The med school side hustles that Eeman Farooqui runs alongside a full-time clinical job leave her sleeping roughly five hours a night, a pace she describes as unsustainable but necessary to cover one of the steepest bills in American education.
Farooqui, 24, is a clinical coordinator in Buffalo, New York. She works four days a week, typically ten hours a shift with overtime stretching that to twelve. Her base monthly earnings from the day job run between $4,500 and $5,000. Four side hustles sit on top of that.
Four Gigs, One Goal
The side hustles break down clearly. Babysitting three children, including two sisters on the autism spectrum, occupies at least three days a week for up to three hours each day and pays $28 an hour. Tutoring master’s students at the University at Buffalo in cell biology, biochemistry, and genetics takes ten hours a week at $22 an hour. Per diem medical assisting, which Farooqui typically takes on her Monday day off, pays $25 an hour. The fourth hustle, DoorDash deliveries with her husband on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings for around four hours at a time, earns an average of $35 an hour.
That DoorDash figure sits above the range that Everlance cites for most drivers: $20 to $25 an hour on average including tips and incentives, with top earners in busy markets reaching above $30. Farooqui and her husband treat the shifts as the only stretch of the week when they reliably spend time together. Being independent contractors, they are also subject to the NerdWallet-reported IRS self-employment mileage rate of 72.5 cents per mile, and any Dasher earning $600 or more receives a 1099-NEC for tax purposes.
The motivation is straightforward. Farooqui was a pre-med neuroscience and psychology student who had planned a research career. Her path shifted abruptly when her grandmother died from a stroke while visiting from Pakistan for Farooqui’s wedding. ‘I don’t want to do research; I actually want to get into patient care,’ she said.
The Numbers Behind the Med School Side Hustles
The target she is saving toward is formidable. Annual tuition at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo stands at $46,470 for New York state residents and $71,190 for non-residents, based on Class of 2030 figures. Over four years, College Tuition Compare puts the total estimated cost, including fees, at $293,318 for residents and $379,278 for non-residents, based on official school bursar data for 2025–2026.
Farooqui has applied to schools in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, so the non-resident figure is a live possibility. Either way, her $4,500-to-$5,000 monthly base wage falls well short of covering tuition alone, which is precisely why the side hustles exist.
The day-job salary is also below the Buffalo market median. Glassdoor puts the average clinical coordinator salary in Buffalo at $75,009 a year as of 2026, with the 75th percentile reaching $96,867. Farooqui’s reported earnings, annualised, fall below that average, which may partly reflect her relatively early career stage or the specific clinic setting.
Getting into any medical school is its own obstacle. The Jacobs School of Medicine admissions data show 5,828 applications for the 2025 entering class, with 181 students matriculating, an acceptance rate of approximately 3.11%. Farooqui is also adding prerequisite classes to her schedule, held twice a week after her shifts end.
The cost is personal as well as financial. She lives five minutes from her parents but rarely sees them. Friends have largely dropped off the schedule. She aims to be in bed early but manages only around five hours of sleep most nights. ‘I feel fatigued all the time,’ she said, ‘but I can’t complain because I signed up for it myself.’
She plans to specialise in women’s health and acknowledges the current pace cannot carry into medical school itself. The med school side hustles are, by design, a temporary structure. Whether a place at a New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania school materialises will determine how much longer she has to hold it together.