So many of you have adult children in med school. My nephew is in his early 30s. Got his associates in respiratory therapy, found work, will graduate next month with his bachelors degree and was accepted to medical school. I think that starts in July or August.
He will have to quit his job and take out loans. He’s moving about 3 hours from the area his family lives. He will be taking out loans for school. Other than that, how does one going to med school creatively make ends meet for living expenses? Just curious and would pass along any helpful information. Hope this is not too weird of a question.
Isn’t it usually just with student loans, possibly supplemented by money from wealthy parents? Of course, frugal living helps somewhat, just like in all situations.
Typically the med school will factor in living costs (rent, food, etc) as part of the attendance costs. So he will need to take out loans to cover this. He will certainly not be able to work during med school
A lot of medical students work while going to school, especially in the 3rd and 4th years. It was a long time ago but when I was in med school I worked in the NICU drawing blood at night. It paid well, at the time in the mid 80’s we were paid $15/ hour. Many of my class mates worked doing initial hospital admit H&P’s for practicing physicians. Fewer worked in the 1st 2 years, but some did.
He may be able to do a little hourly work during the first two years. Not really recommended, but some students do. Does he have undergrad loans? My advice would be to just live frugally, and don’t be influenced by other students’ lifestyles. Some max out on loans, buy nicer cars, live in upscale apartments, eat out. Some have wealthy parents who pay for everything. Others only borrow what they need, are living with multiple roommates in sketchy neighborhoods, driving junkers and eating ramen. He’ll have debt, but he doesn’t need to make it worse than it has to be.
I am not a parent, but I am in medical school and my living expenses are covered by loans only, so perhaps I have some perspective I can share. This is the most common scenario, so he will be in good company. Some parents do help out with things like purchase of a vehicle, car insurance, health insurance, or other big expenses, and the more wealthy help out with more.
Some important things to consider:
Financial aid for living expenses may not be disbursed until the second week of school, but he will need money earlier to pay for rent/moving costs/laptop/other
Health insurance fee deducted for the first semester will take a large chunk out of his living expenses for that semester; may be worth checking out if he qualifies for medicaid in that state
The cost of living budget does not include the summer after first year (2 months), so he should be aware of that and either look of a job/activity with a stipend or budget appropriately
Some work as tutors, either on campus or off-campus, but many find the schedule too grueling, including myself; difficult to predict how he will handle the workload, but many people are barely keeping their head above water, needing tutors themselves, so this is not something to count on
In our case, it was not any brainy solution. D.attended UG on full tuition Merit schoarship (which practically all pre-meds can do, considering that this crod consists of ery caliber HS students who will e offerd huge Merits if they choose to attend schools that offer them). So, not only we paid her Med. School tuition and livingexpenses, we convinced her t ignore a price tag. So, while initially she was planning on attending the cheapest of her acceptances, she ended up attending the most expensive (which also happen to be her “dream Med. School” way back in HS. So, she is graduating in May debt free in our apperication of her wise decision choosing her UG. I hope that she can survive on her residency income as it is not that high. About 25% of Med. students (I heard so, never confirmed by any info) are in the same situation as my D. The othrs take loans.
We are no wealthy by any measure, not in any high paying jobs, there are many Med. Students whohave MD parents, we are not anywhere near this type of income.
Miami’s plan would come under the wealthy parent scenerio. She did not save enough getting free undergrad tuition to fully fund her medical school for for years.
There are military scholarships and public health scholarships for medical/dental school, though they are highly competitive and require a service commitment – 2 years for each year funded, I believe.
One of D’s friends won a full med school scholarship, but that take tip top grades, MCAT scores and stellar recommendations.
Miami- I know many young physicians who do just fine on a resident’s income so unless your D has been living the high life during med school (with no income) she should have no trouble. And since- as you have reminded us- she isn’t paying off loans- she’ll be in clover!
OP- other than paid employment that first summer (which will be crucial to augmenting his living expenses) it will be very difficult to work besides an occasional “here and there” type of thing. Tutoring, a few shifts as a respiratory therapist over vacation breaks… but not a real job.
@arabrab It’s been my experience that everyone who wanted one of those scholarships, got one. Considering there are strings attached, I somewhat doubt they have to turn away many people, although perhaps I just haven’t seen the data on it. Just wanted to make sure that someone reads this and decides not to apply.
For instance, this is more of an after the fact program, but one could work for the IHS (Indian Health Service) they have similar federal programs for both urban/rural areas that are under-served. Specifically, the program will pay participants up to $20,000/year in exchange for the two-year service obligation, plus 20 percent of Federal income tax on the award. Thus, you could string these together, and say pay-off 150K in eight to ten years…
" other than paid employment that first summer " - Well, unless they can find a paid “research” position, they really cannot afford any other job as they have to spent this summer doing research or doing something else medically related which may actually cost lots of money. D. had an opportunity to go abroad with the group of physicians / residents / med. students to serve in very poor reqions where they have no medical help at all. She was selected because of her level of Spanish, more med students applied than they had spot available. It costs us several more thousands of $$, but she had an unbelievable experience that she would not have otherwise which somewhat influenced her plans for certain specialty later. Because of this trip, she missed an opportunity to do research during this summer, which many in her class did. I do not know if they were paid for this research or not. They cannot afford taking any other other job during med. school (unless one has a gap year).
I am sure though that even if parents do not support them fully, many get some financilal family support. This is the only “creative” solution that is known to me. Other than that, it is normal: pasta, pasta, pasta, no shopping. But those are not exercised by many, they are still very young, want so spend some time socially and it usually involved going out, they want to shop…etc.
Or, there are also tuition free Med. Schools. I know only 2 maybe there are more. However, after closer look during her interview at one such school, D. decided that it is not for her. She withdrew after she was put on hold. I know some people who were initially put on hold and currently are attending. This was 5 year program, so it is not exactly free, since it costs additional year of physician’s income.
Miami- this young man is a respiratory therapist- that was the summer employment I was referring to. obviously he’s in no position to take on a travel job which requires PAYING money.
Yes, he has already stated that he knows he won’t be able to work while in med school. In his favor, he is almost 35 years old and not as concerned about maintaining an active social life, shopping, eating out. At that age, your focus is different than it is in your early 20s. He grew up in a home that knew how to make money stretch, understands living within your means and doesn’t seem concerned about having a fancy lifestyle, so that’s a plus, too.
My DD, a resident, participates in as many research studies as possible, some involve home testing kits, online questions, in person appointments, etc. The only negative is that the U just switched to paying by gift card instead of check as there was too much check fraud, she has to be much more mindful now to use up the gift cards. It can be hundreds of dollars, it helps.
Definitely not the case anymore that “a lot” of medical students work while going to medical school. Of the few who do, even less work during the clinical years (3+4) than the preclinical (1+2). The only jobs my classmates (MD 2014) had were occasional tutoring and babysitting gigs. I have resident friends who moonlight in other hospitals for more cash but many programs forbid it now so that too is less common.
At 35, does he happen to have an employed spouse? That would help (I say this as the spouse of a former pre-med / med student, who fortunately only had to borrow money for tuition.)
(I say this as the spouse of a former pre-med / med student, who fortunately only had to borrow money for tuition.)