Medical school costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s one of the most expensive degrees one can pursue. Although it does pay off after you graduate and you can get a student loan, you still need money to pay for living expenses. If you don’t have wealthy parents to get you through college, you might need to consider some side hustle.
Luckily, medical students are uniquely positioned to earn some extra money. They are highly valued workers even in fields unrelated to medicine. Most of the time, these students are hardworking overachievers, so there are plenty of opportunities for them. The only problem is that they need lots of time to study. Below are four ideas to finance your med school years.
Tutoring
Parents are willing to pay hundreds of dollars per hour to help their children succeed in school. If you are already in medical school, chances are you excel in biology and chemistry. Other high-school subjects, like math and history, aren’t a problem for you either. While you don’t have any formal qualifications, going to teach in a school isn’t an option. However, there are plenty of other options.
With the rise of online learning, the possibilities are almost endless. ClassDojo, Teachable, Blackboard, and Qkids are among the most popular platforms that will allow you to find students online. Every platform usually takes some payment for their services, but it’s well worth the cut.
If you build a good profile and get some recommendations, you can quickly get more students than you manage to teach. A good strategy is to start with low rates and then raise them when you get more students than you can handle. Most successful tutors on such platforms are those who successfully balance usefulness with student entertainment.
If you are a foreign student or have exceptionally good skills in English, you can try targeting language courses specifically. Platforms like Lingoda or iTalki are full of students willing to pay just for the opportunity to converse with a native speaker. If you’ll throw in some grammar lessons, you can make good side money there.
It’s worth noting that your main customers might not always be children. Many adults are also seeking to learn new skills, especially languages. I had more luck with adults, and sometimes, it even led to friendships that last till today.
Admissions consultant
If you have already been successfully accepted into medical school, you know how difficult it is. Besides having exemplary grades, one also needs to complete tests, participate in interviews, and write recommendation letters and motivational essays. All the while navigating many other admission process quirks that aren’t in your favor.
Many potential students are unable or afraid to go through everything themselves, so they hire consultants. Some companies are already providing this as a service, but getting advice from a real student in your desired school is preferable to most.
You’ll need to think about what worked for you and formulate actionable advice and tips you can sell. Just remember that you are a consultant and charge for the hour. Never perform any tasks for clients, as this might get you in trouble.
Paid medical surveys
If you are an introvert, the above two options might not be for you. Tutoring or coaching someone requires a lot of charisma and general people skills. Besides, scheduling sessions might become a time-sensitive matter after the first few years of university. That’s why paid online surveys are my favorite idea from this list.
Companies pay money to collect opinions of customers and professionals about their products and services. In most cases, you don’t need any qualifications. You can share your honest and detailed opinion and get paid. The survey usually costs around $1 and, on average, can be completed in 20 minutes.
It’s not much, but it can feel like free money if you time it well. For example, completing one survey every day on my way to the library or the university earned me around $15 monthly. That easily covers my Netflix subscription or other small expenses. You can even get paid in gift cards for such services without worrying about taxes.
However, medical students have even better opportunities. Pharmaceutical companies are constantly looking for people with at least some knowledge of medicine to answer basic questions. It might relate to the medicine you are taking, diseases you have, or your doctor visits. If you are a medical student, your opinion is more valuable in such matters, so you are likely to get paid more for your time.
Countless apps and platforms are offering paid online surveys. The market is a bit saturated, and the title of the best one constantly fluctuates. You can read more about the best medical platforms in 2024 here.
Medical trials
Instead of sharing your opinion and experiences with the healthcare industry, you can take action and test medications on yourself. Your best contact is your university professors, who often know about these opportunities and can direct you on the right path.
Obviously, testing unknown medicaments does carry some health risks, but usually, it’s only some rashes or other minor side-effects tested on people. All major side effects are tested on animals. Besides, most studies are double-blinded placebo ones, so the chances of actually getting the medications tested are slim.
The payment, however, is quite handsome, but it depends on the institution you enroll in. Medical students are very valued in such trials as they have the skill to describe the side effects accurately.
Conclusion
None of these side hustles will make you rich or pay all your bills, but that’s what they are – side hustles. They may allow you to save less and have a comfortable lifestyle, but not much more. Still, they are effective, and I found them to be non-intrusive enough not to get in the way of what’s most important to me – my studies.
