to work while going through college, because, well, it's hard to have some much on your plate and social life can become limited, if not non-existent. Recently I've realized how important and valuable this experience has been for me and I wouldn't change a thing; I'm far more mature, appreciative, and capable of handling much responsibility than if I didn't struggled for a bit. Paying for your own education and all because your parent's can't provide was good dose of reality.....I'm sure a lot of you can relate

 

[photo_girl07]

Howdy!

I work (get paid for 10+ hours), research (10-20 hours, given the week and experiments), TA fitness classes (6 hrs)....I think I just find time for these things because I love them so much- the key is balance

 

[szhao]

werd, definitely 100x busier than I, i am doomed.

 

[samwise2]

I am post bacc and have worked full time the entire time (40-60 h) while I have been doing my pre-meds. If you can possibly not work though, if it allows you to do better, I would do that though, since I don't think they take into account that your time is divided between studies and work in evaluating your application.

 

[riceman04]

I've heard of AMCAS and medical schools checking up on numbers that don't add up. That's 46 hours a week - plus say a typical senior year we're looking at around 14 hours of class = 60 hours of stuff a week, not including study time. Unless she has absolutely no life and no ECs, that kind of looks suspicious. If she does it, great, but if she doesn't I'd advise her to fix those numbers.

yeah but some of those hours may overlap...I know I had two jobs that allowed me to study