Need advice: EMT training or work?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi all,
I'm in quite a bit of a dilemma - my financial aid ran out for the semester, and seeing as how I'm pretty broke right now, I'm getting pretty desperate about looking for a job. I've got another semester left at Cal, and I don't have any financial backing from the parents (long story short: nasty divorce), so the logical thing to do would to grab a job, anywhere, anyhow, ASAP.</p>

<p>The thing is, I've put a nonrefundable $250 deposit on a Fast Response EMT-B class for the summer (5 weeks, from T-F 9-5pm), and I'm gonna have to pay a total of about $2k for the class. Yikes. My aunt is willing to loan me money for this summer class, and I'd prefer not to go more in debt, but the initial plan was..
SUMMER: Get training, do clinical work, take my national registry test, get certified. Volunteer the rest of the summer to get hired in the fall at a hospital.
FALL: Work hard at school, get paid to do EMT stuff part-time.</p>

<p>Reality check: I've been reading through a lot of old posts on here and the gist I've gotten has basically been this: EMT work is hard to do alongside with a heavy upper division pre-med courseload (especially at Berkeley), requires a 10-hr minimum shift, and these shifts at first will most likely be volunteer work. </p>

<p>If you were in my shoes, would you:
A) Obtain my cert in the summer and stick with the original plan, possibly seeing more long-term gains at the expense of money? Or,
B) Lose the $250 deposit, get a campus job instead, save up money, wait on the cert until after graduation, then look for an EMT job while applying to Med schools at the expense of time?</p>

<p>Any, any input would be greatly valued right now. Thank you so much!</p>

2

<p>Honestly, you need a cert to get a job in a hospital but EMT-B jobs are quite tough to get in a good job market. Right now, you need connections, experience, and something to sell and being premed is definitely a strong negative for most hiring managers. If it were an option, I’d suggest seeing if there is any way of getting your deposit back. (Come up w/ a good reason and fight for it, for instance; I mean, what do you really have to lose at this point?) If you’re in a bad position financially, I’d avoid doing the EMT thing. I did it and got a job and only spent about $1.5k on it (tuition is only part of the cost, btw… there’re often other clinically-related fees as well) and honestly it’d still have been a poor investment for me if all it was about was the money.</p>

3

<p>$2k for an EMT-basic course is pretty ridiculous. Aren’t there any community colleges near you that offer the course?</p>

<p>But apumic is right - EMT-B’s are a dime a dozen (or 3), especially in CA, so the job hunt won’t be easy.</p>

4

<p>I just got certified as an EMT-I about a week ago, and am currently in the process of taking national registry. To be honest, it’s a lot of work, and national registry isn’t exactly a breeze either (we had class 8 hours min up to 16 hours a week, all year round). Most people I know simply volunteer for our school unit or at hospital. If your main goal is to get paid, it’ll be tough. But it’s a great experience and you’ll learn so much. Plus, clinicals are so much fun!</p>