Leaving pharm school for dental

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resha27

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10+ Year Member
I was interested in dental for a loong time (in fact I still have the 2007 Kaplan DAT book), but it would have required me to take a year off after graduating to apply and my parents weren't pleased, they were never really on board with me pursuing dental school, and I don't know why but I caved and applied to pharmacy school.

Surprisingly, I got in to my state school, although I had NO experience in a pharmacy whatsoever, I mean not even a minute of shadowing a pharmacist. When they asked about my experiences in the supplemental, I had to leave the entire page blank...

...but I got in... I had some doubts this summer about starting pharmacy school but my parents encouraged me to attend and now two weeks are over and I don't like it at all. I did very well in organic chemistry but I hate it, it was some of the worst classes I took in my life. I don't like how there is so much chemistry in pharm school, to be honest I thought it would just be memorizing drugs and that's it.

Anyway, I'm wondering if it's too late to start preparing to apply next summer, even while I'm in pharm school. I know I'm a huge idiot for listening to my parents and letting them make life decisions for me, but in the end they're paying for my school so I was afraid to lose their support. Now that I'm here, I guess I'm more mature/not so afraid to venture out and do something on my own.

I have a feeling I can do well on the DAT and I just need to do ochem lab II and a full sequence of physics, and, of course, shadow a dentist and get a recommendation letter from him/her.

I was wondering if this would be allowed, for me to apply to dental during pharm school, and then leave if I'm accepted?

Thanks for any support/criticism/replies/anything...
 
Just so you know, the first two years of dental school are all science classes. Hard ones at that. If you are thinking of changing, just make sure that you know how the first two years are going to be.

Good luck! 👍
 
I know a pharmacist in dental school. He actually works weekends at CVS while in dental school; this guy is an exception, and exceptionally smart. I don't know how you want to approach this but I would hate to be a pharmacist if my dream was to be a dentist. I would pursue dentistry if I was in your position. I'm not sure if the sciences get any easier or much different between the two.
 
I say... Suck it up with pharm and try to make yourself happy. Do the best u can there. At the same time study for your DAT. Get LORs and make sure they say d school not pharm. Don't do anything rash because there's no guarentee you'll get in d school when u apply. Also when u apply to d school schools will ask if u ever been enrolled/accepted in professional school. I'll be honest.. It doesn't look good that you went to pharm school. You will need to shadow a lot to show that you did your homework about d school unlike pharm school. Also you must use your shadowing experience to explain why you want dentistry. Saying that you've always been interested won't cut it. The other thing is u said u picked pharm cuz your parents were going to pay for it... Are they still going to pay for d school? If not, can you afford it?
 
Not much of a difference in terms of chemistry in pharmacy vs dental school with the exception of medicinal chemistry. Your biggest problem is that you did not research pharmacy before joining the crowd and you are apparently following the same path with dentistry.
 
resha27 said:
I was interested in dental for a loong time (in fact I still have the 2007 Kaplan DAT book), but it would have required me to take a year off after graduating to apply and my parents weren't pleased, they were never really on board with me pursuing dental school, and I don't know why but I caved and applied to pharmacy school.

Surprisingly, I got in to my state school, although I had NO experience in a pharmacy whatsoever, I mean not even a minute of shadowing a pharmacist. When they asked about my experiences in the supplemental, I had to leave the entire page blank...

...but I got in... I had some doubts this summer about starting pharmacy school but my parents encouraged me to attend and now two weeks are over and I don't like it at all. I did very well in organic chemistry but I hate it, it was some of the worst classes I took in my life. I don't like how there is so much chemistry in pharm school, to be honest I thought it would just be memorizing drugs and that's it.

Anyway, I'm wondering if it's too late to start preparing to apply next summer, even while I'm in pharm school. I know I'm a huge idiot for listening to my parents and letting them make life decisions for me, but in the end they're paying for my school so I was afraid to lose their support. Now that I'm here, I guess I'm more mature/not so afraid to venture out and do something on my own.

I have a feeling I can do well on the DAT and I just need to do ochem lab II and a full sequence of physics, and, of course, shadow a dentist and get a recommendation letter from him/her.

I was wondering if this would be allowed, for me to apply to dental during pharm school, and then leave if I'm accepted?

Thanks for any support/criticism/replies/anything...
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Shadow a dentist before you make a choice. And give pharmacy school more than two weeks. It probably sucks thinking you made a bad life choice, but you took that seat in pharmacy school from someone who actually wanted it, so you owe it to the school and the other applicants to at least give it some time.

You are smart enough to get into pharmacy school, so I doubt getting into dental school would have been a huge challenge. If you end up deciding dentistry, you better have enough shadowing and experiences to convince them that you won't have the same change of heart when you see that the first two years of dental school are full of science as well.
 
I don't think you should be faulted for changing your mind...it happens. Just make sure you really want to be a dentist. I agree with the other posters about not being rash about it. I don't think you should drop out of pharm school or anything. Work on your application during if you can. It looks worse to totally drop out in my opinion. I know a few D schools won't accept you while you are in another program. Just putting that out there, it is something to think about...probably not the case for all schools.

I had a friend that finished PA school and is now in dental school. She liked being a PA, but also liked the details involved in dentistry. It worked out for her in time...so don't give up.
 
Thanks guys for the responses, I appreciate all of them. To answer some questions: what initially got me interested in dentistry was from a patient's perspective. I had a v. complicated ortho case and although many orthodontists we visited said the only solution was surgery, one did not and said she could fix it with braces treatment alone, and without going into a lot of grisly details, the outcome was pretty amazing, she even wrote about me as a case study in a journal after successfully treating me. I had a lot of interactions with the orthodontist, my general practitioner, and my oral surgeon from a young age, and I guess all that focus on teeth is what got me interested in it in the first place and wanting to help others with their teeth problems when I got older.

To be honest, I'm not sure if my parents would pay for it or not, they are physicians and for some reason they don't like dentistry at all...that is definitely something to consider, although since I don't have any loans now, I thought doing what many other students do and taking out loans is acceptable right?

I know the first two years are heavy sciences, but there definitely is no medicinal chemistry, which is awful. The sciences seem more anatomy based and pathology/disease based, if I'm not mistaken. Pharmacy (at least based on what I've learned so far) is a lot more about the chemical aspects of the drugs and the reason they behave they do is because of this OH group and because of that H+, etc, which is really not what I was interested in during undergrad. I get disappointed when my friends here tell me they hated anatomy and loved chemistry in undergrad, because I'm the opposite, and it makes me question everyday if I'm in the right place. I have a 3.87 from undergrad, although I didn't like organic, I did well in it...

altoid, I read in my research on here that some schools don't allow applying while you're in another program, but it wasn't really clear which ones, do you mind PMing or posting that information?

I won't drop out unless they kick me out, although it would be sad to apply only to tell me that I can't go unless I finish the program. I guess this is something I have to individually contact schools about. I will try to give this program more time, maybe the first semester is just bad, I don't know, the earliest I would apply wouldn't be until next year anyway, so I can think about this more.

Thank you guys so much again for the advice and the criticism, it is all very needed because I have no one else to talk to about this.

 
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resha27 said:
Thanks guys for the responses, I appreciate all of them. To answer some questions: what initially got me interested in dentistry was from a patient's perspective. I had a v. complicated ortho case and although many orthodontists we visited said the only solution was surgery, one did not and said she could fix it with braces treatment alone, and without going into a lot of grisly details, the outcome was pretty amazing, she even wrote about me as a case study in a journal after successfully treating me. I had a lot of interactions with the orthodontist, my general practitioner, and my oral surgeon from a young age, and I guess all that focus on teeth is what got me interested in it in the first place and wanting to help others with their teeth problems when I got older.

To be honest, I'm not sure if my parents would pay for it or not, they are physicians and for some reason they don't like dentistry at all...that is definitely something to consider, although since I don't have any loans now, I thought doing what many other students do and taking out loans is acceptable right?

I know the first two years are heavy sciences, but there definitely is no medicinal chemistry, which is awful. The sciences seem more anatomy based and pathology/disease based, if I'm not mistaken. Pharmacy (at least based on what I've learned so far) is a lot more about the chemical aspects of the drugs and the reason they behave they do is because of this OH group and because of that H+, etc, which is really not what I was interested in during undergrad. I get disappointed when my friends here tell me they hated anatomy and loved chemistry in undergrad, because I'm the opposite, and it makes me question everyday if I'm in the right place. I have a 3.87 from undergrad, although I didn't like organic, I did well in it...

altoid, I read in my research on here that some schools don't allow applying while you're in another program, but it wasn't really clear which ones, do you mind PMing or posting that information?

I won't drop out unless they kick me out, although it would be sad to apply only to tell me that I can't go unless I finish the program. I guess this is something I have to individually contact schools about. I will try to give this program more time, maybe the first semester is just bad, I don't know, the earliest I would apply wouldn't be until next year anyway, so I can think about this more.

Thank you guys so much again for the advice and the criticism, it is all very needed because I have no one else to talk to about this.
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if you cant stomach pharmacy, why are you torturing youself? drop out and work on going to dental school. no point in finishing it and wasting 4 years of your life when you have 0 intention of going through with it.
 
MrAvicii said:
if you cant stomach pharmacy, why are you torturing youself? drop out and work on going to dental school. no point in finishing it and wasting 4 years of your life when you have 0 intention of going through with it.
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Im not sure that he can conclude that after 2 weeks of school...he probably had 2 weeks of anatomy, Biochemistry and Microbio and decided that pharmacy isnt for him...He should probably do at least one year before he make ANY decision....
 
pickmedental said:
Im not sure that he can conclude that after 2 weeks of school...he probably had 2 weeks of anatomy, Biochemistry and Microbio and decided that pharmacy isnt for him...He should probably do at least one year before he make ANY decision....
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This.

Because DS isn't going to be a cake walk either.

And while the OP says he had an interest in dentistry prior, but it seems like one of the biggest reason for switching career paths is due to difficulty and dislike for chemistry.
 
Are you sure you want to deal with nasty teeth and rancid halitosis and saliva splattering all over your face than just chilling behind a counter counting pills all day? Pharmacy is probably the highest combo of pay in relation to ease of job among all the health professions.
 
focus on the end game day-to-day work; not the educational processes of the careers.

would you rather sit or stand all day?🙂

but really, think about the long term.
 
resha27 said:
I was interested in dental for a loong time (in fact I still have the 2007 Kaplan DAT book), but it would have required me to take a year off after graduating to apply and my parents weren't pleased, they were never really on board with me pursuing dental school, and I don't know why but I caved and applied to pharmacy school.

Surprisingly, I got in to my state school, although I had NO experience in a pharmacy whatsoever, I mean not even a minute of shadowing a pharmacist. When they asked about my experiences in the supplemental, I had to leave the entire page blank...

...but I got in... I had some doubts this summer about starting pharmacy school but my parents encouraged me to attend and now two weeks are over and I don't like it at all. I did very well in organic chemistry but I hate it, it was some of the worst classes I took in my life. I don't like how there is so much chemistry in pharm school, to be honest I thought it would just be memorizing drugs and that's it.

Anyway, I'm wondering if it's too late to start preparing to apply next summer, even while I'm in pharm school. I know I'm a huge idiot for listening to my parents and letting them make life decisions for me, but in the end they're paying for my school so I was afraid to lose their support. Now that I'm here, I guess I'm more mature/not so afraid to venture out and do something on my own.

I have a feeling I can do well on the DAT and I just need to do ochem lab II and a full sequence of physics, and, of course, shadow a dentist and get a recommendation letter from him/her.

I was wondering if this would be allowed, for me to apply to dental during pharm school, and then leave if I'm accepted?

Thanks for any support/criticism/replies/anything...
Click to expand...

It's def not too late to prepare to get in, but you'll want to make sure you can fit shadowing time and studying for the DAT while you are in pharm school. Unless you are on a long break and take your DAT, and shadow near your school, this might be difficult. Just make sure you talk to different dentists, experienced and fresh out, to make sure you are making a good decision before investing all the time and $$$.

Good luck in whatever you choose 🙂
 
resha27 said:
To be honest, I'm not sure if my parents would pay for it or not, they are physicians and for some reason they don't like dentistry at all...that is definitely something to consider, although since I don't have any loans now, I thought doing what many other students do and taking out loans is acceptable right?
Click to expand...

Those are the most dental phobic patients...
 
Do whatever you want man, don't let anyone tell you otherwise because this is your future and your life. Just realize dental school will not be easier than pharmacy school, so if you are looking for a way out then turn back around. I would finish up the semester since you paid and everything and begin putting some serious dental shadowing hours in and see what you think a few months down the road. If you are set on dentistry then begin preparing for the DAT and definitely have a solid reason as to why you are switching from pharm to dent.

Unfortunately, you will face many d-schools who believe that you are not a "committed person" since you dropped out of pharmacy school. They will think if he/she dropped out of pharm school then what will make he/she not also drop out of dental school. Therefore, you need to come up with a serious explanation to counteract this problem. But always remember, do something you like because you will be doing this for the rest of your working life, choose wisely.
 
Make sure this is what you want.

Looking back, I entered Dentistry, because I didn't MIND it. It was a good 40 hour job, quick schooling, a good paycheck, and I figured I could just get "by."

Now that I'm in Dental School, I sometimes regret it. It's so hands-on it's crazy. You really gotta love working with your hands and Dentistry in general which doesn't coincide makes my carefree attitude about Dentistry....

If I were to re choose a profession that I didn't mind, was a 40 hour job, quick schooling with a decent paycheck, I would of chosen something more bookish, and less hands-on aka Pharmacy.
 
resha27 said:
Thanks guys for the responses, I appreciate all of them. To answer some questions: what initially got me interested in dentistry was from a patient's perspective. I had a v. complicated ortho case and although many orthodontists we visited said the only solution was surgery, one did not and said she could fix it with braces treatment alone, and without going into a lot of grisly details, the outcome was pretty amazing, she even wrote about me as a case study in a journal after successfully treating me. I had a lot of interactions with the orthodontist, my general practitioner, and my oral surgeon from a young age, and I guess all that focus on teeth is what got me interested in it in the first place and wanting to help others with their teeth problems when I got older.

To be honest, I'm not sure if my parents would pay for it or not, they are physicians and for some reason they don't like dentistry at all...that is definitely something to consider, although since I don't have any loans now, I thought doing what many other students do and taking out loans is acceptable right?

I know the first two years are heavy sciences, but there definitely is no medicinal chemistry, which is awful. The sciences seem more anatomy based and pathology/disease based, if I'm not mistaken. Pharmacy (at least based on what I've learned so far) is a lot more about the chemical aspects of the drugs and the reason they behave they do is because of this OH group and because of that H+, etc, which is really not what I was interested in during undergrad. I get disappointed when my friends here tell me they hated anatomy and loved chemistry in undergrad, because I'm the opposite, and it makes me question everyday if I'm in the right place. I have a 3.87 from undergrad, although I didn't like organic, I did well in it...

altoid, I read in my research on here that some schools don't allow applying while you're in another program, but it wasn't really clear which ones, do you mind PMing or posting that information?

I won't drop out unless they kick me out, although it would be sad to apply only to tell me that I can't go unless I finish the program. I guess this is something I have to individually contact schools about. I will try to give this program more time, maybe the first semester is just bad, I don't know, the earliest I would apply wouldn't be until next year anyway, so I can think about this more.

Thank you guys so much again for the advice and the criticism, it is all very needed because I have no one else to talk to about this.
Click to expand...

Greetings,

Have you ever asked your parents on why they have such a negative view on dentistry? My father was a MD and he told me 21 years ago to go into dentistry when I was choosing between medicine and dentistry. It was the BEST decision I have ever made. Perhaps you should let them read this article. DP

http://www.studentdoctor.net/2007/0...inh-phan-dds-ms-maxillofacial-prosthodontics/
 
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