Quit dental school after 2 weeks- what now?

[DDS9994]

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I can’t tell my sister this because I would react the same way if my kids told me that they don’t want to be a doctor or dentist. IMO, having a BS/BA degree is not enough in this competitive world. I guess we are “spoiled” being our own boss…being financially independent. It would break our heart to see our kids having to work underneath someone else….struggling to find jobs….worrying about getting laid off.

As parents, we always want our kids to be better than us....more successful than us.

Hmmm, I am not so sure about that Charles that " BA/BS is not good enough anymore", and in the right fields it doesnt preclude you from being your own boss. Lots of people with BA/BS making alot of money out there, if you are an MD most likely you will not be your own boss, but working for someone else and even specialist are not immune from not being able to find jobs especially in saturated areas. Your kids can still ne more successful than you even with just BA/BS, but you also have to define what " success" means to you, is it amount of time in school or is it amount of income earned.

 

[charlestweed]

Hmmm, I am not so sure about that Charles that " BA/BS is not good enough anymore", and in the right fields it doesnt preclude you from being your own boss. Lots of people with BA/BS making alot of money out there, if you are an MD most likely you will not be your own boss, but working for someone else and even specialist are not immune from not being able to find jobs especially in saturated areas. Your kids can still ne more successful than you even with just BA/BS, but you also have to define what " success" means to you, is it amount of time in school or is it amount of income earned.

It’s true that one can be successful in any field…engineering, plumbing, real estates etc. But to beat the dentist’s or doctor’s income, you have to be exceptionally good because there are too many engineers out there…at least 80k of them graduate each year. For dentistry and medicine, you can just be an average dentist (like my sister, my wife, and me) or an average MD doctor (like my sister’s husband) and you still make a lot of money. One major advantage that my niece has over other kids is she would have zero student loan and a medical practice waiting for her if she chose medicine.

My sister’s older son is currently a 3rd year student at a BS/MD program. So it’s not too bad. The thing is her older son had slightly worse academic stats in HS than her daughter. And that’s why she was sad.

 

[LFA20]

I don’t think I can breathe if the OP was my son/daughter. My sister had been depressed for the whole month when her straight A daughter, who scored 1520 on the SAT, told her that she didn’t want to be a pre-med anymore and wanted to switch to mechanical engineering.

LOL is this for real. azn parents are too much... The more you push your kids to do something the more they are going to rebel.

 

[charlestweed]

LOL is this for real. azn parents are too much... The more you push your kids to do something the more they are going to rebel.

Lol. I wish I have the power to make my kids to do whatever I want. But I don't. They have a mind of their own, especially teenagers. Making them brush their own teeth twice a day is already a challenge. Do You think I can easily make them choose the career that I want? You are wrong. Wait until you have kids of your own and you shall see.I am afraid of them more than they are afraid of me. Lol.

 

[DocStranger]

I mean this respectfully, but if your sister is depressed that her " straight A daughter, who got a 1520 on SAT, and now wants to be a mechanical engineer", you need to tell her to get a grip, there is alot of things kids do to make parents depressed, this aint one of em.

Expectations were already set very high from the beginning. Of course any parent has the right to be upset and for whatever reason it took that long, we’re all human. Maybe there were other factors playing an external role in her depression where it all kept piling up. Just hope she healed and was able to move on.

 

[MedSnow]

Jesus man i hope you haven’t quit yet. My first 2 months of dental school was even worse than you. Almost failed anatomy exams where most other got A; got a 56% on first dental anatomy exam; yes, fire hose and ****; yes, thinking about quitting and doing hygiene school instead like 20 times a day ; felt like a dump kid all the time; my waxings and preps are neither best or worst. Guess what, after that I adapted and got Bs and As on a lot less effort; travel and party pretty much very and I killed every single exam. Now i’m halfway of my 3rd year and i’m killing it in clinic although sometimes i made stupid mistakes. Grit man, grit!!!

 

[Biodentist]

It’s true that one can be successful in any field…engineering, plumbing, real estates etc. But to beat the dentist’s or doctor’s income, you have to be exceptionally good because there are too many engineers out there…at least 80k of them graduate each year. For dentistry and medicine, you can just be an average dentist (like my sister, my wife, and me) or an average MD doctor (like my sister’s husband) and you still make a lot of money. One major advantage that my niece has over other kids is she would have zero student loan and a medical practice waiting for her if she chose medicine.

My sister’s older son is currently a 3rd year student at a BS/MD program. So it’s not too bad. The thing is her older son had slightly worse academic stats in HS than her daughter. And that’s why she was sad.

This guy gets it. My dad is a brillaint engineer with approximately 20 patents to his name, PhD in mechanical, worked at NASA jet propulsion lab, designed a helicopter transmission, the whole 9 yards. But to this day he tells me he regrets not going into a medical-related field because his compensation isn't as much as it should be. He's still well off but for the amount of blood, sweat and tears he puts into his work (designing helicopter transmissions from scratch is not easy), some GP owning an office doing MOs, dentures, crowns, and such makes about 1.5x-2x what he does.

I just got off the phone with him today and he told me how happy he was I chose to go into dentistry and not engineering because my starting salary will basically be his career end salary. Most of the jobs you get with a BA/BS degree you're pretty disposable, treated like an absolute runt, and have to fight your way up the corporate ladder with no guarantees of anything. And as a PhD, you're not compensated well because most people don't want to pay you what you actually deserve, so you have to settle. But in any medically related field, as long as you're licensed you are guaranteed a relatively substantial salary.

 

[shotgunlagoon]

On the other hand, my younger brother who is about to finish his bachelor's in computer science has already accepted an offer for over $200k annually plus like $50-60k signing bonus... He's going to be buying himself a Ferrari before I start making anywhere near that.

 

[NYDentalgirl]

I have to be REAL with you just because you are still young and you can still change your mindset. What made you think it was okay to drop out after 2 weeks?! Like seriously? You didn't learn a single thing about dentistry in that span. Loan or no loan, you committed to dental school so you should have AT LEAST tried it out for 1 semester. It would have been fine to decide to drop out after 1 semester but 2 WEEKS?! Quitting like that is NEVER okay with any profession or anything in life. Life is not fair so you just gotta man the F up. I don't mean to be so harsh but you really need to understand how adult life works. I hope you learn from this and never do this again.

You took the words out of my mouth @BeggarsCantBeChoosers . I agree with at least seeing how things are for one semester, especially since it's most likely already paid for with loans. You really sold yourself short @GokuxGON. This could have been your chance to 1) learn more about yourself 2) learn how professional health schools operate. If you gave it 1-2 semesters, you could've had a better reason for why you don't like dentistry. This was your chance to learn how to "grow some" and how to become more mature. Two weeks makes you look like a quitter and you will likely have to explain that for future admissions committees.

I personally have struggled throughout my entire time in dental school. I've failed so many exams, even failed classes and the boards. I thought I was going to get kicked out of dental school because the academic dean knew who I was. But now, I'm about to be done and graduate. I've come out stronger, my faculty are impressed and know me because of my clinical knowledge and skills. I was never great at "book learning" but I loved the hands-on aspect of dentistry/healthcare. "There is no success without failure."

 

[Faefly]

On the other hand, my younger brother who is about to finish his bachelor's in computer science has already accepted an offer for over $200k annually plus like $50-60k signing bonus... He's going to be buying himself a Ferrari before I start making anywhere near that.

Good for him, not everyone can study computer science or even survive a course .. It requires people of high intelligence and have passion toward programming and computers in general. Just because someone was able to get As in a bio major memorizing stuff and scored high on the DAT, doesn't mean they can survive a semester in computer science.

Also, companies now outsource people from countries in Asia to work for them, because that's cheaper.

 

[yappy]

Maybe for intro bio courses, but all the successful premed/dent students at my undergrad did just as well, or usually better, than the engineering students in quantitative subjects like math, chemistry or physics. DAT is almost a proxy for an IQ test since you’re competing against other college educated people and your score is reported as a percentile.
I think if someone is successful in getting a high GPA throughout their premed/dent undergraduate curriculum, and does well on the dat, they could manage computer science.

“Survive a semester ” lol

Good for him, not everyone can study computer science or even survive a course .. It requires people of high intelligence and have passion toward programming and computers in general. Just because someone was able to get As in a bio major memorizing stuff and scored high on the DAT, doesn't mean they can survive a semester in computer science.

 

[GokuxGON]

Update: I started working as a medical assistant right after I dropped out,
became a middle school science teacher and been working as one since February, and I just got accepted into PA school this week 🙂

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Update: I started working as a medical assistant right after I dropped out, became a middle school science teacher and been working as one since February, and I just got accepted into PA school this week 🙂

Good luck!