Hey everybody,
I’m looking for some input here. I posted about this in my diary, and I don’t usually cross-post. But I figured I might get more responses here in the General Discussion section.
A friend of mine from high school (WAAAAY back in the day! 
) just offered me a freelance editing/writing job with the company she has been working for part time. It wouldn’t be a ton of work, probably 10-20 hours per month. And it wouldn’t be difficult work; mostly writing press releases, some short articles, and doing a monthly newsletter. That might sound like an absolute nightmare to some, but for me, that’s cake. And the pay is AWESOME. Better than I’ve EVER been paid before, either as a salaried employee or a freelancer. Taking the job would allow me to save money (i.e. for interview expenses next fall/winter) and give me a cushion in the event the I don’t find a lab tech/assistant job right away after school ends. Which, given this crappy economy, is a definite possibility. The downside, of course, is that this would cut into my MCAT/school study time.
Any thoughts???
I think I’m pretty much guaranteed the job, if I want it (from the way she made it sound), so it’s really my call. I told her I would call her this weekend with an answer.
Any and all feedback would be appreciated! Thanks! 
Do it. No question whatsoever.
You can crank that stuff out faster (and better) than most anyone else I know. It won’t cut into your study time all that much, especially given how organized you are.
Once you find a place to fit it in, it will become your new normal. (Trust me.)
FANTASTIC opportunity, and I’m so happy for you! Congratulations!!
I second Carrieliz. I fritter away at least 15 hours a month anyway - I think you can shoehorn doing something you like (writing) in there and still do justice to your courses and MCAT prep. Heck, you could use a little of the money to hire someone to do housework or to buy sushi more often and avoid cooking (thus saving some time!).
Kate
Only 10-20 hours per MONTH? I say go for it. As focused as you are, I think the impact will be very low.
Besides, the money will be nice for all those secondaries and interviews!
I say go!
As we talked about offline, I work as a freelance translator (in 3 languages) -no student loans -no debt -no outside help.
But it took a lot of planning and a lot of practice runs to figure out a system that works for me.
Our priorities are clear. Med school. So freelance is an option since we can choose when and how much work to accept depending on our schedule. Sometimes I refuse projects for weeks at a time, then during breaks I make up for it by working a lot. We need that flexibility.
Thanks, everybody, for the input! I know I can always count on my OPM friends for good advice. I was kind of leaning toward the “go” route, and I think that’s what I’m going to do. As many of you have said, the money will be really helpful, and the workload isn’t too great.
Thanks again!