I am currently a first year Chemistry PhD student, however it is not a good fit for me and I now want to go to dental school. I am debating on should I straight off dropping out of grad school right now to focus on volunteer/shadow, DAT and undergrad upper biology classes which I lack a lot cause my degree was chemistry; or should I drop down to master program and finish that in 1 more year before I can actually preping for dental application (which would eventually cost me another year due to the applying cycle). Please any advice is appreciated. Also if anyone has any idea on how dental schools look upon one for leaving a PhD program to go to dental school? Would it be better if I ended up with a master instead of nothing? Thank you.
Quitting Phd program for Dental School or getting a Master first before doing that?
- Thread starter btd1908
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deleted859689
I left a Chemistry PhD program to pursue medicine. You need to wrap up any research projects you were assigned and earn the blessings of your PI in the form of a LOR. I took classes in a community college for psych and got my EMT certification while still going to all my grad school classes and presenting my weekly results every Friday. I also volunteered every Tuesday and would make up by working in lab on the weekends. One of my local labmates neighbor was the head of neurosurg at local university hospital and I was able to shadow him.
First thing is to sit down and form a plan - how is your GPA? Do you need more volunteering? Shadowing? Can you Master out? You need to talk to your PI about this. I sat down with all my post-docs and we discussed the job market in Chemistry and everyone told me to pursue medicine. Together we formulated a 2 year plan. And here I am now - accepted to a DO school, waiting to hear back from an MD school. Feel free to ask any questions.
First thing is to sit down and form a plan - how is your GPA? Do you need more volunteering? Shadowing? Can you Master out? You need to talk to your PI about this. I sat down with all my post-docs and we discussed the job market in Chemistry and everyone told me to pursue medicine. Together we formulated a 2 year plan. And here I am now - accepted to a DO school, waiting to hear back from an MD school. Feel free to ask any questions.
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In general, quitting a program is not a good idea. However, if you recognize that a grad program is “not a good fit”, cut your loses and settle for an MS, if it is an option.
Thank you for your reply. I don't know if I can manage all that like you did. My current GPA is 4.89 but I have not had any shadowing or biology classes that are needed for applying. I had some volunteer but not much. So I'll need to take the classes at a community college, shadow, volunteer at the same time with grad and lab workload. Seeing your post is really motivating me though, I just hope I dont end up spreading myself too thin.
I can master out but some of friends saying it's not worth it to spend another year to get a master, just go straight into applying for dental school , so I'm seeking other opinions on this. Can I ask when you talked to your PI, were you a PhD student and what year are you in?
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deleted859689
I was a PhD student. Research Assistant stipend with no TA duties. Full time in lab outside of classes. I completed 3 semesters of grad school (just a TA for one semester time period before matriculating into the program) with a first author publication and second author publication. I started all those extra things second semester in and juggled everything for about a year. I would say if you can master out, you should spend a year of beefing your application while completing your masters. I had publications and left without my masters - i think I had 1 semester of classes left, but would still have to write and defend a thesis for the masters. Well given my publications I think that would have been doable, but I was in a rush to get out. If you have no tangible research results, perhaps a masters might cause too much stress. I talked to my PI about the idea of going to medical school 2nd semester - he wanted me to go PhD then MD, but given my good work in lab he was totally fine letting me go with his blessings.
