Employment opportunities while attending school full time?

[Aaron1859]

Hello.  I'm currently scheduled to get out of the Navy in May.  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.

As a little background, I'm a 6-out EM2 qualified everything that everyone else was at 6 years (add RT though and subtract EWS - still kicking myself for not keeping at quals.)  Collateral duties have been LPO, work center supervisor, training, dcpo. I joined the Navy when I was 24, so I'll be 30 next year (this is one of the major driving factors for wanting to finish school ASAP).

I plan on joining the reserves if there is a post within a decent distance.....between that and some random part-time job, I could support myself along with the GI bill.  There would be a quality-of-life change of course though, and if there are any full-time positions which would allow me to finish school that would be preferred.  I am not tied to any specific location.

I did search, although most of the posts here are for people who want to work in the nuclear field (for obvious reasons).  NLO or load operator are definitely on my mind as backup if I decide going back to school isn't for me.

Thanks

[Laundry Man]

Gonna be tough going to college and working as an NLO.  Schedules will not mesh. 
LM

[Samabby]

Considering your age, it would be best to place 100% of your time & energy to blasting through an undergrad program asap. You should be able to finish in 6 semesters. Check into the CLEP program. Thanks for your service.

[Fermi2]

6 and out EM2, You won't have to worry about being an nLO...

[Aaron1859]

6 and out EM2, You won't have to worry about being an nLO...

Why is this?  NLO isn't my first choice, but I want to have options just in case I decide going back to school isn't for me.  I would most likely try and go the load dispatcher route anyway, but I want to have options, and I need to start thinking about these things now....I know SRO is not something I could go for, but in my searching NLO/AO have been the "way in" to nuclear power....if not that, how do you get your foot in the door?

Gonna be tough going to college and working as an NLO.  Schedules will not mesh. 
LM

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.

Considering your age, it would be best to place 100% of your time & energy to blasting through an undergrad program asap. You should be able to finish in 6 semesters. Check into the CLEP program. Thanks for your service.

Thanks....yeah, optimally I want to transition to grad school or a full career within 2 years.  I feel like I'm behind most of the people my age (peers I went to college intially with are now finishing up PHDs, etc.), but I don't regret joining, and the opportunities it should give me.

Thanks for the replies.

[modex]

I don't think 2 years of concurrent school with a full-time job is going to get you into any medical school. You will either not have the GPA, or have accepted alternative credit for so many courses that the ADCOM is going to barf.

You would do well to try and find someone recently familiar with MD ADCOM's. They are going to scrutinize how you got the credits critical to your medical education. CLEP'ing anything core might put a knife in the heart of your chances. If you are really dedicated to this idea, I would recommend you target a 4.0 at a large public research university in nukee (radiological track) or biology.

If you are interested in radiology, I think your best bet is finding a nuke DH who will help you find employment in the department. The DH's of UTK and VT are ex-navy, maybe they will assist with locating a part-time RA or other assistantship (like at a research reactor or in rad health). DH at UTK is an ex-EA, and the DH at VT is ex-ENG and XO. If that fails, there are ex-navy faculty everywhere and they may want to leverage your talent.

Michigan will give you in-state tuition, and I think that TAM or UT does too.

[spekkio]

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.

[Frank Cable]

Don't bother working.  Focus on school.  Live off the GI bill, pay for school with loans and talk to a medical/officer recruiter and let Uncle Sam pay off your loans in exchange for another stretch. 

[dwsmith]

Have you thought about ROTC to help pay for school?  I think you are to old for the service academies.  Any ways after your bachelors, you can go to medical school.  I have friends who went to Annapolis and did ROTC at other schools, and after graduating, they went straight to medical school instead of school for their career path.  So that is a route open to you. 

[Starkist]

Don't bother working.  Focus on school.  Live off the GI bill, pay for school with loans and talk to a medical/officer recruiter and let Uncle Sam pay off your loans in exchange for another stretch. 

I have to agree with this.... If you are dead set on schooling, and getting your medical degree, that's really where your focus should be. You're only given 24 hours a day, and unfortunately you can only do so much with that. I only worked at a civ plant for 9 months (medical termination) and was forced to pursue other avenues. Working on my BSME, I couldn't fathom working as an NLO and completing this degree in any timely fashion. And thats a simple 4 year degree, medical is far and beyond what Im doing!

Balance yourself with schooling and family obligations before work. You can "survive" as a college student (my sister has been in college for almost 12 years now!), but with goals like that, you really need to prioritize what you want out of life vs what you're willing to put into it.