<p>I'm a premed student going into my second year of college. I don't have a car yet. I really need one so I can start volunteering, getting internships, shadowing physicians, and other pre-med stuff. I'm already behind on the curve on that stuff, thus I really need a car for this upcoming semester. </p>
<p>The problem is that my parents are telling me to push off talks of getting a car until next summer. I can NOT wait until my junior year to start doing all my pre-med extra stuff. </p>
<p>The only job I have right now is a small tutoring job on campus, and I'm using that money to afford my textbooks (which my parents, like my tuition, aren't going to help me pay for). The only job openings that are within walking distance are (ironically enough) only hiring drivers. </p>
<p>Anyone have advice on how I can get a car myself? </p>
<p>I go to a college in Oklahoma. Our public transport system is nearly non existent, esp since the places I need to go are outside the city limits. </p>
<p>I got my own car when I was a sophomore. The way that I did it was I had saved up a few thousand for a down payment and then financed the rest because I had excellent credit and worked ~40 hours a week. </p>
<p>Unless you have enough to pay off a car (junker or decent) or you have a down payment with a steady job to make payments, you’re not getting a car. Sorry. </p>
<p>Can you carpool with others? Why do you need to go outside city limits? </p>
<p>You might look at some local ads on craigslist for cars that are really cheap. Like I have a car that is 180,000+ miles, work great, once I’m done with my landscaping I might be willing to sell for about $500. I advertisde it last year on craigslist for about $2000 and received lost of calls from parents whose child needed a car for college. But I didn’t sell because I still need the car to haul away stuff. </p>
<p>I agree to go with a clunker. I did this my soph year of high school, and that 2k turned out to pay for itself and earn me more as I was able to get 2 summers of working full-time out of it. Having experienced that, I can understand how truly useful a set of wheels can be. </p>
<p>Do you have another relative that would loan you money or even sell you a used vehicle? Or a friend, friend of a friend, etc? I borrowed money from my grandma for that first clunker and bought my current car from a cousin when they decided to upgrade. I was able to pay my grandma back at a comfortable, interest-free pace and I got a truly nice older car for a good price from my cousin. </p>
<p>Just talk to your family and have them ask around. You’d be surprised at the deals you can find! </p>
<p>OP, whatever the reason it may be, your parents could be like us regarding whether to let their S/D own a car. (but we may be more extreme than your parents.)</p>
<p>DS has almost completed his third year of med school. This past semester, he often needed to have a rotation in a hospital in another city 40 miles away. He has never had the car in his life! The public transportation in the small city his school is at is really not that convenient! He mostly relied on ZipCar.</p>
<p>Renting ZipCars has all been arranged by DS, so I do not know the details. But I heard the first requirement is that ZipCars needs to have enough bisiness in your city. After that, I think you need to open an account, and all the transactions are done online. A potential issue is that occasionally you may not be able to reserve a car close to where you live so you may need to walk quite a distance to get your car. This may not be quite convenient for DS in the (past) winter when he needs a car very early in the morning. So for one stretch of his rotations, he ended up renting a car longer term from another company and rented a parking space to park the car obernight. I heard that at one time, he even relied on the combination of taxi services and the commuter train to get to the rotation - it must have been very time consuming. (But he survived.)</p>
<p>Another aspect of ZipCars is that most ZipCars seem to be small/subcompact sized. I think DS rented Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla or a car model in a similar size. It may be not “safe enough” as a vehicle on a busy/crowded freeway like I-95.</p>
OP, I reread your first post, and notice this paragraph, we feel for you. We did pay for DS’s textbooks, etc. (we might err on the other extreme: We purchased well too many reference books/textbooks DS ended up not using, e.g., many varieties of orgo texbooks used at many colleges and/or their corresponding “more advanced” ones. One of my “hobbies” has always been hunting books for him since his elementary school.)</p>
<p>I just looked ZipCar up, they don’t have a program in my state. The closest thing we have is TimeCar and I don’t qualify for it since I haven’t been driving long enough. </p>
<p>Also @mcat2 It’s all good. Everything will work out. </p>
<p>Just a thought: is your area “good” for riding a bike (either a motocycle or a bicycle)? Is the weather too hot/cold for this kind of transportation or is it not safe to ride a bike? (I really do not know what weather you have there.)</p>
<p>When I went to a graduate school in California a generation ago, almost every student rode bike (not even a motocycle) on and off campus. Bicycle theft was a big headache for students. Students really do not steal other’s bike. They mostly just “borrow without permission” other’s bike to ride from point A to point B and then left the bike at point B if they do not need it more. Then the owner needs to spend awful lot of time to track down where his/her bike is. (I also heard of a horror story that if you drive a car with a set of good tires, you may find that all of tires will be stolen at the end of the day if you park it at a not so safe place. A coworker who went to Cal told me that he saw a paranoid student carries his tire to his class - not sure he exaggerated it or not though.</p>
<p>Where I am working now, some young workers rely on CalTrain and bike even when they live 50 miles away. But the weather is mostly nice here. BTW, I also noticed Google (the company which, for some reason, is “hated” by many recently and “loved” by many as well – I do not work for them so do not “hate” me) provides many free bikes (and likely buses also for a longer distance commute) for their employees to ride from building to building. They just leave many bikes (likely unlocked) in front of every one of their buildings.</p>
<p>BTW, OP, you seem to be a mature and ambitious young man. Wish you well on your premed track.</p>
<p>For all purposes, I would say avoid getting a car especially if you live on campus. Leave that till you are ready for med-school.
You can do all of that on campus except the shadowing, which you can also do @ any of the hospitals or clinics proximal to your campus. This will clearly save you time and unnecessary expenses, let alone unforeseen circumstances like ticket and driving related issues…while allowing you to concentrate on your school work at the same time. Some student go through so much hassle for their research, voluntary, and shadowing experiences when in fact, they can do all that within their campus, if they inquire about and take advantage of all that is being offered.</p>
<p>Have a talk with your parents openly about the car ordeal. If you waited until next summer, would they be able to help you? If so, explain to them the importance of having the car for this summer and the med school expectations. They might be able to help you out. Like ccco said though, look for opportunities on your campus. There may be more than you expect. And every undergrad has different experiences before applying. I’m sure they wouldn’t look down upon one over another.</p>
<p>Zipcar is expensive, my daughter rents once in a while so I know how much it costs. There is a problem with zipcar is if she needs to go somewhere for the long time like hiking, she’s afraid to rent them because they are expensive, charge by hour I believe. So she only uses them for short trips.</p>
<p>@mcat2 First, thank you. Second, locally biking is okay, however everything in Oklahoma is REALLY spread out. If you need to bike to another district or such, you are pretty much out of luck. Well you could, but it is far from safe. The only safe places to bike to are places within walking distance. </p>
<p>@ccco2018 I go to a small school. We really don’t have that many opportunities like that. Our clinic is really small and would not be considered “clinical experience.” Also you need medical volunteer work as well as non medical volunteer work, which means I can’t do everything I need to do on campus Also there aren’t any hospitals or clinics near me. Everything in Oklahoma is spread out. </p>
<p>@shawnspencer I talked to them and they said they just literally could not afford it this summer. They kinda understand, but not fully. They think I could make it without it and if not i should change my major to something more viable. </p>
<p>Saving up and getting a car is only the first step. Maintaing the car, keeping it in gas and insured will require a monthly outlay of cash. Can you use the bus? Can you do this volunteer work over the summer when you have access to your parent’s car (or they can drop you off)? Can you volunteer on an out of country medical mission trip during the summer and then fundraise the costs of your trip from family and friends–had a niece do this.</p>
<p>OP, why not see if classmates are going in your same direction for the same purpose? Maybe you can arrange a ride and help with gas costs. Insurance for a new driver is really expensive, and your parents may not want to face that. Our sophomore D drives our third car, and the insurance is another $175 a month for her to be on our insurance. Your parents may be trying to control that cost. If you try to do so on your own, and do buy a car, even a clunker, you may find you can’t afford the insurance! What about a small Vespa scooter or something similar? I really think carpooling might be your best bet.</p>
<p>OP, Another thought: If you are unable to fulfill all or most of your “premed EC” requirements in time, will you consider taking a “glide year or two”? I had an impression that, even at DS’s college where it is much convenient to “do premed” compared to your college (the students can literally walk a few blocks to the affiliated teaching hospital to fulfill all of their premed requirements, and I heard there is even a “special administrator” in the hospital/med school whose job is to help schedule the volunteering jobs for the premed students), more than 50% of their students who attend a med school take one or more glide years before doing so. This appears to be a new trend, especially at a so-called “top” research university or LAC.</p>
<p>You seem to be more mature than our child when he was your age - in the sense that it appears you know what career path you want to pursue. When DS was your age, he even voluntarily forfeited a guaranteed paid research position at a med school in the summer - he had secured that summer research position (sponsored by the college, not by the PI/research group) as a part of his college admission but decided to give it up because he was not sure what might be his career path.</p>
<p>Yes, this what DS did. He took a glide year. The parents of his roommate who did not take a glide year jokingly said to us after we had told them that DS would take a research job at the med school during the commencement that: “Your son finally decides to catch up with the rest of his peers.” (There are many premeds at his school.)</p>
<p>We tried hard not to rush DS into any career path. The agreement between our child and us was that he needs to complete all the premed courses, just in case he decides to choose this career path years later.</p>
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Also there aren’t any hospitals or clinics near me. Everything in Oklahoma is spread out. </p>