Speaking of derms, since when is acne so great to look at every day? Plastics I can understand, but I will never understand why derms is so popular in this country. It is dead last when I rank my interests, and yet it is the hardest specialty to match into.
i also dont understand why it's so competitive. but if you compare it to something like oncology, i would much rather deal with acne than with people whom you cannot help(im not naive to think that cancer treatment does anything more than prolong suffering). this is not to say that dermatologists do not encounter cancer, but death is not the bread&butter of their profession. of course one would feel more proud of himself if he removed an appendix or fixed someone's knee than if he removed a wart but is it worth the terrible working hours? thats why i feel that the strongest competition to dentistry are anesthesiology or radiology. though med students still have 3years to change their views.
This keeps coming up in this thread. Just remember there are radiologists who are DOs too. Does a DO have more prestige than a DMD? Not sure, since Joe Average from the street would not likely be able to define either degree. If anything, the DMD sounds more "medical" and prestigious than the DO.
well, there is a reason that i am studying for mcat and not just taking it easy and going to a DO school... also, not many DO's are radiologists, perhaps if you end up as the #1 student in your DO class you've suffered enough? but the more simple answer is that people dont ask you if you are DO, MD, ph.d . they ask you what you do for a living.
Not to mention that some DMD/DDS professions are more prestigious than some MD/DO professions. For instance, which is more prestigious: being an oral surgeon or being a family doctor? A lot of people think being a "surgeon" is more prestigious than being a "doctor", and those surgeons have a DDS or DMD.
omfs, even without md is competitive and is a 4yr residency. if i apply to dental schools, my goal is to be a general dentist so i could have a job 4yrs from now.
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This all being said, what does prestige really matter in the long run? It might be important when you are pursuing your future wife, but even then your prospects have more to do with your looks, intellect, and charm than "what you're going to be when you grow up".
At the end of the day (or at the end of your life) prestige won't have mattered much to your life. What's going to matter is if you did what you enjoyed, and who you surrounded yourself with, and how your kids turned out.
