I am worried about what will happen to me during college summers. My parents and I don’t get along and they are going to help me at all with financials and they would not let me come back for the summers. Do you guys know where you can live during the summer of college. Also how would I balance premed and jobs to get money? Im scared I will be stuck couch surfing and broke during the summer. I wouldnt mind staying with a friend but it would awesome to stay in a dorm. I know about college classes but i dont want to go completely in debt. Ideally i want to shadow surgeons and do research internships over the summer but I dont know how i would financially support myself. Please help!!! Im worried ill have great school years and broke summers.
ps. traveling the world with friends would also be AMAZING
Many colleges offer summer jobs, research positions, and such during the summers and offer you free housing. Or if you make enough money (ex: get a job during the year), you can potentially save enough money to get your own place with a roommate or so for whatever you are doing during the summer, which is what many students do if they are partaking in summer internships. Other people I know (especially international students) have hung out with friends if they have friends that wouldn’t mind having them stay over for a bit.
I have done the research and summer jobs route for some of my summers. If you are lucky, you can actually do a couple of summer jobs (ex: research/work at a local restaurant) during the summer and actually make some bank. My family situation is not as bad, but I would say that I would prefer not to spend an extensive amount of time at home as it can be very draining and not always the healthiest environment.
You could also take a CNA class and get certified sometime before summer and try to get employment as a CNA over the summer - that way you get clinical experience for pre-med and make money. Research is also an option, though depending on the lab they may or may not pay you, so check that. Also, start early with emailing professors about research- they are busy busy people and may not be interested or are too crowded to accept another undergrad, so it’s possible you would be going through several professors before striking gold.
Agree with the above about checking with your college job center, and you can absolutely apply to work part time at your college during the school year to get a head start on savings (think library, housing, dining hall, on-campus tutoring etc.) Another thing to look at is applying to be an RA in a dorm after your freshman year, as they often get free housing along on top of being paid.
As for living, you can sublet during the summer - if your college/area has a sublet page set up on facebook, check that out. It will be cheaper than staying in the dorms over the summer. There’s probably some on craigslist as well (although I don’t have any experience with finding sublets on craigslist).
Shadowing doesn’t take that much time. You typically only need 40-60 hours for med schools to be satisfied, so if (for example) you spent two full days with one doc and two days with another, you’d be done with the shadowing requirements. Don’t expect it to fill up your entire summer.
Also, if that’s you in the profile picture, I’d change it if I were you.
There are also quite a few jobs that require fairly minimal effort. For instance desk jobs often mean you can do homework in the meantime during the time you don’t have anything to do if you are concerned about keeping up with your studies. There are other ones that are flexible and can coordinate with your schedule.
If your parents can afford to pay but refuse to pay how will you get $65,000/year for tuition and room and board? You will not get need based aid.
How will you afford to travel the world with friends in the summer? Are they going to pay your way?
You seem to be out of touch with reality.
Get a summer job away from home. Sleep away camps often needs counselors for maybe 10 weeks out of summer and you would stay there. And still have time at each end to do some shadowing. Although, unless it’s worse than simply not getting along, you might just have to deal if it means they continue to pay your college expenses during the year.
Just man up and patch the rift with your parents, it would solve 99% of your problems and require the least amount of work.
You have a much bigger problem if your parents won’t pay for college at all. Unless your family is poor enough to get full need based aid at a school that meets need, or you get a full ride or close to it someplace for merit, your family will be expected to pay even if you do t get along and/or they don’t want to.