Do I still have time?

[Zong117]

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Ok, here's my situation:

I'm entering my last year of undergrad, and am in the middle of applying to medical school. Now the catch is that I worked with an oral surgeon a couple years back, and as I compare his lifestyle against the lifestyle of the doctors I've been shadowing, it seems like oral surgery could be the way to go. I would still get the benefits of giving good health care, and a bunch of the downsides of medicine are alleviated in dentistry (most notably in the area of family life).

I'm just wonderig how late I would be in the process to try and apply to dental schools as well (and someone mentioned an MD/DDS degree today, but I don't know any specifics). I know in general that I would need to take the DATs ASAP, but I don't think preparing for it will be too bad as I took the MCAT in April, and the visual reasoning section doesn't sound like there's much studying I could do for it anyways. So....could I conceivably register and take the DATs soon, get my apps in (though I dread horribly doing it all again after doing the AMCAS and TMDSAS for med schools), and do all of this in time to be considered for next fall's entering class?

For more background, I'm a Texas resident, have a 3.9+ GPA, and scored in the 99th percentile for the MCAT. I can get a rec letter from the oral surgeons I worked for two summers ago, and....I can't think of anything else you guys may ask right now. Thanks for the help!

 

[ToothMonkey]

You can still get in, it will just take applying to more schools than would have been necessary with an early application. My stats were worse than yours but I was accepted after submitting my application in November. Just be sure that you have given this a lot of thought and aren't rushing into a decision, since there are many differences between the two career paths.

the visual reasoning section doesn't sound like there's much studying I could do for it anyways.

Actually, studying will significantly improve your score on the PAT. And you can expect to do worse on the actual exam than the practice ones, so don't let a strong performance on sample questions lull you into a false sense of security. Practice as much as possible in this area.

 

[Dentalist]

I think you can still get in. The question is... do you really love dentistry in general? I mean, it's great that you want to become an oral surgeon, but road to oral surgery is no cakewalk. What if you realize that oral surgery is not what you expected or don't get into oral surgery program? Would you be happy practicing general dentistry for the rest of your life? Just.. something to think about. 🙂

Good luck,

Dentalist

 

[Zong117]

Yeah, I've been chewing on those questions all day. The more I think about it, the more likely it is that I'll go MD, and then look into an Oral/Maxillofacial residency if I'm still as interested in it. Apparently there are some that go that route, but not many I think.

Thanks for the replies!