Dentist wants to change career after 10 years in practice

[Doctorforteeth]

hi all
i am a practicing dentist for 10years, in my mid 30s. I have impressive 3.9 GPA as undergrad and graduated dental top 10%. I am at the point of thinking changing career to medicine. What are my chances? and do i have to repeat all the pre-med course? is there other dentist changed to MDs out there? any advice where to start? thansk

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[NightGod]

You most likely would have to repeat the big four (Chem/Bio/OChem/Physics) but that should be it. Anything over 5 years or so and med schools start to look askance at them. More importantly, the MCAT questions reflect the current state of knowledge which has changed dramatically, especially in Biology with things like the human genome project. With those repeats, a 3.9 and a solid MCAT score combined with your history, I can't imagine you being anything less than a very strong candidate, though I suppose that would depend on how adcoms view dentists who are making the change (though my gut says they'd welcome you, I don't have any solid evidence to back that).

 

[startoverat40]

the mcat doesn't require knowledge of current up to date research etc. It just needs solid knowledge of the basic science principles. the discrete questions anyway. the passage based questions have all the info you need in the passages, you just have to be able to put the information together, synthesize and problem solve, and find the right answer choice.

I didn't retake any prereq courses. I just reviewed with Kaplan online course and did over 3000 practice questions. I got a 37R on the MCAT.

Of course it remains to be seen if I will get accepted anywhere. best thing for you to do is to contact the schools you want to apply to and ask them if they require you to retake. I don't have the option to retake anyway, so I'm just going for it. whatever will be will be....

 

[PharMed2016]

the mcat doesn't require knowledge of current up to date research etc. It just needs solid knowledge of the basic science principles. the discrete questions anyway. the passage based questions have all the info you need in the passages, you just have to be able to put the information together, synthesize and problem solve, and find the right answer choice.

I didn't retake any prereq courses. I just reviewed with Kaplan online course and did over 3000 practice questions. I got a 37R on the MCAT.

Of course it remains to be seen if I will get accepted anywhere. best thing for you to do is to contact the schools you want to apply to and ask them if they require you to retake. I don't have the option to retake anyway, so I'm just going for it. whatever will be will be....

 

[PharMed2016]

hi all
i am a practicing dentist for 10years, in my mid 30s. I have impressive 3.9 GPA as undergrad and graduated dental top 10%. I am at the point of thinking changing career to medicine. What are my chances? and do i have to repeat all the pre-med course? is there other dentist changed to MDs out there? any advice where to start? thansk

You sound like a stellar applicant. I don't think that they will make you retake your courses. Just study hard to do well on the MCAT to show that you still have what it takes to do well and the rest is history.

PS. Just be prepared to answer why your switching careers.

 

[LingoLaine]

Whatever you do, do NOT waste time repeating prereqs that you obviously did well in before. Start prepping for the MCAT.

 

[NightGod]

Whatever you do, do NOT waste time repeating prereqs that you obviously did well in before. Start prepping for the MCAT.

Before you take this advice, please be sure to check with the medical schools you are planning to attend. Some do require the courses be within the last five or so years and most strongly recommend it. It would suck to get an acceptance and have your matriculation be dependent on scrambling to complete basic science courses over the summer.

 

[Doctorforteeth]

thanks so much for all your input.

 

[KristopherTruth]

thanks so much for all your input.

If you don't mind, why the career change?

 

[KristopherTruth]

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[raptortheballer]

thanks so much for all your input.

Hi there! Found this post very interesting. Wondering if there were updates about your pathway?

 

[trev5150]

Hi there! Found this post very interesting. Wondering if there were updates about your pathway?

You just resurrected a five year old dead thread.