I was wondering how many hours per week you worked while finishing up your prerequisites as a full-time student?
Was it hard? What was your part-time job? What classes were you taking?
I will start school in the fall full-time, and wasn’t planning on working so I could devote 100% to my studies;however, given that I will need money to apply to med schools, I probably will have to work…darn it!
I think it totally depends on the person. I find that I don’t do the school and work thing together very well. Most schools don’t recommend working more than like 12 hrs/week if taking 16+ credits, and while some people can do more than that and still get the grades I think it’s a good guideline for starting out anyway.
This year I’ve had work study all year so I’ve technically been doing my own organic project for the head of the chem dept, but I really haven’t done a thing on it cuz I’m having a hard enough time getting the grades. (I’m still turning in hours to get the money but if I spend more than an hour a week doing research I’d be very surprised lol). The award was for about 15-20 hrs in the fall and is for 14 hrs/week this spring. I took Cell Bio, Physics I, Physics I lab, Organic I, Organic I lab, and Biostats in the fall. This spring I have Organic I, Physics II, Genetics, Genetics lab, and Biomechanics. It hasn’t worked out too well obviously since I’m retaking orgo I (just missed the C cutoff).
Starting next year I’ll most likely be cutting down to the 12-15 credits we’re budgeted for in our financial aid packages (those credits are all the same price) and hopefully 9 over the summers which will draw my degree out another 2 years thanks to how i have to divide up my science classes, but I think it will be better for me cuz I won’t be worrying about money as much, and not have as many stressful classes at once (I’ll end up with enough credits to graduate with 3 majors and 2 minors thanks to all of my old credits that didn’t really count toward anything lol). Plus then I’ll actually have the time to truly do my work study award (since I doubt I’ll be rehired by my boss next year lol) and devote enough time to studying to get the grades.
On the other hand I know plenty of people who don’t have to study as hard as I do who manage to hold down 20-35 hrs/week (some even full time) with a full load and still get the grades.
Another suggestion is to do your best to find a job that will let you study while it’s slow as well. That’s usually found the easiest at on campus jobs but some off campus jobs will allow that too. That way you can work more hours without losing as much study time 
Good luck!
–Jessica, UCCS