- Joined
- Dec 7, 2016
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 34
Hi SDN,
I've been a lurker on the forums for the past few days and would love some advice.
I'm currently a sophomore at a private 4 year US institution studying Computer Science. And while I like programming cool things as a hobby, I seriously cannot see myself working everyday 9 to 5 plus overtime at the same desk on software that I might not even enjoy coding. The culture of the CS industry itself is also a turnoff to me; its super competitive (everyone wants to work that $100k+ job at Google) and thus backstabby. Not to mention that it is also 83% male (lol what was I thinking) and the fact that ageism is very prevalent. In contrast, I like dentistry's job security, the specialization, great balance between work and personal life, and generally interacting and helping patients within my community. (The positivity, helpfulness and overall friendliness of the people here is also a major plus!)
I understand that this path is going to be harder than sticking with my CS degree (all the stuff I need to do to get into dental school, then dental school debt), but I think it's going to be worth the risk. My plan to fulfill the pre-dental requirements as well as not waste the courses I took in the last three semesters will be to major in Computational Biology and minor in Computer Science.
In regards to the things other than prerequisite courses...
Shadowing:
I haven't done any yet, but will definitely try to shadow my local dentist during winter break
Volunteering:
I haven't really done much in college (only several hours or so), but have volunteered in a hospital for at least 400 hours during my high school years (I don't think it counts, but please correct me on that)
Research:
Again none, but my school fortunately has lots of research opportunities available for its students
I was just wondering if anyone had any general advice regarding my situation? Also, more specifically, what do you guys suggest I should do during this summer to get ahead? Shadow? Do Research? Find an internship/job? Mix?
Thanks! 🙂
I've been a lurker on the forums for the past few days and would love some advice.
I'm currently a sophomore at a private 4 year US institution studying Computer Science. And while I like programming cool things as a hobby, I seriously cannot see myself working everyday 9 to 5 plus overtime at the same desk on software that I might not even enjoy coding. The culture of the CS industry itself is also a turnoff to me; its super competitive (everyone wants to work that $100k+ job at Google) and thus backstabby. Not to mention that it is also 83% male (lol what was I thinking) and the fact that ageism is very prevalent. In contrast, I like dentistry's job security, the specialization, great balance between work and personal life, and generally interacting and helping patients within my community. (The positivity, helpfulness and overall friendliness of the people here is also a major plus!)
I understand that this path is going to be harder than sticking with my CS degree (all the stuff I need to do to get into dental school, then dental school debt), but I think it's going to be worth the risk. My plan to fulfill the pre-dental requirements as well as not waste the courses I took in the last three semesters will be to major in Computational Biology and minor in Computer Science.
In regards to the things other than prerequisite courses...
Shadowing:
I haven't done any yet, but will definitely try to shadow my local dentist during winter break
Volunteering:
I haven't really done much in college (only several hours or so), but have volunteered in a hospital for at least 400 hours during my high school years (I don't think it counts, but please correct me on that)
Research:
Again none, but my school fortunately has lots of research opportunities available for its students
I was just wondering if anyone had any general advice regarding my situation? Also, more specifically, what do you guys suggest I should do during this summer to get ahead? Shadow? Do Research? Find an internship/job? Mix?
Thanks! 🙂
