If you already got into the 2+3 programs, I'm 100% sure you've already gotten in a good bit of dental experience to make the decision before you even finished highschool.
I actually attend Pacific as one of the students in the Pre-Dent programs, and let me tell you that there is no way all 100% of us know
exactly that we wanted to do dentistry before coming here. No way. It's not a requirement for admission on paper (how would you measure that anyway? Require shadowing hours in high school? a lie detector test?) I knew I wanted dentistry specifically, but a large number of people I know simply wanted to have a doctorate degree in 5-6 years....they shadow because they have to, not because they want to. Simply put, they wanted prestige and monies in a little amount of time. In an ideal world, all Pre-Dents in an accelerated program are there because they know and want the profession itself. In the real world, many are there just because they want a shortcut.
I never said a college education as a whole is "worthless." I said a bachelors degree is worthless if you already possess the skillset or opportunity to surpass what you would get from that bachelors degree. If you are given the opportunity to skip the final 2 years of undergrad and go straight into dental school, why in the world would you turn that down just because you wouldnt have that worthless bachelors degree in hand? If you wanted 2 more years of the partying passed out drunk on your face experience, then I'd understand, but passing over the program just because you wouldn't have bachelors degree is just plain stupid.
A degree takes WORK, TIME, and EFFORT. In the process, one learns not only advanced scientific knowledge but also time management, better study habits, good work ethic, etc. A handful of my degree-less friends just advanced to the UOP dental school after 2 years of undergrad, and they are barely surviving. They don't know how to handle 3, 4, 5 science classes at once because they've never had to do it--they just needed to do their pre-reqs, which never involved more than 2 classes at once. There are a couple that are doing just fine, but they are the exception, not the trend.
I don't know about you, but I don't go to graduate school to be a bottom feeder and merely scrape by. I want to succeed. What you view as needless years and extra courses is utilized by others as mental, physical and intellectual preparation.
I've never met a single dentist who flaunts their bachelors degree, but 9 out of 10 of them have that nice DDS/DMD Degree displayed in their practice.
No one is trying to argue that a bachelor's degree is more prestigious or useful than a DDS/DMD. It isn't--anyone off the street would know that. However, a bachelor's degree is
preparation for that DDS/DMD degree more than anything, and in many cases, a tool used to get the most one can get out of a gap year...to get a job, for example.
Obviously, if you're achieving your goals just fine in only 2 years in undergrad, that's great for you. But again, this makes you the exception, not the trend.