Is it really that bad if the main reason im going into dentistry is because of the money? I mean the average salary here in wisconsin is $185000 so that is pertty good. Thats more than an engineer or a doctor or a nurse. I believe it is a very easy job that requires little physical work because i do landscaping during the summer, and that is about as hard as it gets. yes it could be easier to make more money faster in the buisiness world, but it is way more competitive. My best friends dad is Senior vice president in sales at AIG mutual funds and he easily make seven figures, but not all of us can be that privlaged to do that. Whereas, a dentist can open up his/her own practice and can make running it has hard as they want. I figure getting a business degree will be helpful for me because after graduation; i can either go two routes: business or dentist. When that time comes we will see what happens.
Here's the scoop. If you really want to make money (like crazy, rockstar money), you'll need to be an investment banker or win powerball. I worked at one of the top tier private equity firms in the world after graduation for a while before deciding to go back to school to become a dentist, but while I was there I had access to some of the financial information of middle/higher/top management. The market and the deals invested in dictated the success of the company, but let me tell you that it was not unusual to see distributions of $20-150k on average going out
monthly to people in the 30-40yr old range. Of course, you need to know how to do your job to pull this kind of loot.
The path to this consists of going to a top university and doing quite well. Before you graduate (junior year usually), look into doing an "internship" with a major bank (e.g. Credit Suisse) then work for that bank for a couple years before going to Harvard, Wharton (Penn), or some other top business school. After that, all you need to do is get a job with one of the top private equity firms in the right sector (probably infrastructure in the next few years) and you'll make more 30x more than an oral surgeon.
It's a way to make the most money without being in entertainment. If you're interested in money primarily, this would probably be your best bet since you would most likely be able to springboard this into something else (upper corporate management, fund management, et cetera).
-This is for all the future money-lovers. I know this post is a dinosaur, but hey, in a day or so, it'll be on page 3 or 4 (lost to the world).-