Working while taking pre-med classes

[Odpb55]

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What kind of jobs have you guys worked while taking pre-med classes? As a person who is doing GPA repair, and planning to work at the same time, I'm wondering how this scheduling thing should go. It's kind of stressing me out.

 

[kraskadva]

Personally, I worked and saved up for a couple years beforehand, took out student loans, and had a bit of help from family- all so I could focus on the post-bacc. But for a number of reasons that I won't detail here, found myself pretty broke recently. I got a work-study job at my college, which certainly doesn't pay top dollar, but does help ends meet and is designed to schedule around coursework. I also applied for food stamps and Medicaid after the savings ran out, which has helped immensely. I'm not livin' it by any means, but I get by.

From the way you've phrased it though, it sounds like you're continuing with a job you've already got (??). If that's the case, this is the most recent thread on this topic, but there are more if you use the search function. Scheduling is key. An employer willing to be flexible is also key. Say you can get all your classes on MWF, but you still need to do FT at work. Will your employer let you do 13-14 hr shifts T,Th,Sa ? If yes, then with hard work and dedication (as well as scheduling every moment of your time) you can probably do this. If no, then you have to change something. And class scheduling is typically non-negotiable.

 

[econ2med]

I too am in the same boat and would like to hear from people who worked while they completed a postbacc.

I am looking to become an ER tech. Has anyone worked at a hospital while they completed their postbacc?

 

[FutureDrB]

What kind of jobs have you guys worked while taking pre-med classes? As a person who is doing GPA repair, and planning to work at the same time, I'm wondering how this scheduling thing should go. It's kind of stressing me out.

I work in college administration and feel extremely lucky in that it pays well and I can tailor my hours around my school schedule. I really feel for those trying to complete courses while working/raising a family, because most jobs either don't pay much if you're only working part-time or aren't convenient for taking day courses if you're working full-time. I was in that boat a couple of years ago before taking this position, so I understand.

I tell you, to this day I still think waiting tables in one of the best gigs out there if you're going to school. Did it for 6 years in school and even though I'm 35 now, I wouldn't hesitate doing it again if need be. Flexible hours, decent pay and usually looked-up on by employers (in my experience) since it's such a people-involved job that require good social skills.

 

[AustinTX]

I'm in the same boat as you. I've never had a problem fitting school around full-time work, but I need to take a lot of labs. I think it'll work if (a) you have a flexible employer, and (b) you can function on 5-6 hours sleep a night.

 

["L"]

I worked at a plasma donation center as a phlebotomist near my college. Full time hours, with a full class caseload. Their were a lot of students working there who were pre-med. or nursing students. The job did not pay great, but enough to cover my bills. I took out student loans to pay for school.
Working there was a great experience, it prepared me for working with the public.

 

[hawkbit]

I'm a sonographer (ultrasound tech), I work the weekend shift, so I fit my 40 hrs in by working 12 on Fri, 12 on Sat, and 16 on Sunday, leaving me Mon-Thursday for classes. Fun? no. But I'm not broke either, and I've managed to pay for my classes as I take them so no loans. Plus I get great clinical experience since I have a direct patient care job.

 

[desdes]

I worked at a hospital as a cna and then did some retail when we moved to AK now at Bragg I have not worked but did try to save when I was for extra classes I needed

 

[phunkeyfantom]

I was doing gpa repair and also worked. My jobs were heavily involved in the social service and customer service fields. All of my jobs required heavy travel throughout the city, making court appearances or just being there to be a stabilizing force when things got completely insane (more often than not, things got completely insane 90% of the time). For me, working and taking classes was not compatible. I didn't fail any courses but only managed to squeeze by with a C+ in practically all of my science pre-requisites save for Biology I and II where I earned an A- and B respectively. I realized after this fiasco that if I was committed to getting into medical school, that I would have to sacrifice something and that something was a regular paycheck. It was tough at first and I found myself going back and getting a part time job at an insurance company that was literally 3 blocks away from where I live but dealing with customer service was as much of a hassle as dealing with social service and more often than not, I found myself too tired to do anything else after work but sleep. I quit the job and focused solely on my classes. GPA wise, I've managed to repair a lot of the self harm I've done. But my advise is that if you plan on working find a job that isn't time consuming, will offer you a flexible schedule and doesn't require you to be too involved with other people and their issues.

 

[Vince411]

work alone in an office all day writing legal reports/no one depends on me to be at work during x hours as long as i keep sending the reports over the intranet. good, not great, pay. Not as high-stress/hours as a law firm, and very flexible to the point where I could come in after-daytime hours and do my work if necessary---which might be necessary in the future as some of the pre-reqs are only offered in the daytime hours (i.e. Orgs I/II). the monotiny can be brutal but i guess i'm fortunate to be able to do this on the side basically without anyone caring.

 

[tawnymarie]

What kind of jobs have you guys worked while taking pre-med classes? As a person who is doing GPA repair, and planning to work at the same time, I'm wondering how this scheduling thing should go. It's kind of stressing me out.

I am an office administrator in the finance industry by day...On top of that I am a mom (shared custody), and a premed student. Thankfully the bay area offers a lot of options for those who want to take prerequisites for medical school. There are a lot of universities offering evening/weekend science intensives 🙂

I'd love to find three 12 hour shifts at a local hospital but not much hiring going on at the moment. I'm currently preparing for a Scribe test to do that part-time to get my foot in the door.

🙂

 

[tawnymarie]

I'm a sonographer (ultrasound tech), I work the weekend shift, so I fit my 40 hrs in by working 12 on Fri, 12 on Sat, and 16 on Sunday, leaving me Mon-Thursday for classes. Fun? no. But I'm not broke either, and I've managed to pay for my classes as I take them so no loans. Plus I get great clinical experience since I have a direct patient care job.

Gosh I miss those 12 hour shifts from my CNA days! ...three 12's and your done...and any shifts you pick up after that is just bonus money in your pocket 🙂

 

[ongbacsiLE]

I'm in the same boat as you guys. I will be graduating with political science ( public administration option), but I have always feel happier in the medical field so I plan to go back to a CC or post-bacc program to finish my prereqs and apply for med school. As I look around for the course schedule, they're all scheduled in the middle of the day and since I have a full time job as a pen pusher 8am-5pm jobs, this would make it nearly impossible to complete my pre reqs unless quitting the pen pushing job and try to pull some night shift schedule.

 

[Eccesignum]

I'm a per-diem RN (hospital) and part-time EMT-A (county EMS). I set my own schedule for both, which is a very lucky situation.

 

[Odpb55]

wow there's a lot of great ideas in this thread.

I dont know whether I should:

1. FT job and PT student
2. FT student with a PT job
3. Balance a FT work and FT school schedule

I also like the idea of working in healthcare to support myself + getting clinical experience at the same time, but is there any job in healthcare that requires no prior experience? :/

 

[Odpb55]

I too am in the same boat and would like to hear from people who worked while they completed a postbacc.

I am looking to become an ER tech. Has anyone worked at a hospital while they completed their postbacc?

How are you becoming an ER tech? That sounds interesting. I volunteered in the ER a long time ago, I thought it was awesome.

 

[Odpb55]

Personally, I worked and saved up for a couple years beforehand, took out student loans, and had a bit of help from family- all so I could focus on the post-bacc. But for a number of reasons that I won't detail here, found myself pretty broke recently. I got a work-study job at my college, which certainly doesn't pay top dollar, but does help ends meet and is designed to schedule around coursework. I also applied for food stamps and Medicaid after the savings ran out, which has helped immensely. I'm not livin' it by any means, but I get by.

From the way you've phrased it though, it sounds like you're continuing with a job you've already got (??). If that's the case, this is the most recent thread on this topic, but there are more if you use the search function. Scheduling is key. An employer willing to be flexible is also key. Say you can get all your classes on MWF, but you still need to do FT at work. Will your employer let you do 13-14 hr shifts T,Th,Sa ? If yes, then with hard work and dedication (as well as scheduling every moment of your time) you can probably do this. If no, then you have to change something. And class scheduling is typically non-negotiable.

I'm having a difficult time finding people who are willing to let me have a flexible schedule.

 

[Odpb55]

I work in college administration and feel extremely lucky in that it pays well and I can tailor my hours around my school schedule. I really feel for those trying to complete courses while working/raising a family, because most jobs either don't pay much if you're only working part-time or aren't convenient for taking day courses if you're working full-time. I was in that boat a couple of years ago before taking this position, so I understand.

I tell you, to this day I still think waiting tables in one of the best gigs out there if you're going to school. Did it for 6 years in school and even though I'm 35 now, I wouldn't hesitate doing it again if need be. Flexible hours, decent pay and usually looked-up on by employers (in my experience) since it's such a people-involved job that require good social skills.

I've never waited tables before.. I will look into it.

 

[Odpb55]

I was doing gpa repair and also worked. My jobs were heavily involved in the social service and customer service fields. All of my jobs required heavy travel throughout the city, making court appearances or just being there to be a stabilizing force when things got completely insane (more often than not, things got completely insane 90% of the time). For me, working and taking classes was not compatible. I didn't fail any courses but only managed to squeeze by with a C+ in practically all of my science pre-requisites save for Biology I and II where I earned an A- and B respectively. I realized after this fiasco that if I was committed to getting into medical school, that I would have to sacrifice something and that something was a regular paycheck. It was tough at first and I found myself going back and getting a part time job at an insurance company that was literally 3 blocks away from where I live but dealing with customer service was as much of a hassle as dealing with social service and more often than not, I found myself too tired to do anything else after work but sleep. I quit the job and focused solely on my classes. GPA wise, I've managed to repair a lot of the self harm I've done. But my advise is that if you plan on working find a job that isn't time consuming, will offer you a flexible schedule and doesn't require you to be too involved with other people and their issues.

Thank you for the advise. As someone who is doing GPA repair, I probably don't need a time consuming job that may hurt my chances (even more). I'll probably just go with part time or something light like that.

 

[kraskadva]

How are you becoming an ER tech? That sounds interesting. I volunteered in the ER a long time ago, I thought it was awesome.

go to the HR department at your local hospital and ask what positions they have open. Typically there are spots for phlebotomists (blood draws, on the job training) and nurse's assistants (titles vary by location, but job involves all the icky bits ( cleaning patients, cleaning up after patients, blood draws, etc.) and usually has a short, in house training period)
Hospital jobs can have a wide range of shifts as well as FT & PT positions.

 

[kraskadva]

Thank you for the advise. As someone who is doing GPA repair, I probably don't need a time consuming job that may hurt my chances (even more). I'll probably just go with part time or something light like that.

light/ PT is probably a good idea.

 

[econ2med]

How are you becoming an ER tech? That sounds interesting. I volunteered in the ER a long time ago, I thought it was awesome.

How? Well I just completed my EMT which is required for some ER Tech spots. Conversely, I may become an EMT working in an ambulance. Both jobs I am skeptical about taking because my priority lies in keeping an high GPA. Like a previous poster said, I don't want to be bogged down by an important job. Currently, I work in a restaurant (yes, waiting tables) and I can make up to 20 dollars and hour with tips. Waiting tables seems entirely better (money-wise) than becoming an ER Tech or ambulance driver. In my area, the ambulance drivers make 9/hr which is minimum wage.

 

[econ2med]

light/ PT is probably a good idea.

What is light FT/PT?

 

[kraskadva]

What is light FT/PT?

In a discussion about jobs PT usually means 'part time', FT means 'full time'. So in my response to the quoted message above, what I meant (but didn't completely type out) was ...
"yes, I agree. I think a light work load or part time job is a good idea."

 

[SN12357]

wow there's a lot of great ideas in this thread.

I dont know whether I should:

1. FT job and PT student
2. FT student with a PT job
3. Balance a FT work and FT school schedule

I also like the idea of working in healthcare to support myself + getting clinical experience at the same time, but is there any job in healthcare that requires no prior experience? :/

1 or 2. 3 is very difficult and risky and would require a lucky combination of work and school logistics.

I worked full time in research and took night classes. Unpleasant but doable. If you are near large academic centers you may be able to find a research job that values maturity over science background (ie, patient interviewer). The various other suggestions here are also good.

 

[danielterrones]

I would advise against Option 3. I personally have a PT Job (25 hours a week) and go to school "full-time" (only 12 units but still considered full time). On top of this, I have 4 kids + wife, I volunteer on weekends to help build parks in the community. All this to say, you can definitely work + school, just try to utilize your "free-time" well.

In regards to "what kind of job should you get" - this is more difficult to answer. I personally work at a Home Health + Hospice facility, I work in billing (paperwork.. yay!!!). Although this does not contribute to any clinical (hands-on) experience, I have had the opportunity to have some friendly conversations with doctors (I would have never had those conversations if I didn't work here). Those conversations have led to me arranging shadowing opportunities in the next few months. If you can, try to get a job with clinical experience in health care. If you cannot get clinical experience, try to get a job that is in health care to get some sort of exposure (the more the better). If you cannot get a job in healthcare then just take the highest paying most flexible job that you enjoy 🙂.

 

[LupaCupcake]

I work fulltime as the patient advocate at an inpatient behavioral health hospital. We are acute care which translates to saying, we get people in crisis so it is often a chaotic and stressful environment. Some days I am ran back and forth between units (I am the only patient advocate here, we do not employ more than one person in my department like some hospitals), I often leave my office then when I return I have multiple voicemails with requests, grievances, general questions so on and so forth then I have to attend meetings that make me keep watching the clock because I other things to do etc. I am busy....I get home and the yard needs to be mowed, the house is cluttered (my husband is not very good at anything related to the house minus cooking lol). My daughter wants some tiem with me before she disapears into her room to play. Then I sit down and whip out my chemistry book lol. Do I want to study? No. I want to lay down and turn on Netflix and sometimes I will do just that and watch one show to unwind then I grab my bag of homework goodies.

I am doing school PT school right now because fulltime would be too much and I will not risk dropping my GPA plus I just got back into school so I need to get back into the swing of things. I cannot drop my work to FT because of my position and the fact that I am the breadwinner so my job stays put as is.

The point is, most of us here do this and yes it is tiring and sometimes we are stressed out and crabby because we really just want to lay down and do absolutely nothing for 10 minutes, but this is the struggle for nontrads. You can do it because we all do it. I highly suggest having a nice coffeemaker lol and a good multivitamin for that extra boost hehe

 

[Apollo1]

Full-time in a law firm w/ several hundred attorneys.

 

[tawnymarie]

wow there's a lot of great ideas in this thread.

I dont know whether I should:

1. FT job and PT student
2. FT student with a PT job
3. Balance a FT work and FT school schedule

I also like the idea of working in healthcare to support myself + getting clinical experience at the same time, but is there any job in healthcare that requires no prior experience? :/

I am doing FT work and FT school. My day job is 9a-5p and it's killing me. It's in the financial industry and I'm an office manager. My goal is to somehow find three 12 hour shifts at a hospital each week which will be FT pay but I can do three night shifts for the week and be done. I did this on the east coast but in the bay area those kind of jobs are hard to find. I don't recommend FT for both unless you're seriously disciplined and HATE sleep haha 🙂

 

[T-butyl]

I work about 35 hrs a week as a medical assistant and every other weekend in a laboratory. It's tough while taking a full course load but you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[Mad Jack]

I worked as a RRT for about 30 hours a week while taking my prereqs. It sucked balls but I got damn near straight As.

 

[Lt_Yash]

I have worked at least 36 hours/week throughout my entire undergrad as a part-time firefighter/paramedic. In addition, I am an a lieutenant and Head of EMS operations on a larger volunteer department. It certainly affected my academics as I also take 16+ hours each semester so I can graduate in May before my scholarship runs out. This semester I have a history course, spanish, gross anatomy, biochemistry, and still have to finish my undergraduate research project. I quote T-butyl, " . . . you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[Snoozer33]

I worked 32 hours a week with a FT class load and shadowing one afternoon a week. I work retail for a large "fruit company" and they were awesome about my schedule. I also have 2 kids and I structured my class/work/shadow schedule around spending a day at home with them. It was a tough 3 years, but worth it. Still graduated with high honors. Mcat grades release this week.

 

[Vince411]

Vince, I'm curious, what sort of job do you have? Is it a contracting gig? I have my JD and am looking for flexible work options while I go through my pre-requisites.

it's actually a judicial clerkship in a state court--I'd check your local district/circuit/appellate-level courts and see if they have any research positions.

 

[Vince411]

Full-time in a law firm w/ several hundred attorneys.

impressive that you're doing this on the side, i know what firm jobs are like and I'm sure it's stressful, kudos to you!

 

[lilyzoo]

I should admit that doing FT work and FT school is hectic, especially when you have a high-demanding job. But it's still doable. I wish I had the luxury of working PT!I work at a big private university which gives very generous tuition reimbursement for FT employees only, that why I can't quit my job. I enroll in evening and weekend classes only. On a regular week during the semester, I go to school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and a lab on Saturday morning. Of course I have no time doing volunteer work or shadowing under this schedule, but I want to get the pre-reqs done as soon as possible.

 

[Rady Ruck]

Dropped down to 33 hours from 40 since I just transferred from CC to State U. Already feeling the pressure. Cross between a junior project manager and rank-and-file desk jockey at a business process outsourcing company. Lots of papers and keyboard work.

 

[TenYearsGone]

I work full time as a nurse. Basically do 3 nights in a row on the weekend at the moment but those next two days back can be tough getting back into the swing of things.

Does anyone know when applying / filling out AMCAS how it asks your work status? Do you have to indicate part time / full time or do you just list your job? The reason I ask is because I was eventually thinking of going part time and increasing or keeping the number of classes the same but I'd be worried that keeping them the same would be viewed negatively if it says you're working part time.

 

[kraskadva]

I work full time as a nurse. Basically do 3 nights in a row on the weekend at the moment but those next two days back can be tough getting back into the swing of things.

Does anyone know when applying / filling out AMCAS how it asks your work status? Do you have to indicate part time / full time or do you just list your job? The reason I ask is because I was eventually thinking of going part time and increasing or keeping the number of classes the same but I'd be worried that keeping them the same would be viewed negatively if it says you're working part time.

As AMCAS is currently, for the work/activities section you put in the time period (mo/yr - mo/yr) and total # of hours. You have the option to break this up into chunks, so you could indicate PT/FT differences this way, but it's not necessary if you're continuously working there.
And I haven't heard anything negative about PT work loads- especially if you're taking classes at the same time.

 

[Lawgiver]

part time 20-25 hrs tech job, and part-time school, 2 classes at a time. before i apply i will take a semester thats just loaded to show i can handle it, not willing to give up my very high sGPA by doing more. plus i love the sciences and want actually understand everything not just memorize. i also volunteer at two different places, one clinical one not.

 

[instamatic]

I'm sure this thread is full of really good advice so this may have been repeated as I didn't read every post- but I did work and take classes at the same time. My advice is to get a research position in academia. Especially at top research universities, your PIs/mentors understand that the job is a stepping stone. In that vein, they are always helpful as sounding boards and for advice. They also want and encourage you to continue your education and do whatever it is you need to do to get where you want to be- including taking classes around work. You can fit experiments/work in around class schedules, study during incubations etc. I could elaborate but you get the gist.

My two cents 🙂