I am 37 with 4 teenage boys. I really want to go to medical school but really don’t have much of a support system. It is of course much easier when having older children when you want to go to school or have a full time job. My question is, is it possible to work a good paying part time job and go to medical school, but also find time to spend with my children? Oh, and of course sleep. My boys do understand that I want to go to school and support me in my decision. I also am thinking about law school if it would be easier, but don’t want to regret that decision later down the road and be unhappy with my career. I have been studying the LSAT and MCAT for the past 6 months. If anyone could give me some advise I would appreciate it. Oh buy the way I know how old I am so please don’t bring up my age in a negative way. Thanks
If you do a search there is great discussion on working and medical school. I understood that it was very challenging. Best of luck!
I’m about to begin 2 pre-med courses in a few weeks while working 40 hours at my current job. I don’t have kids, but I have allocated a few hours on Saturday nights to be for free time to do whatever I want. I have allocated around 23 hours of study time every week (this number does not include class time, but does include homework). I’m hoping this schedule works for me, as I have not actually put it into use yet. I know I’ll be relying on coffee A LOT though; I’m definitely not gonna get my full 8 hour beauty sleep on certain nights…more like 7 hours…not so bad I think.
I think if you tinker with your future schedule you can work out something.
I will be attending Oceania University of Medicine. During the first 2 years it is possible to continue working part-time. After that then no as you are doing your hosp rotations year 3 and 4. Oceania is a relatively new school based in Samoa with a subsidiary college in Philly for American students. You attend classes every other weekend for the first 4 months and then the course involves distance PBL and then years 3 and 4 are the same as conventional med school.
Med school is a full-time job. It’s the rare person who can work at all during the first two years, and no one can work outside school during years three and four.
If it’s money you’re worried about, you’ll need to factor finances into your consideration of schools to which you might apply, and you’ll need to learn lots about financial aid. Med students are able to borrow money for living expenses in addition to money for tuition, books, etc. There are also things like National Health Services Corps which provides scholarship money and a stipend for recipients of the scholarship (you must plan to go into primary care, and be willing to practice in an underserved area).
Figure out what you want to do, and then worry about the money.
Mary
Lucifer,
The original poster was referring to medical school, not pre-med. I think you may (or may not) have misunderstood. It is a whole different system than taking six credit hours, versus being a first year.
At the risk of sounding harsh, you are likely setting yourself up for failure by thinking, you can successfully complete 1st year of medical school, work a part time job, have time for the boys, not too mention eat, sleep, etc. and general activities of keeping a household running.
A more realistic approach would be to be extend your premed out a year, work your butt off with the extra time, maybe work full-time and half during the gap year, saving as much as possible, and then go into medical school w/o having a part time job.
BTW, the one person I remember who did have a part time job 1st year was a dentist who went back to med school. Since the 1st two years of med and dental school are nearly the same, he was able to pull it off.