stuck between

[Undecided94]

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Hello,

I am a little embarrassed to admit on this board that I am having a really hard time accepting that I am really going to have to take the DAT next year. It makes it official. I feel like this is moving too fast & I am not 110% sure that I want to be a dentist.

I actually wanted to be an engineer but I am scared about job security. I see that some engineers switch over to medicine. My family disapproves of engineering and they told me that I would fall in love with dentistry if I tried. I absolutely love math but the other sciences aren't all that special to me.

I don't even know what my question is. Should I continue taking pre-med courses and then maybe i'll 'fall in love' with it or should I just forget about it for now?

 

[redhead512]

Honey, do what you love.

Sure, you may fall in love with dentistry. I won't tell you to quit something that has a possibility to make you really happy, but I think you already made your decision when you posted this question.

Don't do something just because of job security. I can tell you right now that if you go into something that you don't love you still won't love it in fifty years and you most definately will not want to go to work. Is that the kind of life you want to live?

Good luck. I hope you make the right decision for yourself.

 

[Undecided94]

Thanks a lot redhead

I don't want to quit pursuing dentistry all together because I may actually end up loving it. I don't want to end up miserable but I also don't want to wonder what if? I was hoping to hear that maybe switching over is a good/bad idea. I guess this is something that I have to think about on my own.

 

[redhead512]

Ha, yeah. Sorry i'm not much help for that direction.

 

[the duck]

Um, why is this thread in hSDN?😕

 

[GoodmanBrown]

If you are in high school, you have lots of years to decide. If you're in college, you still have lots of years to decide. I'm 29 and just starting med school. Dentistry has even fewer years of post-college education (unless you specialize), so you're fine.

My recommendation is to take both engineering classes and pre-dent classes. You can be an engineering major and probably fit most of your pre-dent classes in, since there aren't that many. Do what you're interested in, not what the family wants.

I suppose it gets more complicated if your family is threatening to cut off support that you need to stay in school. But I don't see that in your post, so I'll assume it's not the case.

Keep your options open and try not to stress about it.

 

[Richardh]

having some volunteer experience in the field of dentistry and also the field of engineering might help 🙂 the classes or the course loads that you need to take while in school in order to enter the field are really different compared to reality when you're asked to work in the field 😀 so go out and find a volunteer or internship position and experience it! also as suggested in the previous post, i think you can still take classes that are prereqs for both fields 👍 but the important thing is to enter a career that you enjoy the most!

 

[swamprat]

DAT in h.s. ?

 

[Undecided94]

Thanks for the advice. I suppose that shadowing is one of the most important things I can do. Maybe Dentistry would be perfect for me. Everyone says that I have a lot of time but, I don't understand why. I should know what I want to do but I don't. Maybe one of those 'career test' wouldn't hurt.

This thread is in h.sdn because I am in High School. I'm a dual enrollment student and the only problem I have with that is things are moving a little bit too fast. I'll have my AA in a few weeks and I haven't even been to prom yet.

 

[Richardh]

good luck undecided94 🙂

 

[Undecided94]

thanks a lot Richardh