Working during medical school. How do families in medical school afford to live?!

During Jordan's undergrad at Wichita State University, I knew medical school was the ultimate goal, but I always worried about how we would be able to afford it. Especially going into medical school with surprisingly 2 children under the age of 3. But, I saw other couples on social media make it through so I always just figured the financials would work themselves out. 

When I found out we were going to the Caribbean, and I wasn't going to be permitted to work I was more anxious. It is true that Caribbean medical schools are more expensive than US medical schools. Jordan and I had already been married for 6 years when he began medical school, and throughout our entire marriage I have worked full time. We already had adult responsibilities..a rental house, car payment, some credit card debt, etc. One year prior to medical school I had been running my own custom embroidery business out of our home, and when we were moving to St. Maarten I had to pack it all away. We sold all of our furniture minus our bed, a vehicle, and just the majority of our household items. This helped us fund our move overseas. Now, in hindsight, I'm so glad we didn't sell everything like we originally anticipated. 

During the first 2 years in St. Maarten we lived solely on student loans and what was left of our savings (It went fast). Talk about nerve wracking!! I know that financial aid is different for every school, and the amount of reimbursement changes based on tuition increases, etc so I'm not able to give exact dollar amounts. Somehow we managed to make it work financially. Looking back I'm not 100% sure how we did, but we did and I'm so glad that the boys and I were able to spend those 20 months in St. Maarten with Jordan during basic sciences.

After Hurricane Irma, I was ready to get back to work and make some money! I reopened Sew Worth It Designs and it became the boys and I's main source of income.

When Jordan started studying for the STEP 1 exam he was on a leave of absence (LOA) so no student loans were distributed. There are private loans students can take out during this time, but we were not approved for those honestly. He just didn't qualify for whatever reason. I know a lot of Jordan's colleagues were able to though. So during January-May 2018 my embroidery business was our only income!! Crazy right! I'm still super proud of that and am so grateful for everyone who supported my small business. We literally lived in a 1 bedroom apartment for $325.00 a month in a super tiny town in Kansas. We are going to look back and laugh one day...

Anyway! After STEP 1 Jordan started working for a company online called Varsity Tutors. Basically he took a bunch of online assessments to test his proficiency in different subjects and once he was approved he could be matched with students to tutor in different subjects, mainly pre-med/science related. Sessions paid $15-$20/hr depending on the subject, then there are bonus' like depending on how the student rates you, if the student signs up for another session, etc. So Jordan online tutoring really helped fill the gaps financially before he started the clinical portion of school. In fact, Jordan STILL tutors about 4 hours a week while in rotations. He is currently tutoring a pharmacy student. 

Once clinicals started his student loans kicked back into effect, but here's a word to the wise...make sure your credit's 100% clean. Jordan had some medical bills show up on his credit report and his student loan was denied. Scary right?! We paid them off and all was right in the world again. Every 2 semesters student's credit reports are pulled and if there are blemishes they will not approve your loan. 

We are thankful that we are now in a lower cost of living area for the clinical portion, because we are able to save for expenses that are going to pop up like residency applictions, interviews..oh, and let's not forget the costs of those board exams. Whew! Step 2 is over $2k!! Anyway, this is about as real and raw as it gets in regards to going to medical school with a family. I'm not going to sugar coat it..it's stressful! I oftentimes feel a ton of mom guilt that we've dragged our kids through this process, but this is the choice we made and I can only hope that our boys grow up seeing the sacrifices their parents made to better their lives. 

Why a Caribbean Medical School?

I think the first question we get asked when people find out that Jordan is a medical student is, Why did you go to medical school in the Caribbean? 
The short answer: Because he didn't get into a med school in the US :)

The long answer: Everyone knows that medical school is competitive, but what they don't realize is exactly how competitive. There are a ton of factors that go into your medical school applications and one of those is grades, obviously. So Jordan is a non traditional student and had actually gone back to college in 2010 to complete all the pre-med coursework. What we (I) didn't realize at the time was all his grades from his first attempt of college right out of high school were also going to be on his transcript and be calculated into his GPA. Ouch! Jordan had one semester that he just quit going to due to financial aid issues and therefore had straight F's. Now, with MD applications you can retake those classes and get an average score (example: original grade F, retake grade A= C average). Not good enough to bring up a GPA. With DO school applications, they don't take the average grade, they take the newest/highest grade, but it still shows on your transcript as a "retake" so obviously it's going to be a red flag on your application that you've retaken classes. Also, the MCAT is vital. Jordan's first attempt was in the mid 20's, he retook it and scored in the high 20's. Our state school's average MCAT score was 30 so we knew his MCAT was on the lower end. **I know the MCAT has since changed their scoring system so I'm not sure how to compare scores now.** A lot of things stacking against him on getting accepted. I should also mention that Jordan worked full time, on 3rd shift at a hospital, all through undergrad as a nontraditional student.
 After 2 years of applying in the US we both felt a little defeated and weren't sure what our next move was going to be. I started "researching" Caribbean medical schools and at first Jordan was 100% against it, wouldn't even consider it. I saw that American University of the Caribbean (AUC) was having an informational session in Kansas City and I told Jordan that I thought we should drive up there and at least hear what they had to say. He agreed so we went up there on November 1, 2014 to hear about the school. After listening to the presentation and talking with alumni and professors we were starting to feel more comfortable, and realizing that this may be our last ditch effort if medicine was the only thing he wanted to do. I have always seen such a drive and ambition in Jordan that I've always fostered because I know he is extremely capable of becoming an excellent physician. Now, if he was failing classes in undergrad for the second time, not putting in the effort on his applications, etc I would not have been okay with taking the risk of going to an international medical school. Let's face it..it was a huge decision. We had 1 son, and I was pregnant with our second son at the time so a move to the Caribbean was a daunting. 
At the beginning of 2015 Jordan went ahead and applied to AUC and the rest is history, up until present day. Do I recommend a Caribbean medical school? Sure.. if you're 100% dedicated and willing to put in the hard work. Caribbean medical schools are more expensive and there is more adversity you'll be facing in regards to island life, clinical setting choices and eventually matching into a residency. However, there are so many success stories of physicians that have graduated from an off shore med school as testimony. We are grateful to the opportunity AUC presented, but it is really up to the student to determine how successful they will be. 
So there's the long answer :) Thanks for reading!