First Year Question...

[PeterGriffin]

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I'm a first year medical student and I have noticed a trend not only on these boards, but at my school as well. It seems that there are numerous med students (myself included) that are seriously questioning whether or not they want to be in med school, yet I have neither seen nor heard any first year dental students with these concerns. Any idea on why this is? 😕

 

[ItsGavinC]

They exist, but you have to remember that our numbers (as dental students) are only ~1/5 of what yours are as medical students. There are simply fewer of us, which may be why you don't hear of it as much.

Also, the world we will be entering upon graduation is much different than yours, and perhaps that plays a part in helping us make it through school.

Of course, all of this is just speculation.

 

[Dr.SpongeBobDDS]

I think it also has something to do with the fact that medicine is sort of the "default" career path for a motivated science major. Many, many people enter medical school without even once considering dentistry, while few students get into dental school without at least entertaining the idea of med school.

Because dentistry has the stigma of being medicine's ugly stepsister, those who enter the profession have generally weighed their options a little more thoroughly than those who chose medicine by "default". Just a thought. 🙂

 

[toothcaries]

i've had classmates drop out because dentistiry wasn't for them and they wanted to practice medicine...

i think the cliche goes...
the grass is always greener on the other side....or something

 

[PeterGriffin]

I think it also has something to do with the fact that medicine is sort of the "default" career path for a motivated science major. Many, many people enter medical school without even once considering dentistry, while few students get into dental school without at least entertaining the idea of med school.

Because dentistry has the stigma of being medicine's ugly stepsister, those who enter the profession have generally weighed their options a little more thoroughly than those who chose medicine by "default". Just a thought. 🙂

Very good point. I set a goal of getting into med school when I was a freshman in undergrad and developed tunnel vision. If I would have explored my options more thouroughly, I might have made some different decisions, but I was blinded by the unfair prestige that is given to MDs of dentists.

 

[grtuck]

I'm a first year medical student and I have noticed a trend not only on these boards, but at my school as well. It seems that there are numerous med students (myself included) that are seriously questioning whether or not they want to be in med school, yet I have neither seen nor heard any first year dental students with these concerns. Any idea on why this is? 😕

I was wondering, why is it that you are questioning this? I would be very interested to know why it is that you have these doubts. Is there an aspect of Med school that you don't enjoy, or is it something else? Yes, I am a very curious person, but if you would prefer not to share that is fine.

grtuck
🙂

 

[jpollei]

After working as a premed and predent advisor in undergrad where we had about 650 applicants per year (450 med, 200 dental), my experience would say Gavin and DrSpongeBob are pretty near on to the crux of it.

In fact, I think predent was regarded on an equal plane as premed...possibly a unique situation, but refreshing. Perhaps that was why there were so many dental appicants (proportionally). What's more, like 85+% of the predents got in, and over 65% of the premeds, too. They all seemed to just be doing what they wanted to be doing, and as a result fared well. Obviously if that is the case, that'll lead to very few complaints.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Yeah, JPollei was my predent advisor and did a horrible job. Look where it got me!

 

[PeterGriffin]

I was wondering, why is it that you are questioning this? I would be very interested to know why it is that you have these doubts. Is there an aspect of Med school that you don't enjoy, or is it something else? Yes, I am a very curious person, but if you would prefer not to share that is fine.

grtuck
🙂

My concerns didn't really arise because of anything specifically to do with med school in itself. My problems go back to undergrad. I always told myself that I wanted to go to med school and did all that I could to get there. In unergrad I was a psyc major and did fairly well in all my classes and on the MCAT. Like most med applicants, I had my shadowing experiences and volunteered at my local hospital. At the time I didn't really let myself realize it, but I had no enjoyment from these activities. It seems that I wanted to get into med school so bad that I sort of built up a wall in front of myself. The wall was the actual acceptance into school and I couldn't see around that. Now that I'm in, I'm looking towards the future and I don't really see anything in medicine that appears compelling to me. I'm going to try and get through this first semester and see how things go from there, but as of now, I'm seriously questioning whether or not I will go through with this.

 

[jpollei]

Yeah, JPollei was my predent advisor and did a horrible job. Look where it got me!

I do what I can...obviously not enough since you're not here at Carolina. 🙂

 

[EHA DDS]

I too had tunnel vision with regards to med school. It was med school or bust, without looking at other careers. Then sometime around my 3rd year I started considering dentistry in earnest. I am so happy I made the decision to go into dentistry. I admire medicine and med students, but dentistry is for me.

As well, as far as dentistry being somehow "less" than med school, we were told at least twice that dentistry is harder than med school, because we do all the basic sciences like meds, PLUS the dental courses.

 

[PeterGriffin]

As well, as far as dentistry being somehow "less" than med school, we were told at least twice that dentistry is harder than med school, because we do all the basic sciences like meds, PLUS the dental courses.

That seems to be the case at my school. I have talked to some of the dental students and seen their schedule and they seem to be taking way more classes than we are.

 

[EyeCandy]

Interesting topic.... just wondering, how many dental students have taken the MCAT at least once (i know many that have struck out more than once) and how many med students do you know that have taken the DAT at least once?? Ask around your med/dental school and you won't be surprised.

However, dentistry is a cool profession that is pretty easy to study if you have adequate mental and technical dexterity. Medicine can be an overwhelming monster to tackle but the motivated ones succeed. Either way, u can't go wrong!