Picking Between Dent and Med: Need Help

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memkim

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Hi guys - so I applied to dental school this past year for Fall 2014 and had been rethinking my decision and think medicine may be a better fit for me. The only issue I'm running into is taking the MCAT's and what to do with an extra gap year since I would have to wait for next year's cycle to apply for med school. I wanted to hear from those of you who are currently in medical school or have already finished - what do you think were the most effective ways to study for your mcat's and I guess if you could do it all over again would taking an extra year off be worth it? Has anyone else been in this situation of having to decide between the two and how did you handle your decision? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much guys!
 
There are things outside of med/dent FYI

I never had to choose between the two. I just chose med.
 
You don't usually have to pick between the two.. One should legit stand out and slap you in the face because if you really wanted it, this wouldn't be a problem.
 
Have you shadowed either at all?

And there's srsly tons of MCAT advice in the MCAT forum. Knock yourself out then ask specific questions there.
 
You don't usually have to pick between the two.. One should legit stand out and slap you in the face because if you really wanted it, this wouldn't be a problem.


when you wrote "One should legit".. I thought you were referring to med vs. dent school so I pictured a med or dent school building slapping OP in the face.
 
Dude, if you went as far as getting accepted or you eventually get accepted later on this spring, just go to dental school man.

IMO dentistry is a pretty sweet profession, if you don't mind working in peoples mouths and especially if your business oriented.

What attracted me to dentistry at first (way back), was that its mainly a procedure based profession, which fits my personality. And the thought of operating in peoples mouths for the rest of my career didn't bother me.

I chose medical school over dental because as of now, I have a strong interest in surgery. This may change as I progress through med school but at least I'll have that option. Plus, choosing the med school route will allow me to explore a wider range of surgical specialties that I may prefer over dentistry later on, such as vascular surg, colo-rectal surg, CT, ortho, uro, ENT... you get the point. heck, i may even choose to go into EM or FM. Medical school just gives you more options.

Even if your not the surgery type, there are still a plethora of specialties to choose from if you go the med school route.

If you choose dentistry, your locked-in on one particular part of the body at a really early stage of your education, which to me, is pre-mature.

But, if I was in your position, with a dental school acceptance in hand?! I would just go ahead with dentistry and master my craft.
 
If you're truly on the fence (i.e., not even slightly biased one way or the other), go with the easier option. That would be dental school.
 
You don't usually have to pick between the two.. One should legit stand out and slap you in the face because if you really wanted it, this wouldn't be a problem.
That isn't necessarily true. OP could really want to do both professions which is why he is confused. As someone who is passionate about both medicine and research, if I was forced to choose between one or the other I wouldn't know what to pick. Lucky for me I can choose both, in OP's case that's not really an option.
 
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