<p>I'm planning on being a premed, but I'm also terrified of becoming one of those horror stories... up to my eyeballs in debt.</p>
<p>My options are a private school (fordham) in nyc and a suny (stony brook) for about the same price - 15 grand/year as compared to attending a third tier school (st johns, honors prgrm) for free. The third tier... i'd rather not.</p>
<p>So I want to know how much the average college student can make, and if it's possible to balance working a part time job without compromising academics or ECs (volunteering, research, internships etc)</p>
<p>What kind of jobs can the average college student land? Are there any jobs that pay more than minimum wage? How about summer jobs? How many hours a week can you work?</p>
<p>I'm thinking of getting EMT-B certification over the summer. From my research, they can make $20/hour. Is that true? How are job prospects in NYC?</p>
<p>Are there any merit scholarships I could get during college?</p>
<p>I do not qualify for federal work-study, so I'm looking on my own.</p>
<p>I would not go to Fordham; it’s not worth the extra cost especially you know you will take on debt for med school. I’m not that familiar with St. John’s, but I know Stony Brook has a great science dept. and a med school where you can probably get experience in research as an UG. </p>
<p>There are lots of merit scholarships funded by public and private orgs available for random things. Search online for criterias that you fit to start (e.g. if you’re a minority, have a special talent, etc). I don’t know about EMT pay per se, but it’s great activity for pre-meds (you gotta put in a lot of hours and effort though). Look into tutoring high school or middle school students. You can set your own hours and pay depending on what you think those parents are willing to pay (can be anywhere from $15/hr to $100/hr). Otherwise, most part time jobs for college students (administrative jobs at campus offices, libraries, assistant at a lab, working at restaurants, etc) pay less than $10/hr.</p>
<p>As for st johns, rankigs say plenty… normally I don’t care about rankings but they start to matter when you’re comparing tier one schools (well, stony… Barely) with tier threes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Those tutoring rates sound too good to be true, though… Which is better: going private or through an organization?</p>
<p>Between fordham and stony, I really don’t care cus I’m paying the same either way… Each has their pros and cons, but judging from your answer I guess stony has a better reputation among med schools. </p>
<p>The question also comes down to whether it’s worth going to a slightly better school but paying, vs a free third tier that is considered “the safety of all safeties”.</p>
<p>Yes, stony is not that great next to nyu, barnard, columbia… but here are st john’s numbers:
-16% were in the top 10% of their class… And I bet they’re all pharmacy kids (I’m not doing pharm)… Compared to 38% for stony and 50% for fordham.
-third tier… Compared to rank 96 for stony and 61 for fordham.
-mostly a commuter school… Well so is stony but at least people stay during weekdays there.
-20% acceptance rate to med schools, compared to 50% for stony and 80% for fordham.<br>
-no idea what it’s rep is for science, but I highly doubt it measures up to stony, whose science and math programs are respectable… Correct me if I’m wrong…?</p>
<p>One thing good about st johns is that I can live at home and have access to the city. Also, smaller class sizes (the huge intro classes at stony freak me out) </p>
<p>Remember medical school is going to leave you in terrible amounts of debt. If you have an option to get out of undergrad debt free, take it. But, of course, make sure the school is a fit for you. Visit if you haven’t yet.</p>
<p>As for tutoring jobs, places like Kaplan/Princeton Review pay ~$20/hr to start for college students. You need standardized test scores above 90% to qualify for a position though. It’s great to tutor privately but you need a network to pull students from (family friends, kids at your high school, etc) and the parents need to trust you to be able to teach their kids well. I’ve done both and I now make >$50/hr for privately tutoring a couple of kids (clients I got from referrals).</p>