nursing vs. med/dental

[jav316]

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hi everyone,
i just found this site yesterday and am glad i found it - it's been so helpful 🙂 i was wondering if i could get advice on the board. i graduated in 2001 with a degree in biology. i graduated from an ivy league school but my bio and orgo grades werent good (Bs and Cs) so i didnt apply to med school. now i am working full time in clinical research and have applied into a nursing program for 2005. after i applied into the nursing program and felt like i was moving into the clinical profession, i started rethinking med school (and dental school). after about 2 weeks consideration, i quit my second job and enrolled in kaplans mcat course and am planning to take the test in april and am thinking about the dat. i am completely overwhelmed with making these decisions and what my next steps should be. any advice from someone familiar with the process would be helpful. my gpa was about a 2.8. i'm really attracted to dental school now for a couple of reasons. one thing that dissuades me about both nursing and medicine is that i'm not sure how i will deal with terminal patients. another reason i'm interested in dental school is that because you specialize while in school there is no grueling residency.
sorry this message is so long and thanks for any advice 🙂

 

[RachelD]

hi everyone,
i just found this site yesterday and am glad i found it - it's been so helpful 🙂 i was wondering if i could get advice on the board. i graduated in 2001 with a degree in biology. i graduated from an ivy league school but my bio and orgo grades werent good (Bs and Cs) so i didnt apply to med school. now i am working full time in clinical research and have applied into a nursing program for 2005. after i applied into the nursing program and felt like i was moving into the clinical profession, i started rethinking med school (and dental school). after about 2 weeks consideration, i quit my second job and enrolled in kaplans mcat course and am planning to take the test in april and am thinking about the dat. i am completely overwhelmed with making these decisions and what my next steps should be. any advice from someone familiar with the process would be helpful. my gpa was about a 2.8. i'm really attracted to dental school now for a couple of reasons. one thing that dissuades me about both nursing and medicine is that i'm not sure how i will deal with terminal patients. another reason i'm interested in dental school is that because you specialize while in school there is no grueling residency.
sorry this message is so long and thanks for any advice 🙂

I think there is usually a 3.0 cut off for most med schools. How many hours do you have in your 2.8? Could you bring it up over a 3.0? I would go to dental school before nursing school. I'm not sure what kind of numbers you need for dental school.
Good luck!

 

[mshheaddoc]

first off I would think long and hard about what you WANT to do. You have to make the choice of what profession you want to do. Then work on maybe a post-bacc program or masters to prove to med schools (if you decide this) that you are serious about this. You can't go down both roads at once. Well you could I suppose but think about what you really want! Best of luck!

 

[cfdavid]

Just tonight, I heard a kid in my biochem class talking about wanting to go to dental school. He said he had a 2.7 or 2.8, but seemed confident in getting in. I'm sure, it would be advantageous to improve a bit though. Also, there are some on the pre-dental forums that have taken both the mcat and dat. They all said the mcat was more difficult. Check it out.

Frankly, I think dental is a really good way to go. Dental seems to be less "extreme" than medicine, in terms of the level of priority that the respective careers will ultimately become in your life. In many ways dental seems a bit more balanced. I'm doing med myself, but there are truly some benefits to dental that seem not to apply to medical.
Just do some more research. But good luck in your decision.

 

[bouncy_ball]

hey jav, here's a link for dental school stats.

http://dentalstats.tripod.com/index.htm

 

[Law2Doc]

hey jav, here's a link for dental school stats.

http://dentalstats.tripod.com/index.htm

It looks like you need to pull up that GPA for either route. Several people I know had better success on the DAT than the MCAT, so your results on those test scores might play a role in helping you decide which road to take if you are truly indifferent.

 

[thackl]

Several people I know had better success on the DAT than the MCAT.

The guy I study with scored in the 99th percentile on the DAT (no prep) and got 28 on the MCAT on his 2nd try after taking TPR. I'm not trying to slam dentists, but I've known many who took both (with similar outcomes) and dental is still the easier route..... Plus only four yrs of education and higher pay than primary care doctors and some specialties.

 

[TucsonDDS]

I have been a nurse for 10 years. About 6 or 7 years ago I thought I wanted to be a doctor so I took some more prerecs, took the MCATs (scored a 27 q on them studying on my own), I even interviewed but then that question came up; "What would you do if you didn't get in?" So like a dumba** I said, "I wouldn't reapply, I don't really want to be a doctor" After that I withdrew my apps from a couple of other schools and I continued to work as a nurse. A couple of years ago I started thinking about dentistry and I will be starting dental school in the fall. I scored a 24 (99.8 percentile) on the DAT and I would say that even though I studied quite a bit more for this test it was easier than the MCAT. The main reasons why I choose dentistry is because I still get to spend time with my patients on a continous basis (similar to nursing), it is all hands on work (I like to tinker) and I get to be my own boss/own my own practice. That last one means I don't have to take crap from administration that you will if you are a nurse or MD. Also being a dentist my salary is totally up to me for the most part. I can work 70 hrs a week to earn 200-300K or I can work 20hrs a week and spend time with my kids. And with Dentistries reluctance to play the insurance games, the high number of retireing dentist (about 6000/year) and the relatively few number of graduating dentists (about 4000/year) the earning potential has no where to go but up. That meens I can work less and spend more time with my kids.

 

[jav316]

thanks for your replies! it's very helpful, i'm still doing a lot of research into each now.