In the past, people had this infamous notion that studying medicine and becoming an entrepreneur do not mix.
But in recent times, I have seen a very good number of medics thinking about a change of career path, while many who choose to remain cannot stop thinking of how to make money in medical school.
The reason behind this all boils down to how expensive it is to study a medical course anywhere in the world.
Some medical students who are unable to pay their tuition upfront are bugged by lots of students loans which they keep paying for years even after graduation.
Others struggle with feeding and buying the medical school essentials after paying for the tuition.
Only those medical students who come from very wealthy homes live a comfortable life.
If you come from an average working-class family, you will need to have alternate sources of income to live very comfortably, and much worse is if you are from the lower-income class.
So finding a legitimate source of income for any medical student will go a long way to ease off some of these burdens laid down by the expensive nature of the medical career.
If you are a medical student looking for how to make money while in medical school, you most probably have come across some websites owned by old-fashioned internet money gurus who preach how profitable owning a blog and a YouTube channel is, and how it is the best business idea for medics.
But, I am writing this post as a final year medical student who has tried virtually all legitimate things to see how I can make money in medical school, and have also witnessed what lots of colleagues who are living big in school do firsthand for the past 6 years.
And believe me; if you are looking for a practical and realistic way to earn reasonably well in medical school, you must overlook some of the advice from these old gurus and pay attention to what works in the present time.
About 15 years ago, when people were still waking up to the possibilities of the internet, owning a monetized blog and/or a YouTube channel as a student would have been an easy way to make quick money.
And if you were a medical student in those times, who had been consistent with that up till the present moment, that blog or YouTube channel would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars by now and even more.
But later, as people realized this, more and more persons are currently diving into this old-fashioned model of making money because it is accessible to everyone.
With just $30 or less, you can be able to set up a website and start writing whatever you want, and creating and monetizing a website and YouTube channel is completely free for everyone.
But what some of these gurus do not tell you is how competitive this business model is.
Recent statistics have shown that only a very small percentage of newly created websites will ever reach the level where they can ever compete with older brands and websites.
And come to think of the volume of work you need to put in weekly to take your blog or YouTube channel to this level, it will be very inadvisable for an average medical student to venture into this.
Although, in the long run, it has been proven that a consistent effort will keep paying off gradually till it peaks.
Table of Contents
- How do you make money in medical school?
- The 11 Proven Ways On How To Make Money In Medical School
- 1. Scholarship
- 2. Cryptocurrency Investment
- 3. Affiliate Marketing
- 4. Selling Medical School Essentials
- 5. Publishing Books, Novels, and Study Guides
- 6. Teaching
- 7. Research Analysis
- 8. Copywriting and Ghost Writing
- 9. Write in Essay Contests
- 10. Printing and Photocopying Service
- 11. Offer Vitals Check Services
- Final Words!
How do you make money in medical school?
If I say that blogging and YouTube are old-fashioned, how do you make money in medical school then?
What I am about to share with you is based on my own personal experience and what I have actually seen other medical students do for the past 6 years I have spent studying medicine.
These are very practical and actionable approaches you can take to start seeing results as soon as possible.
Some of these ways of making money in medical school could be done online, and some could be carried out offline.
Some people already know these, but are too concerned about what people will say if they start such businesses.
But truth be told, there is no way you can try any of the following ways of making money in medical school without seeing a tangible result after 5 to 6 years of your medical school journey.
Even if the results may not be so mind-blowing, at least you will be financially stable in medical school.
Also, you can combine more than one or more of these ways on how to make money in medical school by channeling the money you realize from one that is less capital intensive to the one that is more capital intensive.
So here are the ways of making money in med school:
- Scholarship
- Cryptocurrency Investment
- Affiliate Marketing
- Selling Medical School Essentials
- Publishing Books, Novels, and Study Guides
- Teaching
- Research Analysis
- Copywriting and Ghost Writing
- Write in Essay Contests
- Printing and Photocopying Service
- Offer Vitals Check Services
The 11 Proven Ways On How To Make Money In Medical School
1. Scholarship
This is the best way to make money in medical school for free without having to do any work.
I discovered this late in medical school. But it will surprise you to know that being on scholarships in medical school is one of the best ways to raise capital for your entrepreneurship journey.
I know some colleagues who managed to bag up to 3 scholarships during our early days in medical school.
And how did they do this?
They applied for as many scholarships available for medical students in their first year hoping that they will get one.
But guess what?
Some of them got more than one, two, and some even 3.
And today, some of them were able to start a side hustle alongside med school. And a few are currently millionaires.
Why did I not apply for scholarships?
The major reason was that I was an exchange student, so I was so busy carrying files around during my admission process.
And the second reason was my mindset.
I believed that scholarships were only for people whose sponsors are unable to pay the tuition, so I never put my mind to it.
But today I regret not taking on those opportunities.
So if you are looking for how to make money in medical school, the best time to start is during your first and second year of medical school when some of these scholarship opportunities are still available.
Finding scholarship opportunities for medical students is as easy as typing;
“Scholarship Opportunities for medical students on Google“
And you will find lots of scholarship opportunities available for medical students at your level and in your country.
So go ahead and search for scholarship opportunities for medical students in your country, and you will find many results.
And once you get into a scholarship program, make it a point of duty to save percentages after every payment you receive, and then invest your savings into any of the business models discussed below this one.
2. Cryptocurrency Investment
Cryptocurrency is also a good way to make money in medical school in the long term.
I made my biggest investment in cryptocurrencies during my second year of medical school on Luno wallet. That was in the year 2018, during the first boom in bitcoin price.
I bought some bitcoin then when the price was around $1,300, and today bitcoin is currently worth over $50,000.
No, it’s not what you think…
I never left the money there to date, I took everything out of “Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO) when it did over 200%. And this only took less than 2 months to happen.
Also, I was starving in medical school then since I used a large portion of my stipends to buy this, so I needed the money then.
The point I am trying to make is this; if you are looking for how to make money while in medical school without having to do any active work, then the best thing you can do is this;
Find A Cryptocurrency with good prospects based on good research and buy a good volume of it and just forget about it until you graduate from medical school.
Chances are that before you graduate, that coin must have done a good deal of percentages after 4 to 6 years you have spent in med school.
But the problem with the above is that it has lots of guesswork attached.
Number one is that anything can happen to that coin; it can get liquidated before graduation or if you are lucky enough, it will make you a millionaire.
But if you want to eliminate guesswork, the best thing to do is to eliminate every guesswork by learning how to trade and grow your crypto assets even as a medical student.
Speaking of how you can do this, I recommend that you take this course on cryptocurrency which has turned most of my medical school friends into millionaires.
But this course is not free though.
It comes at a price, and it’s only for serious-minded people who are willing and ready to invest and start making it big in the crypto industry.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Another cool way you can make money in medical school is through affiliate marketing.
This is the one I love so much. The reason is that it is completely risk-free if you follow the right route.
Affiliate marketing simply means promoting and selling other people’s products and getting paid a commission for every sale you make.
But careful here! Because it’s not as easy as it sounds.
There are strategies you should use if you want to make it big in the affiliate marketing industry. You can find some tutorial videos on YouTube that will help you set up a lucrative affiliate business.
But if you want to take your affiliate marketing business to a professional level; by this I mean earning up to 6 to 8 figures per month selling other people’s products, then you definitely need to learn from someone who is a master in the game.
The truth is that the most vital information in any business model is usually kept secret by the elite 1%, and if you are not willing to pay the price, you will never learn how it works.
4. Selling Medical School Essentials
To make money in medical school selling med school essentials is very lucrative.
I never tried this one myself except on this blog where I promote medical school essentials as affiliate products.
However, I have close friends in med school who are deep in this business, and what do they do?
They find local departmental stores nearby that supplies medical school essentials and buy them in bulk, and resell them to medical students and doctors at a higher price.
For the uninitiated, medical school essentials are those items every medical student needs like; stethoscopes, scrubs, lab coats, tendon hammers, etc.
Some medical students with a bit more information and funds, learn the art of drop-shipping, where you can import this equipment at a crazily cheap rate from places like China, and the US and still sell them at the normal price.
People who use this drop-shipping strategy earn as much as 500% profit for any of these medical instruments they sell.
If you want more information on how dropshipping really works, I strongly recommend you go through this page about a course on dropshipping. Getting access to the course is not free though. It comes at a little price.
5. Publishing Books, Novels, and Study Guides
I myself have published a book during my 4th year of medical school. The book is titled; “The Ultimate Guide to building a successful Blog”.
This guide is a compilation of everything I learned during my early days of starting blogging. I managed to get some hard copies for this book, and some soft copies too and have sold over 150 copies since then.
You can get a copy of this book here it costs less than $3.
Now, I did not make so much money from this book because I was so engrossed with my medical school exams and my blogging career.
But why am I sharing this?
The goldmine in writing and publishing a book as a student is in organizing a book launch no matter how small.
This I never did…
I just used my knowledge of internet marketing to promote this book.
However, I have two colleagues who have published books during our medical school journey and were able to launch them. And the support they got was amazing.
People especially your lecturers will always support you if you are still a student who is able to come up with an idea for a book and being able to publish it.
So if you have a wonderful story to tell or an awesome idea to share, consider penning it down, publishing, and launching it and you will never regret doing so.
Another way you can cash out big time from writing and publishing books especially if you do not have the time and energy it takes to organize a book launch is to learn how to publish books on Amazon Kindle.
I know of one medical student, though not in the same medical school as I am in who shared a screenshot of his Amazon Kindle Account, and the value was in 6 figures.
Yes! 6 figures in dollars!
And he was able to do this after taking a simple course on Amazon KDP that costs not up to $100 to take.
I was able to get him to share the link to where one can get access to this course, and of course, he did.
So if you would like to learn how to make money in medical school, I mean earning up to 3-5 figures in dollars by publishing Ebooks on Amazon, you can go ahead and register for the course now.
One last way is to package and sell your own study materials or medical school textbooks. I have written a more explanatory post on how to package and sell your study materials and where to sell your old medical textbooks.
6. Teaching
Teaching is another good way if you are looking for how to make money during medical school.
I never tried to teach as a medical student for some reason.
One is that I am always busy working online and I am an average medical student so I need to still make up to pass my medical school exams.
But more than a tenth of my colleagues did teach for cash while in medical school and it was quite lucrative.
Some taught aspiring medical students how to pass the medical school entrance exams, others were involved in teaching medical students of the lower classes most times for free, and some other times for cash.
So if you know your stuff well enough in medical school, you can consider organizing tutorials for medical students or for aspiring medical students and have them pay you for that.
If you do not have the time to organize tutorials yourself, you can apply and work with any institution that specializes in teaching aspiring medics or medical students proper and get paid per hour, per day, per week, or per month depending on the agreement.
7. Research Analysis
You can make money in medical school by analyzing research using SPSS for people.
I never understood the importance of learning research analysis until my final year in medical school when we started our community medicine research work.
To analyze the data gotten from your field, we were required to use SPSS; a very rare skill that only a handful of people knew so well in my school.
And these few persons were collecting cool cash to analyze these data for those of us who did not know how it works.
The good thing about SPSS is that I actually found out that it can be learned for free on YouTube in just a few hours. And you can start learning it right away using this link.
So research analyses are one of the few practical ways on how to make money while in medical school. And this skill will help you not just as a medical student, but even when you graduate and start working in organizations and big research bodies like the WHO.
8. Copywriting and Ghost Writing
This is a very little known way to make money in medical school.
Copywriting is simply the art of writing content for a product in a way that is compelling enough to make a prospect take a particular action.
Ghostwriting, on the other hand, is the art of writing content like research work, a proposal, or a speech for another person, a company, or a group for which they also take the credit.
If you are looking for how to make money during med school while still having enough time for yourself, then these two skills will give you both the freedom and time you need.
I have a classmate who is a very good writer. I also have other guys in my class who run affiliate websites where they write reviews for new products in the market.
So what this guy who writes so well does is that he writes these product reviews for the affiliate marketers while they pay him cool cash and also bear the responsibility of running and maintaining their affiliate website.
So whether the article generates sales or not, this good writer guy always makes money and since he learned his copywriting well, he writes so well that a buyer who reads his content feels guilty when they don’t make the buying decision.
So he is a hot cake in his business, and he is being booked to write content at a good price for these guys.
Now, I myself use copywriting almost every day in all my content to trigger people who read my content either on this blog or on any of the social channels associated with the blog to take an action I want, but I am still not near half as good as this guy is.
So what is his secret?
He has always been good at writing essays, but if you are into digital marketing, you will understand that copywriting and essay writing are two very different things.
And what did he do?
He simply spent some money and invested in himself and learned the art of copywriting.
And luckily I managed to get the exact same course he took for copywriting at an even cheaper price, and you too can take advantage of it before it is taken down. Here is the link to the Copywriting course.
9. Write in Essay Contests
Another free way to make money in medical school is participating in essay contests.
I participated in just one essay contest in medical school…I never won anything though.
But among the best 3 in the contest were two of my classmates and they got prizes worth over $300.
There are a lot of essay contests you can take part in for cool prizes. One of the most popular essay contest sites is freedom with writing.
But apart from this, there are lots of local essay contents sprouting up daily and rewarding students who stand out in the contests.
So if you are a good writer and you are looking for how to make money while in med school, then you must consider participating in multiple essay contests and if you are that good, you can win a couple of them and go home with outstanding cash prizes.
10. Printing and Photocopying Service
Owning a printer as a medical student is very profitable and a good way to make money in medical school.
I don’t own a printer myself, but one of my classmates has one.
You know that medical students read lots of materials and study resources most of which need to be photocopied.
So this particular guy being the only person with a printer and a photocopying machine nearby, all of my classmates had no other option than to patronize him.
And of course, it makes him some money.
But the thing is that getting a printer and a photocopying machine is quite expensive or else you have someone who can lend you one and then your only tasks would be to buy papers and do the printing and photocopying.
However, owning such an asset in medical school is a worthwhile investment that will still serve you after medical school.
Looking for such a printer? Check out my best pick from Amazon.
11. Offer Vitals Check Services
Oh Yes! I struggled to include this last one in my list of how to make money as a medical student because it is a bit time-consuming and also, some students will shy away from this. Also, I have never seen a medical student who tried it before.
But it’s just a random idea I bumped on while writing this post, and it made some sort of sense to me.
If you understand how it works, then it is a cool way to make money with very little investment.
All you need is just your medical instruments like;
- Stethoscope
- Blood pressure monitor and
- Glucometer
Remember that you don’t have to complicate things by trying to do difficult examinations or investigations that will stress you.
With these instruments, you can find a cool spot in the community close by where your medical school is located and offer to do Blood pressure checks and blood sugar tests for them.
A single test like this can cost as little as $2 to $5 dollars, and if you are in a place where people know the value of regular BP checks and Glucometer checks, you will earn a few bucks every weekend.
Yes weekend, and during holidays of course!
You may never have time to carry out such an exercise during a regular school day.
I have a separate post on this blog that will teach you how blood pressure is measured in the clinic step-by-step
Related: Best Jobs for medical students
Digital skills like web designing is also a cool way to make money online as a student.
If you are a web designer, and would need an easy way to streamline your invoicing process and generate professional-looking invoices quickly and easily, Zintego is the web tool of choice.
Final Words!
Making money as a medical student is not easy due to our tight schedule, but it’s doable.
And I have provided you with some of the best ways to make money in medical school. Some with little or no capital at all.
There is no way you put your mind into any of the above mentions ways on how to make money while in med school without seeing a very good result all through your 4 to 6 years of medical school (depending on how long medical school is in your country).
In conclusion, I know there are many other ways out there through which medical students can make money while in medical school, but I cannot start listing them all in this post. These are just the more practical and commoner ones.
However, if by chance you know how to make money in medical school through other means, feel free to share it in the comment section below.
Finally, if you are looking for daily updates on how to advance in your career as a medical student, and how to stop being a regular medical student, subscribe to our blog notification by clicking on the bluebell on the downright corner of this page and by connecting with our WhatsApp channel.
I wish you the best in your medical school journey.
