Finance vs. Dentistry

[sportfan6197]

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Hey guys, happy December 3rd. Praying that you all get positive news today and in the coming days.

Looking for some career advice if possible. I got into a couple dental schools today, neither really near the top of my list of desired schools. But at least one I can see myself at.
I’m a bit non traditional in that I majored in Econ and just took science pre reqs needed at a top 30 (not top 10) school. I took a gap year to work close to home on Wall Street as an investment analyst intern. This past week I was offered a full time with 100+ K salary.

I know the best answer here will be to do what you like more, but I don’t know that answer. I do like the idea of being a dentist, running a practice, but I won’t lie that the idea of 4 years of school and now the future thought that I could be earning decent money instead of getting drowned in schoolwork does seem inevitable at some point. I love the work I’m doing right now but I would not envision myself being her more than 5 years and there’s no certain guarantee that I’ll aleays be able to progress up.

I would love to hear some online advice or guidance as to what you all think, as my parents are strongly biased towards the advanced education and my friends are biased towards continuing work.

 

[The_Redwood]

First, congratulations on your acceptances!

I can see why you're conflicted, that $100K starting salary is extremely tempting. My friend group is almost all finance/econ/business analyst majors (I'm the odd man out, haha) and that is absolutely a great field to be in. That job offers a lot of flexibility, and that income at a young age would allow you to enjoy a ton of experiences that 4 years of dental school and a ground level dentistry position might not (at least initially). This may or may not be helpful, but I would choose whatever you find more fulfilling, finance work + experiences afforded by low debt/high initial income vs. the fulfillment you get from dental work/running a practice/helping people.

I may have just muddied the situation further, but I think you are in a very unique position that a lot of people can only dream of. As unhelpful as this sounds, I don't think you can go wrong. Either way you're going to ultimately end up in a great field with a very good/great! income.

Whatever you choose, I wish you the best of luck and success!

 

[sportfan6197]

First, congratulations on your acceptances!

I can see why you're conflicted, that $100K starting salary is extremely tempting. My friend group is almost all finance/econ/business analyst majors (I'm the odd man out, haha) and that is absolutely a great field to be in. That job offers a lot of flexibility, and that income at a young age would allow you to enjoy a ton of experiences that 4 years of dental school and a ground level dentistry position might not (at least initially). This may or may not be helpful, but I would choose whatever you find more fulfilling, finance work + experiences afforded by low debt/high initial income vs. the fulfillment you get from dental work/running a practice/helping people.

I may have just muddied the situation further, but I think you are in a very unique position that a lot of people can only dream of. As unhelpful as this sounds, I don't think you can go wrong. Either way you're going to ultimately end up in a great field with a very good/great! income.

Whatever you choose, I wish you the best of luck and success!

Genuinely appreciate the sound advice. I have a similar situation with a friend group of all business/finance/consulting and it does make me feel potentially left out. I'm thankful to have taken the approach to hold both options this long, but it is incredibly tough singling out one career for certain.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

In the end, both are just jobs. That whole “do what you love and it will all work out” is utter nonsense. Seriously, I’m yet to find someone willing to pay me to crush all-you-can-eat buffets, sleep in, and fly fish most of my waking hours. And yes, I realize that sleeping in and fishing don’t go together. I’m still working on that mind bender.

Big Hoss

 

[Blueshirts]

Think about it in terms of long term lifestyles. If you like living in the tri-state area and can see yourself commuting into the city for the next X-amount of years, while also enjoying the fruits of your free time, then going the finance route is pretty good, especially if you start investing early and get a nice cushion before you are married/have kids. I have a few friends that have done that and are now closing in on 30, getting married and looking to settle into CT or north jersey and cruise until they retire, which isn't a bad gig. On the other hand, if you can't see yourself being tied to NYC long term, you may want to look at other options that can allow you the freedom to work where you want (like dentistry, so long as the area isn't overly saturated) - obviously here you're going to be making your money on the backend and have less time to invest due to those 4 years in school + costs. I used to think the same thing a few years ago, before I started my goal of getting into dental school. If you are looking at it from a purely lifestyle point of view this is what it kind of boils down to, in my opinion at least. Obviously there is a lot more nuance and implications to all of this, but given that I am from the same area I feel like maybe my comment can relate to your real life circumstance and help out a bit.

 

[BMEndo]

Hey guys, happy December 3rd. Praying that you all get positive news today and in the coming days.

Looking for some career advice if possible. I got into a couple dental schools today, neither really near the top of my list of desired schools. But at least one I can see myself at.
I’m a bit non traditional in that I majored in Econ and just took science pre reqs needed at a top 30 (not top 10) school. I took a gap year to work close to home on Wall Street as an investment analyst intern. This past week I was offered a full time with 100+ K salary.

I know the best answer here will be to do what you like more, but I don’t know that answer. I do like the idea of being a dentist, running a practice, but I won’t lie that the idea of 4 years of school and now the future thought that I could be earning decent money instead of getting drowned in schoolwork does seem inevitable at some point. I love the work I’m doing right now but I would not envision myself being her more than 5 years and there’s no certain guarantee that I’ll aleays be able to progress up.

I would love to hear some online advice or guidance as to what you all think, as my parents are strongly biased towards the advanced education and my friends are biased towards continuing work.

I too majored in Econ as well as Management Science and started out of school for just under 100k. It sucked and I was miserable. You will work far harder for that amount of money than you will in most other fields. I regularly worked 70 to 80 hours weeks in very high stress environments. 100k seems like a lot at first but living in NYC you'll realize that it's really not that much.

I'd suggest thinking long term about what you want out of life. Decide if you want to live to work or work to live. I definitely disagree with "do what you love and it'll never feel like work" or "follow your passion and the money will follow". For the vast majority of people work is work and anything you have to do when you don't want to sucks.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

In the end, both are just jobs. That whole “do what you love and it will all work out” is utter nonsense. Seriously, I’m yet to find someone willing to pay me to crush all-you-can-eat buffets, sleep in, and fly fish most of my waking hours. And yes, I realize that sleeping in and fishing don’t go together. I’m still working on that mind bender.

Big Hoss

You haven't figured that out yet? I find that hard to believe from one such as thou.

Agree 100% though with the nonsense listed above. I recently read a comment by some dental student on a FB post who said something to the effect of "you'll be a dentist, you'll earn the money you need to pay off your debt and life will be good" trying to dispell fear of the cost of education.
Thought to myself "this one has his head in the sand".

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[knewstance]

Take the job! Use the company's continuing education benefit to get your MBA if you want to impress your parents with higher education. Move into management at that company or if you still want to be in the dental field, join a dental group as their finance/management/business person. You don't have to be a dentist to be in the dental field.

The math also works out easy on this one for me... Very simplified math: 5 years from now your net worth can be $500k+ or -$500k+. Looking at it just in that perspective makes an easy choice.

Edit:
I almost took a similar intern job right out of college. I didn't and now I'm in dental school. While I'm grateful to be here, I do always wonder what my life would have been had I taken that opportunity and continued pursuing that path.

 

[Typical Average Student]

Why dont you just accept the position and work until school starts then quit. I have a friend who was in the same exact shoes as you as a trader for Shell. He's in dental school now and said it was the best decision he made.