I'll start with a little information about me. When I was a kid my family moved around a lot, and I had to take care of sick parents and grandparents from the time I was 13 until about 2 months ago, I'm 21 now. I wasn't able to finish high school, I would've been behind several years with all the moving and time I had to take off. I got my GED, scored very high, and decided to pursue an education, I've always wanted to be a doctor so I've started down the path. I got accepted to a good school and I'll be starting in the spring, but I'm faced with a choice that I don't know enough about the consequences it will have to make it on my own. I've been working at a grocery store for about 3 years now, part-time, and I make about 10/hr 20-37hrs a week, I'm completely and utterly sick of the job, my total bills monthly are less than $200 and I could get by with $100 a month for food. Now my here's where I need some help. School is going to be expensive, I have no money saved so I'll need to take out loans, this much I know for a fact. I don't want to work while I'm in school, I want to make sure that I keep a near perfect GPA, and I want to know if it would be ok to take out a little extra in loans every year to sustain myself? I also would like to know the best way to go about doing this, and if anyone knows of any scholarships available to someone like me?

Thanks.

I've recently decided to go back to school to pursue the same goal, so I'm somewhat in the same boat. That said, working part time and not having a perfect GPA is not a big deal and probably more advisable. If nothing else, it will make you stand out more on a med school application where everyone else has the perfect GPA and no real experience. In fact, I'd suggest attempting to get work (part time with a full load or full time with a partial class load) in a hospital. It may take a little longer to get to your final goal of med school (where loans and scholarships will be your only source of funds), but it will help you write a more complete personal statement and provide for more diversity in your application.

I'm sorry I can't offer more advice with regards to the financial portion of your question, but can suggest browsing through the website medicalmastery.com . It's got the most comprehensive collection of material for people in your situation wanting to get to med school.

Best of luck,
Dude

I would most definately recommend trying to get a few hours here and there in a hospital. Most of my friends who applied to med school and had experience in hospitals got in - those who had no experience in hospitals were rejected. Just as a heads up to you. If you cant find a paying gig at a hospital, then atleast volunteer - you will appreciate it later when you get accepted to med school after the first try.

Best of luck to you.