From pre-dental to pre-med.. do you guys think it is a good idea?

[ColumbiaOrtho]

Hi, I am a sophomore pre-dental/ bio major. I am thinking of changing my major from pre-dental to pre-med. I was always scared to be in the pre-med path because I've seen many people getting rejected from med school, including my brother, and take a year off to re-apply. Plus, I always saw myself as a dumb, slow learner who must try a lot harder to catch up other students, so I decided to take a relatively easier route to be a pre-dental (not saying becoming a dentist is easy! so please don't get me wrong). However, as I tried hard to keep my GPA high as possible, I realized those weed-out science courses (especially organic chem) were not as hard as I expected. Currently, I am sitting at a 3.83 GPA (not the best, but in safe zone GPAwise for dental school if maintained), and I was told by my adviser and pre-med friends to be confident and consider pre-med. I would be very happy and thankful to be either a dentist or a physician because I am interested in both dentistry and medicine, but I have this stereotype that medical school is far more difficult than dental school. So my question is: how hard is it to get accepted into med school compared to dental school? and how hard is it to graduate from med school compared to dental school?

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[tbonez71]

You should go into medicine if you feel that is where your passion lies. There is no reason to apply to medical school just because you have good grades - likewise, there is no reason to apply to dental school just because you are afraid of not being good enough for medicine.

Especially as a sophomore, you have plenty of time to figure out what you want to do. I would suggest shadowing both dentists and physicians, to get an idea of what the work is like. Then talk to your advisors and do research about what it takes to pursue the education you want. You obviously need a lot more experience and confidence before you are ready for either. Also, there is nothing wrong with taking years off between schooling... I'm very glad I took the time off that I did, I have much more experience and a better understanding of what I want to get out of medical school. Apply only when you are ready.

 

[throk]

I am interested in both dentistry and medicine

If you have already shadowed or worked in a clinic or otherwise gotten a good understanding of medicine vs dentistry, then the next step for you after finishing prereqs would be to study up and take the MCAT. If that proves too big a hurdle, then study up and try DAT instead.

If you haven't already gotten some good med exposure, go do that first, to make sure you really are just as interested in that as dentistry