Working in Medical School

[satdixon]

Is it possible to work part time in medical school, if so how challenging would you say it would be? I am an incoming MS1, and was thinking of working part time as an online tutor to make some extra cash

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[wysdoc]

Is it possible to work part time in medical school, if so how challenging would you say it would be? I am an incoming MS1, and was thinking of working part time as an online tutor to make some extra cash

Do not do this!
Tutor yourself and do well in MS1

 

[LunaOri]

Yes, some people have to work part time in medical school to pay for things like food and rent. Until you are actually in school, you won’t know whether you will have the time and energy to work. Wait until at least a few weeks into the semester before you take on a job.

 

[Dantes]

Wait until you hit the ground running and you're comfortable with the workload. I had classmates do online tutoring, instacart, and similar jobs but mostly during 4th year.

 

[esob]

Short answer is no, but I know people who have done it. I also know people who have done it and it causes them to no longer be in medical school. The one's that are successful at it are typically non-trads that have highly paid skills sets where they can work for short bursts (ie, summer after 1st year) and make a nice chunk of money. The reality is that working at anything that isn't med school related is likely going to detract from your performance compared to peers who spend that time studying.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Not worth it unless you can do something that pays like 100+ per hour

 

[Goro]

Is it possible to work part time in medical school, if so how challenging would you say it would be? I am an incoming MS1, and was thinking of working part time as an online tutor to make some extra cash

Recipe for disaster.
Many med schools have policies that specifically state that you can't work.

 

[deleted1139416]

As an ammendment to what everyone has said above, even though you shouldn't work during MS 1 - MS 3, you can work in MS 4.

 

[wysdoc]

As an ammendment to what everyone has said above, even though you shouldn't work during MS 1 - MS 3, you can work in MS 4.

At your school. Did you work during MS4? How did that turn out for you? Was the $ worth your loss of time?

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

I worked through M1-M3.

Do I recommend it? Not particularly. You typically don't make enough for it to really matter in the long run and you may as well take out loans.

Why I did it? Well, I had a particular skillset from a career prior to med school that actually has a fairly high hourly rate when marketed, though getting enough consistent hours is difficult, but in med school I could only do that many hours anyways. I also had private loans prior to med school that we no longer able to be deferred and so I needed more cash beyond what my CoA would allow (and I didn't want to take out private loans to cover private loans).

I had a good handle on the material. Ill say I did an average of 8-10hrs/wk first year, about 5-8 second year, and third year was a crapshoot. Some rotations more than others. Probably never more than 5hrs a week.


It's doable. But you need to be in a specific financial situation and also academic situation to even warrant doing so. I went to class mainly to socialize and drink coffee. Tread carefully.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

In almost all cases I would discourage this. With the current state of competition for residencies, only the elite students could pull this off and produce a competitive residency application. What is elite? Someone who goes to class to socialize and drink coffee. My wife did that and graduated top 10% we all know someone like that. Now if you are looking at less competitive programs, you might pull it off. Personally, I would spend the time exercising for mental health. Just my $ 0.02

 

[DarkBluMage]

Is it possible to work part time in medical school, if so how challenging would you say it would be? I am an incoming MS1, and was thinking of working part time as an online tutor to make some extra cash

Great way to fail out of med school

 

[SweetBurger]

Take some time to see how much time you have left after prepping for school.
I found it manageable to work 6-7hrs a week m2-m4. Some weeks more some weeks less

 

[MisterMukwa]

Gonna slightly disagree with others - you can make it work but you have to be real with yourself regarding your time availability. I would wait until your first block is over to see your time constraints. School HAS to come first. If you’re not doing well in classes, retaining material, and building an app for residency, it’s not worth it.

I have tutored 10+ hours a week throughout pre-clinical and not had any issues. However, I’m an efficient worker at school and I get paid a decent amount tutoring (to make the hours worth it). I wouldn’t spend the extra hours on school, so I decided to make $$ with them.

 

[Babble Heap]

I worked M1-3. I had a small side business that I owned and operated. It didn't put a ton of money in my pocket, but enough to help cover some bills. Definitely not enough to cover tuition. The only reason it worked for me is because I could do it at odd hours, and never had to commit more than 1-2 hours at a time. I wound up selling the business in my third year because once I started clinical rotations, the value of a small slice of free time with my family was greater than my hourly rate in the business. In my opinion, most jobs would be incompatible with medical school.

 

[PandaBaer]

As someone who worked per diem up to 36 hrs/wk at a time, not consistently, I also strongly recommend against working during medical school.

Unless you are crushing all your classes with ease, have a very lucrative income source, and have absolutely nothing better to do, i.e. research, network, self-care, family, etc. It's not worth the risk of potentially failing out, not matching your desired specialty, or time for recovery.

A regular W-2 isn't worth the hassle, and most other income streams, i.e. sales, social media, gig work, takes a lot of time and energy.
I only worked because I had a lighter course load from having done an SMP, knew I was academically "safe", I was already spending time away school each week, and my job was medically relevant, e.g. "I only went to class to socialize and drink coffee".

I stopped towards the end of M-1 because I picked up extracurriculars (research, leadership, networking) that were more valuable to me than the paycheck. Time is the most precious resource you have in medical school.

I also tutored with the school and would recommend that over any other work. You can easily adjust the hours as needed and it'll help you solidify the material.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Not really worth it. Those precious few hours at the end of the day were what kept me semi-sane. Maybe something like Uber or doordash when you can set your own hours I guess.

 

[mrbreakfast]

Echoing others. You will not be able to safely balance work with school because you will inevitably work more than you ought to. You've already spent so long getting here, why risk it?

I know a couple people who worked during M4. They didn't make much and mostly regretted it.

 

[operaman]

Doable for some but very risky. Definitely wait a couple months and see how you handle the workload. If you’re crushing it easily and have extra time, then consider it carefully. Honestly I think the bigger issue is that you lose downtime to relax and refresh. If you’re able to manage it, make sure it’s something you really enjoy.

I will say that I worked through all 4 years of Med school. My job was music related and something I enjoyed and paid very well for the couple of hours a week I did it. I also took some occasional other paid gigs but those too were not much time commitment and let me do something I love so it was actually a nice break from school. I can’t imagine having to waste free time on a job I didn’t like much just to make a few extra bucks.

 

[GoSpursGo]

This is just a bad idea. Most people who fail out of med school do so because they did something that inappropriately divided their attention. Don't open the door to that kind of outcome

 

[Goro]

This is just a bad idea. Most people who fail out of med school do so because they did something that inappropriately divided their attention. Don't open the door to that kind of outcome

As an example, I had an advisee who tried to continue doing consulting work in the financial sector.

It cratered his grades in his first semester and he had to leave for LOA and repeat the year. He learned his lesson and is now in practice.

 

[mistafab]

Working in med school is the epitome of stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.

Especially for non-trads. Bro, you literally left that job because you felt the passion for becoming a doctor. Focus on learning to be a doctor.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Working in med school is the epitome of stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.

Especially for non-trads. Bro, you literally left that job because you felt the passion for becoming a doctor. Focus on learning to be a doctor.

I would actually argue the opposite. When I started, I made like 500 per month doing like 1.5 hours per work. In these cases it’s usually worth it

 

[LunaOri]

I worked about 10 hours per week during the first two years (mostly tutoring) because I needed to support myself. It was doable, but I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t absolutely need the money.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I would recommend you start without any outside commitments and see how it goes. You'll know after your first semester whether this is a reasonable option for you. If you can't financially survive without it, then you'll need to just make the best of it.

 

[gyngyn]

Check the Student Handbook first. Many schools either forbid outside work or require permission from the Student Affairs dean.

 

[CaliforniaDream2026]

I do it and truly sucks and requires sacrificing even more time with friends and family, less sleep. It is not necessarily impossible or not advisable. It doesn't make sense if it's just for money sure, but for instance in my case since I wish to build a niche/dual career it was necessary to maintain a foot in the door and contacts. It's just a matter of weighting the pros and cons objectively and being realistic about what you are willing to sacrifice. An SO, exercising regularly, family holidays?

 

[collegestud2013]

Is it possible to work part time in medical school, if so how challenging would you say it would be? I am an incoming MS1, and was thinking of working part time as an online tutor to make some extra cash

Probably not unreasonable to have a side gig to help pay tuition and living expenses if you're not dead set on a competitive specialty, or if your medical school is pass/fail. Would be more careful about how much time you spend if your medical is not P/F AND you're going for a more competitive specialty. Regardless, just be sure you know your limits in terms of how much your work is affecting your grades. Probably most doable during M1 and the first part of M2, and M4. Would cut back on work during peak Step 1 and Step 2 studying time, and during most of M3 year. Would also only do it if it pays well per hour (Eg wouldn't do online tutoring on a platform that pays only $20/hr).

 

[wholeheartedly]

Probably not unreasonable to have a side gig to help pay tuition and living expenses if you're not dead set on a competitive specialty, or if your medical school is pass/fail. Would be more careful about how much time you spend if your medical is not P/F AND you're going for a more competitive specialty. Regardless, just be sure you know your limits in terms of how much your work is affecting your grades. Probably most doable during M1 and the first part of M2, and M4. Would cut back on work during peak Step 1 and Step 2 studying time, and during most of M3 year. Would also only do it if it pays well per hour (Eg wouldn't do online tutoring on a platform that pays only $20/hr).

I’d be careful with this reasoning though, as med students are notorious for changing their minds about what specialties interest them. Most of the work discussed here is happening in M1-2 before rotations where people get a more realistic idea of what they want to go into. It would suck to work and not do as well as possible only to later realize you do want to do something more competitive.