Should I just leave my job???

Hey guys,

I'm a second year student in university and work part-time (we're talking 20hrs a week here, which is a lot imo for a full-time student). I'm really not sure what to do here and don't know who to turn to for advice (my mom would tell me to quit immediately and my friends would say "**** that, get the money"). So here's a list of pros and cons and give me some input if you can...

Pros :
- Good salary for a student job (16$/hour)
- It's a clinic (which is good for me, I need to get as much medical background as possible as I want to apply to Med School)
- Really relax job, no stress...
- Don't need to ask money from my parents. I absolutely HATE to do that.

To be honest though, I don't really need the money. My parents are pretty well off, I'd say we're upper middle class (dad makes $150-170k/year and mom makes between $60-70k/year). They pay for my tuition and I accept that but I don't want to ask them money for clothes and all that stuff (and God knows I spend a lot on that).

Cons :
- I am tired 24/7.
- Work 20 hours a week, class 19-24h a week (depending on the lab's duration), volunteer 5 hours a week, study around 40h a week.
- Need to get a high GPA, and I feel like work is interfering.
- Barely have time to do anything else except work/study/class/volunteer...I go out maybe 2-3 hours a week and make sure I get home early because I'll be too tired the next day and **** up my whole schedule.


What would you guys do in my case?
If you think I should leave, what would be the best way for me to do so?
I was working full time during the summer (40h/week), then went to part-time as soon as school started. I was aware that it would be 20h/week but didn't expect such a workload for school. They tried to adjust my schedule to acommodate me and I've been open-minded and flexible as well, but it's just not working out.

Any ideas/inputs/advices?

Thanks a lot in advance guys. I have to think about this quickly before the midterms come around....

Here's the thing, young padawan: if you want to go to med school, get used to the fucked up hours now. This is good training for you. It's not going to get any easier for many, many, many years -- each of which will feel like a century.

That said, your GPA should be your most important concern. So if this job really is interfering on that front, then see if you can pare down the hours a bit. It's only a part-time gig, so you might have more wiggle room there than you would with a full-time job.

Tactically speaking, the most important question is how long you've been at this job so far. If you're fairly new, bailing now will look very bad. If you've been there awhile and are known as a good worker, you might want to explain the situation politely to your boss and try to make a graceful exit. Explain that you really need time to focus on your academics. Don't position your exit line as "*******, this is burning me out." Because that line will fall on very unsympathetic ears.

If your end game is to go to med school (which pretty much means not making money til you're at least 30 and having 200k in loans), might as well give up the relative chump change you're making now and focus on school.

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

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Here's the thing, young padawan: if you want to go to med school, get used to the fucked up hours now. This is good training for you. It's not going to get any easier for many, many, many years -- each of which will feel like a century.

That said, your GPA should be your most important concern. So if this job really is interfering on that front, then see if you can pare down the hours a bit. It's only a part-time gig, so you might have more wiggle room there than you would with a full-time job.

Tactically speaking, the most important question is how long you've been at this job so far. If you're fairly new, bailing now will look very bad. If you've been there awhile and are known as a good worker, you might want to explain the situation politely to your boss and try to make a graceful exit. Explain that you really need time to focus on your academics. Don't position your exit line as "*******, this is burning me out." Because that line will fall on very unsympathetic ears.
Thanks for the answer!! I know it's a good training, but right now my GPA is the biggest concern like you said. When I get into it, I won't mind working that many hours during my undergrad because
1) I managed to get in, won't have as much stress/pressure as I have now
2) exams are pass/fail, much less competition
I will try to negotiate less hours with them, but I don't think that'll be possible. Something about the health benefits they're offering me or whatever...

I've been there for almost five months...

Originally Posted by v.freeman

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If your end game is to go to med school (which pretty much means not making money til you're at least 30 and having 200k in loans), might as well give up the relative chump change you're making now and focus on school.
Don't plan on taking out any loan. Parents are ready to pay for everything...Oh, and, just to clear that up, I don't want to go to med school for the money. As long as I can live a nice life, I don't mind. I'd still want to be what I want to be if it paid 60-70k a year.

Well, then don't be afraid to further mooch off your parents. What's another couple thousand on top of $200k?

Seriously though, med school admissions are no walk in the park. All the people I know that went to any half way decent med school spent a shitload of time studying (and 20 hours a week is a good amount to be losing).

If your parents are footing your tuition, they can afford to let you focus on your education rather than working 20+ hours a week when you should be studying.

As you said, the experience of working at a clinic is something that is helpful to have; perhaps you can try a middle ground of 10 or 12 hours a week and see how that works?

Originally Posted by v.freeman

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Well, then don't be afraid to further mooch off your parents. What's another couple thousand on top of $200k?

Seriously though, med school admissions are no walk in the park. All the people I know that went to any half way decent med school spent a shitload of time studying (and 20 hours a week is a good amount to be losing).

Well, I feel like those couple thousands are spent stupidly whereas that $200k you're talking about is well worth it...BTW, I'm Canadian man, I won't be paying that much. I have many friends in med school right now and yes, it's not easy but very do-able. Less pressure, less competition, much better atmosphere in general...

You're tired from working 20 hours a week with full-time class? ****, man up a bit. I work straight up 35-40 in a roadhouse (server, ranking one of the most stressful jobs in the country) with six classes and I don't ***** as much as you. Trust me, keep your job. Even though it seems hard, the two together are good practice of time management and you'll inherit a certain sense of charisma that other students will never have because they got to ride the fuckin brownie train through college. At your age, do you REALLY want to depend on your parents? I know you don't care about what other people think, but what you think about yourself. And it's apparent that you want to be able to care for yourself, that's obvious, so do just that. Challenge yourself, and overcome it, force yourself to overcome your fatigue and make straight A's. It'll make you that much better in the long run.

Also, try to consume more caffeine. Modafinil works great too, you can order it off airsealed.com.

When the revolution comes people like you will be the first to die.

Originally Posted by Magician

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When the revolution comes people like you will be the first to die.
Let's see how you handle a microbio and immunology program at a top20 university ... I was expecting answers like this but you have no idea of the level of difficulty of the program. Could be easy or hard as hell, but you just don't know. Keep your useless comments to yourself.

I appreciate the serious posts and I'll answer each one of them tomorrow. I'm on my iPhone right now ... Thanks a lot everyone !

Originally Posted by Brosef

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Let's see how you handle a microbio and immunology program at a top20 university ... I was expecting answers like this but you have no idea of the level of difficulty of the program. Could be easy or hard as hell, but you just don't know. Keep your useless comments to yourself.

My closest friend is pre-med at Yale and I visit him so I actually do have an idea of what (true) top-tier programs are like. Myself, I've been working mostly full time while taking a full course load and supporting myself since I was 18.

I hope your parents are proud of your 20 hour a week work week! Bottle service at a club with two x's in it's name and Ralph Lauren half zips aren't cheap.

Hm.

If your priorities are your grades, then that is what you should focus on. Since you don't have to work to go to school, working is supplying you with money for non-essentials, thus, non-essential activities are taking away from your priority goal, which is your grades. If your parents are willing to front, say, half of what you would have made to vouchsafe your grades, and allow you the best possible experience of college, that does not seem like such a poor option -- you sacrifice some money but gain freedom and the opportunity to do even better in school. Just use it wisely. Grades and time are two of the most important things to find in college. Money and toys follow.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm in a professional program right now, and my schedule looks like: Work 40hrs/wk; Classes, 16hrs/wk; Commute, 20hrs/wk; study 16-24hrs/wk. Adds up to about 96hrs/wk, and the week (assuming sleeping 8hrs a night, though I try for seven) only has 112hrs in it. Sadly, most of that 'extra' time is lost in inefficiencies that even I cannot overcome.

My undergrad was mechanical engineering, which is my job now (not exactly low-stress), and my program is one of the most time-consuming imaginable as well. I'm way closer to thirty than you are, and yeah, the fatigue is real. Goes to show you that humans have a lot of capacity. Choose what is important to you. You can do it.

~ H

I'm in college too and my parents are footing the bill. I get a meager "allowance" every week and my aparment rent is taken care of. Often I feel really cheap and think I should be working. However, when you look at things from a financial perspective, your parents are making an investment in you. Give them the best return by making good grades. All other activities are ancillary.

Learn to hold off and manage your money. Instead of buying those $300 dollar sweaters and boots[not saying you do, just an example] make yourself save and scavenge for the a second hand pair. There is no shame in being a college student and doing that. In the long run your credit will thank you once you are on your own. So I've been told.

Sort of a similar situation to what I went though.

I did mining engineering for my bachelors - damn some it it was intense.

One of the course requirements was that you were required to accumulate x amount of months experience in the 4 year degree, otherwise no graduation.

So what we did was not work during the semesters, but pretty much worked fulltime on our holidays. We got a 3 month block at the end/start of the new year and we used that. Some guys even went back during mid semester breaks for a couple of weeks.

The way I look at it, if you need to obtain a high grade point average and your part time work is hindering that, then common sense would tell you that the job would be the first to go, especially if you can fall back on your parents.

Good prep for med school and then interning

keep the job