I plan on going to school full-time until I receive my bachelor's degree, and would like to go to medical school after that (although that may change). I would like to work at the same time (full time if possible), but am not sure about the opportunities there are out there for someone who primarily wants to finish school as fast as possible. Both load operator and NLO seem like great careers, but the amount of focus required in the first ~18 months in training for these jobs seems incongruent with my goal of getting that BS ASAP.
Once upon a time I was trying to get into medical school.
If you want to get into medical school, your first priority is to get straight A's. Your next priority is to get 95th percentile on the MCAT. Your next priority after that is spending your free time getting involved in any pre-med organizations that your school has and generally showing interest in medical-related work (research/clinical internships) so that you can get good LORs and write intelligible motivational essays for your applications.
AFTER all that, your next priority is to work part-time to make a little extra money.
AFTER that, your priority is to finish school as fast as possible.
Your GPA, undergrad pre-requisite coursework, institution you attended, and MCAT scores will be input into a filter and they will not look at the rest of your application unless you make the cut. No one will care that you graduated early or worked full-time in an unrelated field if you don't have at least a 3.75 GPA. The AMA site has extensive data on the criteria for acceptance broken down by race and gender (you don't compete with everyone, you only compete with people in your demographic).
Also, something I wish I had known at the time: any college skip-out credit is worthless. They don't care. They want to see the course taken at an accredited university with an A next to it. Placed out of calculus sequence? Take it anyway. Or take Calculus III and an advanced math course if your school won't let you retake the intro sequence. Ditto for English, Bio, Chem, Organic Chem, and whatever other required coursework med school looks at that you may have placed out of due to being a nuke or taking AP tests once upon a time.
I hope you have a lot in your savings account. The GI bill is not going to cover full tuition at a school that will put you on the path to your goal. If you don't, you're better off either taking out student loans if it means sacrificing your grades. The scientific coursework (not required major per se, but your odds are better given the same GPA) is going to require a lot of extra time spent in labs that can go as late as 8-9pm making it next to impossible for you to have a full-time job, still get As, and still attend full-time.
Also, don't get into trouble. That will ruin your goals right quick.
I agree. I mentioned NLO as the backup plan. I'm trying to find some sort of employment that I could do while i school. Surely I can't be alone in this situation! Really don't want to go back to flipping burgers for supplementary income, but I'll work where I need to.
Private tutoring is probably your best bet as far as $/hour earned while working a part-time gig, but it's hard to get more than 4 hours of work a week doing it.
You could ask if anyone is looking for a journeyman electrician to work weekends, but you might need to get civilian certs first.