Hey all,
I'm a 24 year old considering pursuing other career options after dedicating much of my college to working towards dental school. I've been working as a dental assistant for around a year now and have been having second thoughts about applying to dental school for around a similar duration. It's not that I don't have a passion for it or wouldn't be happy doing it, but the prospective debt load is scaring me quite a bit. It's hard for me to envision going >$350,000 in debt considering I don't have much family to rely on since my parents passed away. I've been giving it a lot of thought about if it makes sense financially for me to pursue dentistry and it's giving me quite a bit of pause.
I've been taking online CS classes and have been doing fairly well and have been getting some offers for CS internships in the meantime. I've programming as a hobby since HS but haven't really done anything professionally with it. I suppose my question is that if I take any of these internships, how big of a red flag would that be on a potential application in the future? It's hard for me to close the door on dentistry because I really do love it, but it's hard for me to see myself doing it financially and might want to see if I could see myself doing something else.
Not sure if this matters but my stats are pretty good otherwise. GPA: 3.8, sGPA: 3.7 and have done fairly well (~22) on practice DAT tests I've taken. I also have quite a bit of clinical, volunteering, and research experience from undergrad. I have over 500 hours as a DA as well.
Thank you for anyone willing to chime in.