Finance/Oil and Gas Dentist? Red Flags?

[monkeykey]

Alright SDN I want to hear your thoughts. I am now a graduating senior at an above average state school. During my freshman year I kept getting in trouble with my school in the dorms. I was caught twice in the dorms with alcohol and received an MIP. I was also caught and arrested with a non-felony fake ID charge the same year. I think I was honestly one step away from getting suspended for a semester but luckily got my act together. All charges were eventually dropped and expunged but still remain in the university records. Since then I have kept my nose clear and got my act together and performed well academically and with my extracurriculars. I am somewhat unique because I am finance major instead of bio.

I have gotten involved with multiple organizations and served in a leadership position in one of them. In total I'm expecting an ending GPA of 3.63 and a science GPA of 3.55-3.61. I'm expecting a 19-20 DAT with an absolute max of being a 21. I have 100 volunteer hours and 100 shadowing hours with 3 different dentists. I have 3 great letters of recommendations from professors that I have spent many hours working with them in their office hours so they know I'm a hardworking student.

I have also had an internship with a top 10 well know technology company and have just received an offer with a top 3 oil and gas company for full time financial analyst position after graduation as I am taking a gap year. Does working at these well known companies have any merit when applying to dental school? I needed a job after graduation so why not get the best one possible while applying to dental school. It is much harder to get a good job after graduation so I didn't want to be stuck in the rut of not having any job/career if dentistry ended up not working out.

For my personal statement and interviews I want to play into my unique business background helping me run a practice in the future. I am very passionate about multiple aspects of dentistry and I don't think I want to spend my whole life working as a gear in the corporate machine.

I know I have some pretty bad red flags but all of which are isolated to my freshman year which was 3+ years ago and I believe I have matured immensely since then and strive everyday to continue improving myself to become the best version possible.

SDN what are your thoughts on my upcoming cycle?

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[MavsFanForLife]

I would think that many schools would be willing to look past your early troubles, I would talk about how you have learned from these experiences and how you have grown into a better person because of them in your PS.
Your gpa looks great. Why only a 21 max on the DAT? I had a much lower gpa than you (and honestly struggled in ochem classes) and was able to get a 21 aa/ts. I would think you could pull at least a 21! That being said, a 19-20 would in my opinion be good enough to get you interviews with you gpa. Good luck!

 

[Blueshirts]

Just a heads up, but from my own experience coming from accounting, this was seen as a disadvantage at a few of the schools I interviewed at and ultimately did not get accepted to because I was unable to convince them that I truly intended on being a dentist as the one and only career. Interestingly when I interviewed and worked to avoid having this be a topic, but instead spoke about work ethic in general, it was more well received during the interview. Be prepared to convince adcoms that dentistry was the only career you ever wanted, and write off your background in finance as being something you realized quickly into school was not the path you wanted, but had already committed too many classes to.

 

[knewstance]

I think in terms of your "red flags", don't worry about it. I would be surprised if you were even asked about it.

I 100% support getting a good job right out of school. Who knows, maybe you will find you love it so much you might not even bother applying to dental school. Or as you said, you would have a real fall back career if dental school doesn't work out, rather than being a barista with a bio degree.

FWIW I have several financial analysts in my family, they are all doing very well and in great positions with great companies. Its really a great career path.

Also, I worked at what you could call a career job for 2 years while waiting to go to dental school, nobody ever asked me why I was having a "career change" during my interviews. They did ask how my job would translate into dentistry, but that's an easy one.

 

[Tootyfruity]

your upward trend is great! and i think you have a good shot. a coming of age story is always great.
your "unique" nonscience background won't hurt you, but it isn't something that's going to give you an advantage.
i wouldn't make it the highlight of your application.
we're science and medicine people, not oil and gas people.

 

[doc toothache]

2014 Majors and DS Admission Trend 2005-2013

 

[monkeykey]

Does the company it self have any merit value?

 

[321931]

I’m assumming you are a finance/business major? Then I would assume you know the opportunity cost/debt load and true income of a dentist.

Knowing all that and doing true analysis on the numbers compared to working straight at a top 3 job... and still going to dental school- you will have no one else to blame but yourself afterwards.

 

[monkeykey]

I’m assumming you are a finance/business major? Then I would assume you know the opportunity cost/debt load and true income of a dentist.

Knowing all that and doing true analysis on the numbers compared to working straight at a top 3 job... and still going to dental school- you will have no one else to blame but yourself afterwards.

I guess I forgot to mention, I'm kind of in a unique situation where I wouldn't have to acquire any debt going though dental school which is definitely a blessing in itself. Because of this the opportunity cost is drastically lower for me. Also in finance in corporate america you're either moving forward or backwards your entire career. After 4 hard years of grinding through college I can definitely say that I don't think I could keep this work ethic up for 30 years to get to the top of corporate america. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely quite monetary incentivized but there is more to a career and a life than just making money.

 

[Alaskan _Polarbear]

The whole under age drinking thing is very common so when you write on your application about any felonies/university violations talk about how you changed and you'll be fine. I'm assuming you got the felony expunged so its most likely you will not have to disclose that BUT there's always a chance that it may still be on your record.

You have a good GPA and okay extra curriculars. Get a good DAT score (20+) and apply broadly and you'll be fine and because you're working during the gap year this can show the committee that you're hard working. I honestly don't think your underage drinking will raise any red flags but the felony for the fake ID might since this might make the committee question your integrity

 

[monkeykey]

The whole under age drinking thing is very common so when you write on your application about any felonies/university violations talk about how you changed and you'll be fine. I'm assuming you got the felony expunged so its most likely you will not have to disclose that BUT there's always a chance that it may still be on your record.

You have a good GPA and okay extra curriculars. Get a good DAT score (20+) and apply broadly and you'll be fine and because you're working during the gap year this can show the committee that you're hard working. I honestly don't think your underage drinking will raise any red flags but the felony for the fake ID might since this might make the committee question your integrity

It was a non-felony as mentioned in the post above but the disciplinary records are still in the system as all incidents happened by campus PD at my university so I will still have to report them on the application I believe.

 

[Alaskan _Polarbear]

I'm not going to lie it's going to look pretty bad because you got caught underage drinking = warning # 1 and then caught again with a fake id = warning #2.

You just need to really need to talk about how you learned from this and how this will not affect your ability to become a dentist. Maybe you can even write this in your personal statement and somehow overcame all this and learned from your mistakes

 

[monkeykey]

Any advice on how to address these IAs in interviews??

 

[monkeykey]

Bump. I’m also trying to figure out what to write for this and how to go about it?