thinking of withdrawing my med school apps to apply for dental school next year

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peppy

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I am curious if anyone here switched out of medicine after taking it as far as I have. I've sent in all my secondary applications for med school, even have some interviews coming up, but yet I find myself coming back to the idea of forgetting medicine and trying to get into dental school next year!
For so long, I just had tunnel vision, focusing on getting INTO med school.
Now that I feel confident I WILL get an acceptance somewhere, I feel like the reality of just how long, hard, and stressful med school/residency/day-to-day practice as a physician can be is starting to sink in at last.
Yes, I know..."do what you love". Sure, medicine does interest me. However, I am a woman and want to have quality family time (that is, not having my future kids in daycare or with a nanny all the time) so lifestyle is an important consideration to me. I have already ruled out certain specialties like surgery because I KNOW that I'm not cut out for that sort of lifestyle...and yet it seems silly to spend all that time/effort gambling that I'll end up in a specialty with a decent lifestyle when dentistry almost guarantees the lifestyle.

I guess I'm also scared because more physicians seem to be regretful and disgruntled about their choice than dentists.
Sigh. I am not sure what to do.
Most of the "dental vs. med" threads here make dentistry sound pretty good.
Any downsides of dentistry that you think I should consider before doing anything drastic?
Is there anyone else out there who made the switch at this late stage?
If so, what did you do to make the transition easier?
I have no idea how I would come up with new letters of recommendation. I already used all the professors that know me halfway well for med school letters, and I know they wouldn't be happy if I came back to them now with "Oh, gee, I totally changed my mind on what profession to pursue, so can I have another letter?" just a few months later.

I did fairly well on the MCAT (>90%ile) but I don't think I could realistically prepare for the DAT in time to apply this year. But then again, maybe it's better to waste a year than to hate my life because I stuck to med school when I shouldn't have. :p Argh. I'm so confused.
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based on your statement, med or dent...youll get into either one...and you will be successful in both as well. but as a pre dent student.... i have to say the life of a dentist is a lot more flexible in terms of hours =). maybe you should talk it over with your family or significant other first...find out what they have to say. also if you got that kind of score in the mcat, the DAT will be no problem for you...just spend some time on the PAT.

good luck
 
There are people on here that have taken 1 or 2 years of Med school then dropped Med school and started dental school. So it's nothing new or unheard of, just a choice you have to make.

As far as downsides to dentistry, I am biased (since I love it so much), but I think it is a great profession from what I have seen so far. I am still excited to go to school almost everyday (since I work with patients 5 times a week now :D ). Of course school is still stressful, don't think you would be getting out of that part of it.

Also, there are some VERY RECENT threads asking basically the same thing, check them out, it may help you.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=147796

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=147451

Good luck!

grtuck
 
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I applied to med school in 2002, and even went on 3 interviews. Knew it wasn't for me...had tunnel vision, and decided to go with my true passion of dentistry. Haven't looked back once. Now I'm applying this cycle for dental school and I'm 100% certain I made the right choice. I'm so excited to get started -- but bummed I have to wait another year to matriculate!

I encourage you to continue with your med school applications but shadow a dentist in the meantime before withdrawing completely. You don't want to look back and have regrets.

By the way, the MCAT and DAT are slightly different but if you did well on the MCAT, you definitely have the ability to kick boo-tah on the DAT. I got a 33 on the MCAT (don't know the percentile for that) and 24 on the DAT, which is in the 99.8 percentile.
Good luck! PM if you have ?s.
 
If you're already feeling this way now, I say go for dental. I'm just started med school about 4 weeks ago and I'm having regrets. Now I'm stressing out about whether or not to withdraw, and if I do, whether or not I'll get into dental school. You might as well go ahead with your med school apps just in case you decide to go with med, but if you are having any doubts, better to pull out before you matriculate. I've taken a spot at my school that would be better suited for someone that really wants to be in med school.
 
Before committing to dental, it might be a good idea for you guys to shadow a few dentists for a few days and see what it involves. Yes, lifestyle and money is great, but living life feeling trapped by a job you hate is a very high price to pay.

You don't have to love dentistry with a passion, but you should at least like what it involves.

It's much better to go through life doing something that will give you a sense of fulfillment at the end of the day rather than one that makes you feel depressing entrapment.

Having to switch careers costs $$$ and lots of time, so be sure to get it right on the first go.

Just my $0.02..

HTH!
 
Thanks for the input, folks! I feel a little better knowing that there are people who changed their minds even after starting med school.
I am not 100% decided yet. There's still a part of me that is drawn to medicine. There's an idealistic part of me that wants to say, "Bring on the pain! It will all be worth it to get to save lives!".
But those are just brief flashes of idealism. I just don't know if I have it in me to suffer through med school only to suffer some more as an underpaid/overworked physician. I am not sure if I can make it all the way through residency without becoming disillusioned and bitter.
I THINK that what I'm going to do is continue with the med school apps, hold onto an acceptance if I get one, but also be preparing to take the DAT in like November or December. Then if I do well on the DAT, it shouldn't be a problem to drop the med acceptance next spring and proceed with applying to dental school for 2006, right? Will the dental schools look at it negatively if I have been accepted to a med school even if I turned the med school down in the end?

The only family I really have is my mother, and she loves the idea of me becoming a doctor. She has been the one who supported me through the years and financed all the MCAT prep/application fees/etc., so I sort of feel like going for dentistry now would be like letting her down. :( But then again, if I do become a dentist, I'll be able to start paying her back for all that she did for me sooner than if I was still stuck in residency six years from now. :)
My mentor in college really, really believed in me going to med school and really went all out on writing me a great letter of recommendation, so I know she'll be disappointed in my change of heart too. Even if she agrees to write another letter for me, she might think I'm being insincere or flaky by changing and write me a bad letter.
But, 20 years from now, I guess I don't want to be trapped in something I hate because I was afraid to do what I had to do now.
 
I say apply to dental school now. I submitted my AADSAS in October and got in, and I know people that submitted much later. At least if you decide dentistry is really for you the option will be open and you don't have to wait even longer.
 
i just finished my residency and i can tell you its a haul. nine years later. med school is brutal. I experienced self doubt, no forgiveness for anything, exam after exam constant hoop jumping. There is no flexibility. Maybe if you go into something like anesthesia or pathology or radiology there is some but any surgical subspecialty will be no flexibility for as long as you live. In med school they are making people jump through more hoops. For example there used to be just 3 steps to licensure. step 1 after your second year, step 2 after your 3rd year and step 3 after your internship. Now they added a clinical exam. you have to go to philly and pay 1500 dollars to interview patients and the mock patients give you a grade. What a waste of time and energy. I suspect that if i had known what i know now I would have chosen a more flexible and friendly profession. DOnt get me wrong I am not totally unhappy. I like what I do. But at the same time Im bitter and felt It was too high a price monetarily and emotionally to pay.

Now if you do like it, by all means go to medical school. However, if you have some doubt take some time into making this decision because the longer you sta in medschoool the more debt you are accruing. Furthermore, if you dont love it you wont get the best of grades. I had average grades i was not the top of my class.
I think you are doing the right thing talking it out on here getting different points of view from people who have been there.

there is also more government involvement in what you do as a physician so that will impact your life as well financially and politically.

good luck
 
I know I can only speak for the dental program I'm in and my deisre to do well here, but dental school is every bit as hard (or more so here) as about any medical program you'll find.

That said, though in the short run it may be tough, if you're in it wanting to practice general dentistry - not specialize - you won't have to kill yourself with being top of your class. And though it may be a tough few years, it definately lightens up towards the end... and much sooner than medicine with an accompnying residency, etc. Also it is great from a family perspective. We have several women who apply each year with the exact issue of not being away from kids all day in mind. I know a couple of women in practice now who went into dentistry with that as one of their main goals, and have not been disappointed at all.

It sounds like you may be able to be picky about where you choose to apply; that's fortunate for you. However, keep in mind that though schools still are accepting AADSAS apps this late in the process, many of the "top" programs (used very loosely and not intended to implicate any specific schools) have already extended many/most of their interview invitations for the coming year, so you would be at a bit of a disadvantage strictly from an odds perspective. But check it out. Look at the programs you might be interested in and see where they are at in the acceptance process. If it's not too late now and you sincerely feel dentistry is for you, do it! If not, waiting till next year isn't so bad in the long run if that's what you really want to do. Better to get it right late than wrong forever. Wish you well. And if you have UNC questions, PM grtuck. :)
 
i also didnt look into dental school until way...way late.
i planned to go into research until i actually started...you know..working in a nih lab and then figured out it wasn't for me.

to make a long story short...
....i "discovered" dentistry maybe in june..
(previously, i never even gave a casual glance towards dentistry in terms of a potential career)
i started visiting local dentists around that same time..."observed", liked what i saw and learned... and eventually started assisting for one of the docs...
i took the dat in mid september..submitted my application around the same time..(i think if u did well on the mcat...you will more than likely do very well on the dat)

iirc, i got my first interviews scheduled in december(?)...

so...
you would not be early....but u are not late if u decided to apply this cycle.
:)
 
toothcaries said:
i also didnt look into dental school until way...way late.
i planned to go into research until i actually started...you know..working in a nih lab and then figured out it wasn't for me.

to make a long story short...
....i "discovered" dentistry maybe in june..
(previously, i never even gave a casual glance towards dentistry in terms of a potential career)
i started visiting local dentists around that same time..."observered", liked what i saw and learned... and eventually started assisting for one of the docs...
i took the the dat in mid september..submitted my application around the same time..(i think if u did well on the mcat...you will more than likely do very well on the dat)

iirc, i got my first interviews scheduled in december(?)...

so...
you would not be early....but u are not late if u decided to apply this cycle.
:)
Click to expand...
This is me too. Everyone here has probably heard the story, but I took the DAT in October as a hoot in October (without bothering to study), submitted my AADSAS about a week before Christmas, only applied to one school, and interviewed in late February.

The moral of the story is, don't do it the way I did, but if I got in despite being a poster boy for how not to apply, hopefully other people can rest at least a little easier about a foible or two in their own application process. Good luck making your decision! (dentistry all the way :D)
 
I would apply now, but I haven't taken the DAT yet and don't have any letters of rec since they were all written with med school in mind. :( Ugh, I wish I had had this epiphany a few months sooner. Since it has been over a year since I took the MCAT I think I need to study again to refresh myself. How long do you think I can afford to take to study for the DAT and still have a decent shot at applying this year? Or should I just wait and see what happens next year?
Would it cause a problem if I was holding an acceptance for a med school while submitting my dental app?
 
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peppy said:
I would apply now, but I haven't taken the DAT yet and don't have any letters of rec since they were all written with med school in mind. :( Ugh, I wish I had had this epiphany a few months sooner. Since it has been over a year since I took the MCAT I think I need to study again to refresh myself. How long do you think I can afford to take to study for the DAT and still have a decent shot at applying this year? Or should I just wait and see what happens next year?
Would it cause a problem if I was holding an acceptance for a med school while submitting my dental app?
Click to expand...

buy a program called "topscore" ro something similar and find out your weak areas....it should give u a good feel for the dat.
i mainly focused on the perceptual stuff since my science background was still relatively strong...also the reading portion is NOTHING like the mcat (u could literally read the question..and then go back and find the answer in the passage)
i think i studied over the summer for the dat...

letters of rec...
just call up some dentists...tell them your story and ask to "observe"
...while there, maybe offer to do some "volunteer assisting".
ask the doc if they would be able to write a "strong lor" for you...
...generally new dentists and guys less than 10 years from retirement are best to call up.


jmo, but i think many dental schools are more "numbers based"...especially state schools.
...if your application is strong, u will get accepted somewhere.
interviews are basically to make sure that u can hold a conversation...

the tricky part will be you holding a medical school spot...and i don't know what i'd do..

u probably would want to be "safe"....but at the same time...you HAVE to be honest...or u will jeopardize your career in both medicine AND dentistry.
 
peppy said:
Ugh, I wish I had had this epiphany a few months sooner.
Click to expand...

At least you realized this before you got accepted and started med school. That complicates matters a whole lot more.
 
I switched gears the spring before the application process as well. I was afraid my family would think I was a flake, since I had wanted to be a pediatrician since high school. I was pleasantly surprised when I told them I might have changed my mind to dentistry... They understood. When you have your mind on something for so long, it's hard to realize most people switch careers several times over their life. Of course, after you put the time into professional school, its much more of a commitment, so don't tread into them lightly.

One of my friends in dental school with me applied to both medical and dental school, because at the time he wanted to be an oral surgeon. (He's now decided that general dentist is the way to go for him.) They will ask you in interviews why you are applying to both (if you end up doing that). You will have to answer that question for YOURSELF before in an interview. YOU knowing is much more important than the schools knowing. But, the interviewers will probably be able to tell if you haven't figured it out yourself.

Most dentists I shadowed before school were very happy with their profession. There was one, however, that even told me he hated dentistry. I had to ask myself what made the difference between the unhappy guy and everyone else. Because you don't want be doing anything that will make you miserable.

Application... Check with the AADSAS applications. Since you did so well on the MCAT you shouldn't need more than a steady month of review (plus learning the PAT) to do really well on the DAT. What would be wrong with asking professors for a second letter of rec? I can see how it will be hard with your mentor. But mentors should want to see what's best for you.

The biggest downsides I've found about dentistry so far (3rd year student)... at least 25% of patients are afraid of you or the needle.
You're working with fractions of a millimeter using a mirror inside someone's mouth, and it hard to be perfect, even though you want to. And if you mess up you may have to start over. (Need a lot of patience)

Fortunately, I am good at making people comfortable, and have loads of patientce. (I keep telling myself I do, anyway.) It's all how you handle it!

Just my seven cents. Good luck!
 
That old saying, "the grass is always greener..." comes to mind. But quite frankly, it is greener on this side. In fact, we've got a freakin' golf course over here. If you're looking for lush and verdant you've found it. :D

But keep in mind that dentistry is not for everybody. I think a lot of people tend to forget that dentistry is manual labor. Highly skilled and well-compensated manual labor, but manual labor nonetheless. Just be sure to do some shadowing to make sure it's something you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life.

I think you've gotten some good advice so far; if you did well on the MCAT you should be more than prepared for the DAT. No way you'll need a whole year. A few weeks tops.

Best of luck in whatever you decide. :)
 
Oh yeah, and if Kerry gets elected we all know physicians are gonna get the shaft. ;)
 
At risk of perpetuating the digression, I wouldn't be so certain we won't get up in that shafting alongside the physician. Consider it a consequence of our succesful campaign to legitimize ourselves as a branch of medicine. D'oh!
 
aphistis said:
At risk of perpetuating the digression, I wouldn't be so certain we won't get up in that shafting alongside the physician. Consider it a consequence of our succesful campaign to legitimize ourselves as a branch of medicine. D'oh!
Click to expand...

I agree, I assume you?re voting for Nader in Indiana then, right?
 
I agree, I assume you're voting for Nader in Indiana then, right?
Click to expand...
I haven't decided yet, and I figure it'll probably be late October before I finalize who my vote will go for (like it makes a difference in this state in any case ;))
 
jpollei said:
I know I can only speak for the dental program I'm in and my deisre to do well here, but dental school is every bit as hard (or more so here) as about any medical program you'll find.

That said, though in the short run it may be tough, if you're in it wanting to practice general dentistry - not specialize - you won't have to kill yourself with being top of your class. And though it may be a tough few years, it definately lightens up towards the end... and much sooner than medicine with an accompnying residency, etc. Also it is great from a family perspective. We have several women who apply each year with the exact issue of not being away from kids all day in mind. I know a couple of women in practice now who went into dentistry with that as one of their main goals, and have not been disappointed at all.

It sounds like you may be able to be picky about where you choose to apply; that's fortunate for you. However, keep in mind that though schools still are accepting AADSAS apps this late in the process, many of the "top" programs (used very loosely and not intended to implicate any specific schools) have already extended many/most of their interview invitations for the coming year, so you would be at a bit of a disadvantage strictly from an odds perspective. But check it out. Look at the programs you might be interested in and see where they are at in the acceptance process. If it's not too late now and you sincerely feel dentistry is for you, do it! If not, waiting till next year isn't so bad in the long run if that's what you really want to do. Better to get it right late than wrong forever. Wish you well. And if you have UNC questions, PM grtuck. :)
Click to expand...

What in the world are you talking about? I'm not in dental school, I just tell everyone I am, and it looks like Pollei finally fell for it :rolleyes:

I am actually a 2 year old computer genius, although I can't talk or eat properly, I can type like crazy on this computer.

Pollei, you are one crazy man.

grtuck
 
Yeah, we better not get off topic or the thread will be closed down.
 
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