Healthcare profession changing career to become a dentist

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kongkongkong

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Hello I was hoping to hear some thoughts about my situation. And sorry for poor English and grammar mistakes. English is my second language.

About myself

I am 31 y/o currently a Physical therapist . I work at an inpatient hospital and do home health on the side.
Graduated from grad school 2021 and started my first full time job 1/2022. I am now 3rd year into my career.

I do not have student loan, no car loan, but have a mortgage to pay which every month it is $3500. Bought my first house this year.
I do have approx 40k in high yield saving, 45k stock, 20k cyrto, 40k cash, 35k on my 401k at this moment.

Every year it differs but my annual income is approx 170k (W-2 and homehealth) together.

I am married and planning to have baby starting next years as my wife.


This year I worked my ass off and worked every single day and at this rate I believe my annual for this year will be little bit over 240k.


Right now I am planning to go to dental school.

Reasons

  1. I cannot work like this my whole life
  2. love medical field so much
  3. desire to have more higher level of medical education.
  4. increased income
  5. like anatomy
  6. like crafting
  7. and etc

Education stats
  1. undergrad gpa 3.1` yea its very **** regret this every single day, even till today, do not even understand how I got accept to DPT school with this GPA
  2. science gpa 3.5` (all my sciences courses are approx 10 years old now)
  3. grad gpa 3.6~

Plan:
1.take all my science courses again at community college (every affordable, per unit it is less than $50) while not working 7 days a week
2. I see myself within 4 years I will have science courses all finished and ready to apply
3. apply to dental school that accept science courses taken at CC
4. while taking my science courses, me and my wife will try to save up living expenses for 4 years while I am in dental school with the help of student loan.
5. be a dentist around 38 y/o

first of all, thank you for taking your time to read my post.

Question.

  1. Based on your experience would it be worth it to go dental school base on my situation. Hope to hear very realistic comment.
  2. Also with my very very low cumulative GPA from undergraduate would I even have a chance to even get an interview
  3. Would doing a post Bacc could increase the chances to apply dental school

Thank you for your time

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Why do you think dentistry would be better? It has some pretty hefty cons with cost of schooling, insurance companies lowering reimbursement, corporate taking over, etc. There are happy dentists though! You are making a good living right now. That is a hard thing to give up, especially with a child on the way. Tough call
 
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I would also think very carefully. While there are hundreds of DPT programs, there are only 70+ dental schools. I don't know if you have talked with the schools located closest to you, so have you shadowed dentists? Talked with them about your life choices?

I agree that if you plan on having a child, your financial stability needs to be solid. Have you talked to a financial planner about saving enough money for your child/ren? Yes, you may be working hard now, but the financial foundation you set up now will pay off much later.
 
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OP. I would reverse engineer your options. With your stats ..... are you going to be able to gain acceptance into a reasonably priced dental school? I met a recent grad who attended AT Still Dental school in Mesa, AZ. His debt is around $611,000.00. Let that sink in. He's working at the Corporate where I am employed. I cannot imagine his road forward with that debt load.
 
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I met a recent grad who attended AT Still Dental school in Mesa, AZ. His debt is around $611,000.00. Let that sink in. He's working at the Corporate where I am employed. I cannot imagine his road forward with that debt load.
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Big Hoss
 
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