To work or not to work while in Physical Therapy school? That is the question. The goal of this article is not to tell you “yes” or “no” but rather to give you some insight that will help you make the most appropriate, well-informed decision for yourself. Every student’s personal situation and needs will be different, so there’s no way anyone can write a post that answers a universal “yes” or “no” to this question within an article.
What someone CAN do (in which I’m referring to myself) is hopefully provide some important insight and things to keep in mind so that you can better arrive at the answer that is best for YOU.
While your school will likely frown upon the idea of you working a job while in Physical Therapy school, many students still do. Some can do it without academic performance suffering while others can’t. You need to know what’s most appropriate for YOU!
To know if you should work a job or not during this time, start by asking yourself the key questions outlined within this article.
I’ve gone through PT school and have some key insight that I can share. Both as someone who wants to focus purely on grades but also someone who understands the need for income while in school. I understand both sides very well.
So, where do you start with gaining some ground on answering this question? There are some pretty important questions to ask yourself that can be incredibly helpful for determining if working a job while you’re in PT school will be feasible for you. So, let’s start there.
With that being said, let’s dive right into it!
The questions to ask yourself and why these questions are so important
Here’s a quick overview of the questions to ask yourself. Each one will be discussed hereafter in regards as to why it’s so critical to ask yourself.
- Are your time management skills on point?
- How strong are you with your academic coursework?
- Are you looking to work out of pure financial necessity or for other reasons?
- Will you have flexibility in your work hours?
- How energy-intensive will your job be?
Is it possible to work and do just fine or get by while in PT school? Absolutely. Could it be the wrong move for you to make and blow up in your face? Absolutely. This is why there’s no universal answer. But these questions can help.Why are these questions important to ask yourself?
Aside from them helping you to make the best decision for yourself, having answers for these questions can give you great peace of mind in that you’re setting yourself up for the most ideal situation possible, if you do decide to work.
As well, if you’re worried that working while going to school may be incredibly stressful, be sure to check out my article: How PT Students Can Manage and Reduce Stress in School.
Are your time management skills on point?
While I am covering other great questions within this article that can help you determine whether working a job is a wise move to make for you as a PT student, this question is by far the most critical one to ask yourself. If you can’t definitively answer “yes” to this one, it should be a yellow flag for right away when it comes to thinking about working outside of school.
This question is the first one to ask yourself simply because even if all other factors pertaining to work and school are as ideal as possible, you will still be very busy even if only working eight hours per week for a part-time job.
If you’re an academic whiz (see the next question), great. But even then, you’ll still be busy. And if your time management abilities and skills are not on point, then life is going to likely become a bit overwhelming and exhausting as each semester grinds on.
This is not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t work a few hours per week if you don’t have impeccable skills with managing your time, but you need to be aware that even under the best circumstances, you’ll be busy and need to do all that you can to stay on top of didactic material and assignments.
How strong are you with your academic coursework?
This second question is a very close “second place” in regards to the most important questions you can ask yourself right off the bat.
PT school can be really academically demanding, especially when you walk a tightrope for keeping your grades up in order to not get booted out of the program (most schools in the US require you to achieve above 83% for each course, which is a letter grade of “B” or above. You typically get a total of two courses where you can get a final grade of “B-“ but on your third course with this letter grade you are either dismissed from the program or decelerate by an entire year.
What this means for YOU is that you had better be absolutely confident that you can manage and learn the academic material (and complete any and all assignments) in less available study time (since you’ll be working) each week than if you chose not to work.
If you need some insight as to whether or not PT school may be challenging for you, be sure to check out this article of mine: Is Physical Therapy School Hard? What PT Students Must Know.
If at all possible, wait long enough into the program to be confident that you KNOW that you can handle the academic material and demands while working.
One of the worst things you can do is sign up for working a part-time job without having had any time in the program yet in order to gain a feel of the complexity and volume of material. Ideally, you want to have enough time under your belt that you know whether or not you could subsequently manage all aspects of the program while holding down a job. Just because you were an academic rockstar in undergrad is no guarantee that it’ll be the same way in PT school.
If you have a couple of semesters under your belt in PT school and have done just fine thus far, you’re likely pretty good to work some hours at a part-time job. If you’ve just barely scraped by, a job might be a disastrous choice for you. If you decide to work as you begin your PT program, you may be rolling the dice a bit, especially if you’re trying to work a higher number of hours. But then again, you may be just fine. Again, there’s just a ton of individual factors that go into it.
I saw plenty of times throughout my years in PT school of students thinking they could work a job as PT school started up. Some could, others couldn’t. The problem is that if you let your grades take a hit right at the start of the program because of this, you are on extremely thin ice for the remainder of time in the program, and that can be incredibly stressful. You can (and may need to) quit your job or cut back your hours, but the academic damage has already been done.
I understand that you may not have a choice to wait. I’m just advising that if you do, waiting a semester or two can be a wise move to make. It’s a small drop in the bucket in terms of cash/income that you will have lost out on, and if you save yourself the stress of sacrificing your grades, then it’ll have been well worth it.
Are you looking to work out of pure financial necessity or for other reasons?
Moving onto the next question, it’s important to ask yourself if you’re looking to work because you absolutely have no other choice but to work (i.e. to pay rent, buy food, etc.) or if it’s because you’d like to have a bit of extra spending money or simply because you like your job.
Neither of these scenarios are “bad” or “wrong” by any means, rather they just determine what kind of options you can give yourself when it comes to all aspects of working outside of school.
One of the reasons why it’s good to ask this question to yourself is so that you can appropriately set the number of working hours per week that meet your wants or needs. I would contend that you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew, so to speak. Better to start on the lighter end and scale up, if needed.
If you’re looking for just some extra spending money, etc. then you can afford to really scale back these hours initially and then maybe ramp them up further into the program if you’re still not having any issues with keeping your grades up. You may not have this luxury if you’re just trying to keep your head above water, which I fully acknowledge.
The bottom line is to not make the mistake of working more hours than you really have to. Not having as much spending money as you’d like can be a bummer, for sure. But part of singing up for PT school is accepting that you’ll be making some sacrifices along the way while remembering that they will benefit you in the short-term and that they won’t last forever.
Will you have flexibility in your work hours/schedule?
One of the best situations you can find yourself in if you’re going to work while in PT school is to have flexibility in your weekly schedule and overall work hours. If you’ve got a job that naturally allows for this or an employer who is understanding of your situation and willing to work with you for making changes as needed, then you’re in a good spot.
As a good example, if you’ve got an intensive week of final exams coming up and need to get extra study hours in, having an employer or schedule that will allow you to cut back on hours for that particular week can save you some serious stress, energy and even from taking a hit on your academic grades.
Or maybe one particular semester is just more academically intense than previous ones so far and as a result you need to spend more time on your studies and assignments. If you don’t have an employer or schedule that is flexible, it can again make for a rough ride and really put some extra stress into the system.
How energy-intensive will your job be?
In addition to having a job and/or employer that naturally lends itself to accommodating your academic needs, having a job that is not overly energy intensive (physically or mentally) or stressful can really be beneficial as well. Why? Because you’re not doing yourself any favors if work always leaves you flat-out exhausted and too tired to effectively study.
I knew a number of students in my PT cohort and the cohort beneath us who worked jobs that essentially allowed them to study or get assignments d one while being on-shift. Now, whether or not you find this ethical is up to you. Many of their employers were actually ok with it, depending on the circumstances.
What you don’t want is to be working a heavy labor job that physically wipes you out and drains you to the point where you don’t have any further energy to study or focus on assignments once your shift is done. Likewise, having a high-stress job likely isn’t a great move to make either; PT school and life around it can be stressful enough and having a job that piles more stress on top of that isn’t a favorable scenario.
If you’re looking for some study tips that can really help you out throughout PT school (potentially saving you tons of study time), be sure to check out my article: Six Study Tips for PT Students That Work for ANY PT Course.
Work-study programs can be a great option
Work-study is a federally funded program in the US for students who demonstrate financial need. You can sign up and participate in this program if you have applied through the FAFSA (Free Application For Student Aid). To read more about it, check out this Wikipedia article for a good rundown of what work-study is all about.
If you don’t have a job lined up but really do feel like you need something, considering looking at a work-study program on your school’s campus can be worth looking into. Work-study opportunities don’t have to necessarily be on campus, however. They can be assigned at other locations off of campus, but working on-campus usually makes the most sense for the vast majority of students.
They may not perhaps pay the greatest (but you are assured of minimum wage at the least), but the jobs are usually pretty laid back and studying while “clocked-in” on the job isn’t unheard of.
Concluding Remarks
Whether you choose to work a job while in PT school is up to you. While there’s no right or wrong answer, the worst thing you could do would be to begin working a bunch of part-time hours without asking yourself these questions outlined within this article.
You want to have as much confidence as you can in regards to knowing that working part-time hours outside of PT school won’t cause you to slip up and stumble with your grades and academic performance.
This confidence comes from leveraging your job and hours in way that are beneficial to you – having flexibility in your weekly scheduling and a job that doesn’t physically, mentally or emotionally drain you as you work it. You also need to have superior confidence that you can handle the academic coursework and workload with less available weekly study time than if you weren’t working.
If you take all of these into consideration and play your cards right, you will likely be in good shape for holding down at least a handful of hours each week without too much to worry or stress about. Again, it’s very doable but only when you know that your time-management skills and priorities are all on point.
Related articles
- How PT Students Can Manage and Reduce Stress in School
- Six Study Tips for PT Students That Work for ANY PT Course
- Is Physical Therapy School Hard? What PT Students Must Know
- Six Helpful, Free Websites PT Students Can Use for Better Grades
- What are the Hardest Courses for Students in PT School?
Hi! I’m Jim Wittstrom, PT, DPT, CSCS, Pn1.
I am a physical therapist who is passionate about all things pertaining to strength & conditioning, human movement, injury prevention and rehabilitation. I created StrengthResurgence.com in order to help others become stronger and healthier. I also love helping aspiring students and therapists fulfill their dreams of becoming successful in school and within their clinical PT practice. Thanks for checking out my site!