Which is easier: Law or Dental

[ohhssi]

I was just looking at the pre-law forum for my bf. My bf is applying to law school and he asked me to help him find where to apply. I came across this thread.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=63809

Really? Is getting into dental school easier than getting into law school? i worked my ass off to get into my top choice.

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[Waitlisted2009]

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[Blarelli]

Getting into a top law school seems a lot more competitive than getting into a top dental school, but there are almost 200 law schools in the US alone (one of the biggest reasons the country is going to hell). Most of them have similar or lower GPA stats compared to folks getting into dental school.

 

[Svart Aske]

Someone educate me: what, exactly, in law requires the 'several standard deviations above mean' intellect that some of those people are touting?

 

[MichaelVicksDog]

Getting into a top law school seems a lot more competitive than getting into a top dental school, but there are almost 200 law schools in the US alone (one of the biggest reasons the country is going to hell). Most of them have similar or lower GPA stats compared to folks getting into dental school.

This guy knows what he's talking about

 

[Black Teeth]

I was just looking at the pre-law forum for my bf. My bf is applying to law school and he asked me to help him find where to apply. I came across this thread.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=63809

Really? Is getting into dental school easier than getting into law school? i worked my ass off to get into my top choice.

Having attended both law school and dental school, I believe that getting accepted into law school is much easier than getting accepted into dental school. Even if you get average or slightly below average LSAT scores (152 or lower), there are several law schools where you still have a good chance of gaining acceptance. Average or below average DAT scores (17 and 16s across the board) is less likely to give you the same chances of acceptance into dental school. But once accepted, the level of difficulty of law school is 10 times greater than dental school in my opinion. As difficult as dental school was, it was a lot easier for me than law school.

 

[yayforcoffee]

i'm pretty sure the conception of dentists will be radically different by the time we retire. people are stupid, they validate their career goals by dishing on others.

 

[a1pha]

The interview factor for dental school makes it hard to compare the two but in general, its WAY harder to get into a top law school than it is to get into one of the most statistically competitive dental schools. That said, it's WAY easier to get into A law school and for good reason. Obviously, a dentist from the lowest statistical school in the country has all the opportunity to make more than a dentist from the highest, but success in law is completely relative to where you go to school. Who wants to fork out the money, spend 3 years in school, hate your life to pass the bar, and then make $40k/year graduating from a tier 4 law school? Well...quite a few people apparently. Here are some fun little graphs from the predents-law equivalent.


#1 ranked Yale... about every acceptance there is 99% percentile or 3.9+
http://yale.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/?whichCycle=0809

#who cares ranked Widener? where a pulse gets you acceptance
http://widener.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/?whichCycle=0809

 

[Black Teeth]

its WAY harder to get into a top law school than it is to get into one of the most statistically competitive dental schools. That said, it's WAY easier to get into A law school and for good reason.

Also very true in my opinion.

 

[cobalt31]

But once accepted, the level of difficulty of law school is 10 times greater than dental school in my opinion. As difficult as dental school was, it was a lot easier for me than law school.

interesting! i wonder why law school is so terrible. all my friends in law school complain all the time and i thought they were just being babies. maybe it really is as difficult as they say.

some of it may have to do with your style, though. i know i'd probably fail out of law school because i can't imagine anything less appealing that reading/writing/arguing about law all day, every day.

 

[achilles2]

Getting into Harvard for dental requires a near 23 DAT score (thats 98+%ile) and a 3.85+GPA (according to predents)

Getting into Columbia requires a 22+ DAT score that 96+%ile


Getting into an elite dental school isn't significantly easier then getting into law school in general. With the exception of perhaps the top 5 or so law schools (Like Harvard and such). This is due to number of applicants (since there are so many prelaw students) X amount of seats vs Y amount of students its simple math.

If people applying to law school raped and pillaged the LSAT then getting into law school wouldn't be a big deal. Its not pre-dents fault they can't score into the upper 90th %iles.

 

[hellonurse]

Getting into Harvard for dental requires a near 23 DAT score (thats 98+%ile) and a 3.85+GPA (according to predents)

Getting into Columbia requires a 22+ DAT score that 96+%ile


Getting into an elite dental school isn't significantly easier then getting into law school in general. With the exception of perhaps the top 5 or so law schools (Like Harvard and such). This is due to number of applicants (since there are so many prelaw students) X amount of seats vs Y amount of students its simple math.

If people applying to law school raped and pillaged the LSAT then getting into law school wouldn't be a big deal. Its not pre-dents fault they can't score into the upper 90th %iles.

Also, people with 3.9999999 in a political science/english/history degrees get into Harvard Law as the majority. A vast majority of pre-dental students take the notoriously hardest classes because of the required pre-reqs..organic chemistry, biochemistry. We can debate the opinion that a biochem class is/isn't harder than a history class until we are blue in the face. But in my opinion, a 4.0 with a biology/chemistry degree is a hell of a lot harder than a 4.0 in an english/political science/history degree ANY DAY!

 

[NyCzPeter]

Also, people with 3.9999999 in a political science/english/history degrees get into Harvard Law as the majority. A vast majority of pre-dental students take the notoriously hardest classes because of the required pre-reqs..organic chemistry, biochemistry. We can debate the opinion that a biochem class is/isn't harder than a history class until we are blue in the face. But in my opinion, a 4.0 with a biology/chemistry degree is a hell of a lot harder than a 4.0 in an english/political science/history degree ANY DAY!

lol seriously? Give me a break, bio/chem/anat material is so straight forward with a bit of problem solving. Anything with atleast some intelligence can get the right answer with adequate time and effort. However, english/p.s/history/philosophy deals with highly abstract topics, and people spend a lifetime on questions that they can never fully answer. I bet we can train monkeys to memorize facts and plug numbers into formulas to get that one right answer. But when it comes to questions like "if and how do human beings have dignity?" its not so easy.

As a humanities major with more than enough science courses under my belt, I can tell you that biochem was a complete joke compared to the works of people like Hegel, Heidegger, or Derrida.

 

[hellonurse]

lol seriously? Give me a break, bio/chem/anat material is so straight forward with a bit of problem solving. Anything with atleast some intelligence can get the right answer with adequate time and effort. However, english/p.s/history/philosophy deals with highly abstract topics, and people spend a lifetime on questions that they can never fully answer. I bet we can train monkeys to memorize facts and plug numbers into formulas to get that one right answer. But when it comes to questions like "if and how do human beings have dignity?" its not so easy.

As a humanities major with more than enough science courses under my belt, I can tell you that biochem was a complete joke compared to the works of people like Hegel, Heidegger, or Derrida.

There are so points that I could debate. I really do not have the time and I'm not going to debate it. It's my opinion and I stand by it. Nether of us is right or wrong, but those applying to law school generally have easier majors. Your major is not the only possible major for a pre-law. BUT many pre-dents HAVE to take the same NOTORIOUSLY difficult classes.

 

[dr bojangles]

my gf is in law school, as well as some friends and cousins. its MUCH harder to get into a top law school vs. A dental school. this is mainly because, as said before, there are so MANY more law schools, and no interview process (that could be good or bad i guess).
that being said, where you go to law school (the name) carries a larger weight after graduation vs. dental schools. firms and clerkships look for school name and experience, from what i've heard.

 

[NyCzPeter]

Not going to debate it. It's my opinion and I stand by it.

And without facts or supporting evidence to back that up, your opinion is as worthless as an expired coupon. You can blindly stand by any opinion your heart desires, but just don't expect anyone to find you very convincing.

 

[NyCzPeter]

my gf is in law school, as well as some friends and cousins. its MUCH harder to get into a top law school vs. A dental school. this is mainly because, as said before, there are so MANY more law schools, and no interview process (that could be good or bad i guess).
that being said, where you go to law school (the name) carries a larger weight after graduation vs. dental schools. firms and clerkships look for school name and experience, from what i've heard.

Yea man. I considered applying for law school at one point, and all they seem to care about is their national rankings, and because of that, law schools are all number ******. Hence the lack of an interview. So its very hard for someone with a subpar GPA and/or Lsat to get accepted into the top ten or twenty even with stellar recs/ecs/p.s. Whereas for dental school, there is more than enough opportunity to make up for low gpa/dat scores with time and dedication.

 

[hellonurse]

And without facts or supporting evidence to back that up, your opinion is as worthless as an expired coupon. You can blindly stand by any opinion your heart desires, but just don't expect anyone to find you very convincing.

Not blindly, I really don't like debating over the internet. I am not angry and have nothing against you or your degree. Just because I don't want to have an hour long debate with you does not mean that I don't have good points. I honestly do not think that we will get anywhere because you said things like, "monkey can plug in numbers"..you are not my kind of person and I do not feel like wasting my time with you. Thanks though.

 

[achilles2]

lol seriously? Give me a break, bio/chem/anat material is so straight forward with a bit of problem solving. Anything with atleast some intelligence can get the right answer with adequate time and effort. However, english/p.s/history/philosophy deals with highly abstract topics, and people spend a lifetime on questions that they can never fully answer. I bet we can train monkeys to memorize facts and plug numbers into formulas to get that one right answer. But when it comes to questions like "if and how do human beings have dignity?" its not so easy.

As a humanities major with more than enough science courses under my belt, I can tell you that biochem was a complete joke compared to the works of people like Hegel, Heidegger, or Derrida.

yeah because philosophy test is harder thena molecular biology one

Go check the class average in philosophy vs organic chemistry.


BSing 101 lulz


Of course we all know you got a 30 on the DAT in orgo, chem, and bio since the sciences are such a joke

 

[hellonurse]

yeah because philosophy test is harder thena molecular biology one

Go check the class average in philosophy vs organic chemistry.


BSing 101 lulz


Of course we all know you got a 30 on the DAT in orgo, chem, and bio since the sciences are such a joke

One good point of many.

 

[Waitlisted2009]

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[USCbiograd]

Lets be realistic, Dental School is way harder to get accepted to than Law School. One of the reasons being that the undergraduate curriculum of Pre-Dents is much more difficult than that of Pre-Law (usually humanities). It is much easier to maintain a 3.6 when your major is underwater basket weaving. Law schools generally accept over 50% of their applicants, but only about 25% accually accept the offer. As far as the work load goes, Law school is only 3 years long and you get summers off. In Dental school you have to pass boards while in school plus take a comprehensive board (comparable to the BAR: except clinical) after it is all said and done. I know people that have had GPA's too low for Med./Dental School but had no problem getting accepted to Law School.

 

[hellonurse]

PAT:21
QR: 19
RC: 18
BIO:19
GEN:21
ORG:19
TS: 20
AA: 19

HA the Sciences are a complete joke huh... Hows that RC also?

Those scores don't make any sense at all. They are fine scores for someone that is humble and understands they have much more to learn but displayed an above average understanding of the material. They are awful scores for someone like NYC that boasts a higher intelligence due to an incredibly challenging humanities major. Dude..really?

 

[achilles2]

PAT:21
QR: 19
RC: 18
BIO:19
GEN:21
ORG:19
TS: 20
AA: 19

HA the Sciences are a complete joke huh... Hows that RC also?

Those scores don't make any sense at all. They are fine scores for someone that is humble and understands they have much more to learn but displayed an above average understanding of the material. They are awful scores for someone like NYC that boasts a higher intelligence due to an incredibly challenging humanities major. Dude..really?

lol

 

[xhamburgersamx]

practically every doctorate level program >>> law school. Most laws school don't even require interviews and some schools have average GPAs of less than 3.0

 

[Svart Aske]

Time to break up this silly intellectual rivalry. As a humanities major/minor who has taken a number of upper level biology courses I'll say this:

I find the material presented by subjects like history and philosophy generally easier than science, mainly because that's where my intellectual curiosity lies. But it's not necessarily easier to get A's in one area as opposed to another. The two require different kinds of smarts. Just because you can pick up complex biochemical mechanisms without effort doesn't mean that you can write a 20-page, uniformly good paper on some obscure topic. Likewise, there are obviously brilliant thinkers and writers who get queasy at the thought of learning chemistry. I am a more critical thinker and better writer because of the humanities education that I have had, and science has greatly increased my admiration for nature.

By the way, when those non-science major friends of yours slack off or tell you how little work they have, chances are they get subpar grades and are not very good students to begin with. The notion that non-science classes are for slackers motivates this kind of behavior.

A discussion like this usually wades into the realm of speculation, since the quality of the departments and difficulty of the instructors are unknown to us.

A 4.0 GPA in biology doesn't really impress me more than a 4.0 in history. Yes, it probably shows that the biology major worked his rear-end off, but I still can't tell who is smarter. A 4.0 in biomedical engineering might be a different story though...

 

[rjm546]

NyCzPeter you're such a tool, what a small angry man you are!

 

[britesmile123]

wow, nyczpeter. it's people like you that give dentistry a bad name. perhaps you should concentrate your anger into doing something worthwhile, like stepping away from the computer and posting 5000 messages on sdn to utilize your humanities degree to interact with REAL people FACE-TO-FACE... but i guess you enjoy hiding behind the blue light of your computer screen. good luck in dental school, and hopefully you never work on me or anyone i care about...i would hate to see what happens to those hands when you get angry.

 

[nydds25]

NyCzPeter you're such a tool, what a small angry man you are!

damn right!

 

[Frederico Albin]

 

[glk2101]

wow, nyczpeter. it's people like you that give dentistry a bad name. perhaps you should concentrate your anger into doing something worthwhile, like stepping away from the computer and posting 5000 messages on sdn to utilize your humanities degree to interact with REAL people FACE-TO-FACE... but i guess you enjoy hiding behind the blue light of your computer screen. good luck in dental school, and hopefully you never work on me or anyone i care about...i would hate to see what happens to those hands when you get angry.

not only is he a huge tool, but he will not hesitate to bash any ivy league school that he couldnt get an interview too..he also loves to throw out philosophical bull**** to attack whatever you say that he disagrees with
i took plenty of philosophy classes at an ivy school and they were a joke compared to any science class..i guess st johns is in a league of its own?

 

[BaylorDDS]

Obviously the average dental school is harder to get into than the average law school. But once your in which do you think is harder to complete?

 

[doc toothache]

A little dated but probably no drastic changes.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=408351

 

[thethethe]

does it matter which one is harder to get into?

I just want to add though, a dentist might have a maximum ceiling salary of a million dollars but an attorney might be able to make 20 million a year or more.
But on average, I think the average dentist does have a higher salary than the average law school graduate.

BTW are those NYCPeter's scores?

haha those scores aren't that great. but he got into his dream school so its all good.

 

[xhamburgersamx]

A typical question in philosophy: What is life?"

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

 

[jay47]

PAT:21
QR: 19
RC: 18
BIO:19
GEN:21
ORG:19
TS: 20
AA: 19

HA the Sciences are a complete joke huh... Hows that RC also?

I guess this as about as good as "hard concrete evidence" gets....

 

[jay47]

The fact of the matter is, Law schools are number ******. If you get a 172 plus on the LSAT, you are going to Law school somewhere, guaranteed. It doesn't really matter if your GPA is 3.0 or 2.5, LSAT is king in law land.

On the other hand, GPA plays a significant, if not bigger role than standardized tests (DAT) for dental school admissions. Plus, there is the interview, but any good lawyer should be able to communicate effectively and persuasively anyways. Maybe because that is what they are going to be doing the rest of their lives!

As far as the difficulty during the schools, I think we have to trust BlackTeeth on this one. He may be the only one here who has the experience to know the difference.

I can truly see law school as being very difficult, especially after having to read hundreds of pages of landmark and benchmark cases, knowing the nuances of each of these, and then applying them to current law standards and practices.

Plus, reading about law, any kind of law, would seem immeasurably more boring than science. That's a personal choice though.

 

[doc3232]

Everyone chill off Nyczpeter...
Each school is different. Maybe his biochem class was easy at his school.

I bet dental school and law are close in terms of difficulty.

EDIT: BlackTeeth is probably the most knowledgeable person here to answer this question for you.

 

[hellonurse]

Everyone chill off Nyczpeter...
Each school is different. Maybe his biochem class was easy at his school.

I bet dental school and law are close in terms of difficulty.

If his biochem class was so easy, you would think that once he saw his DAT scores he realized that his classes were too easy and perhaps..just maybe, he's not as smart as he thinks he is.

 

[Black Teeth]

interesting! i wonder why law school is so terrible. all my friends in law school complain all the time and i thought they were just being babies. maybe it really is as difficult as they say.

some of it may have to do with your style, though. i know i'd probably fail out of law school because i can't imagine anything less appealing that reading/writing/arguing about law all day, every day.

Both law school and dental school are difficult but they are difficult in different ways. Dental school is hard because of the sheer volume of classes you have to take. Most of my dental school classmates always complained about how many classes they had to take. None of them ever complained about the difficulty of the subject matter itself. After all, why should they? They had all seen it before. Biochemistry is biochemistry, regardless of whether it was taught at the dental school level or the undergraduate level. So the subject matter taught in dental school should not be challenging for any dental student because everyone should already be well familiar with anatomy, biochemistry, immunology, etc. Law students have a lighter courseload but the subject matter itself is 10 times more difficult than science in my opinion. Very few courses in undergrad will prepare you for the style of flexible thinking required in law school. Instead of complaining about the courseload, you'll often find law students complaining about the challenging nature of the subject matter. A law student could spend hours brainstorming over a single legal problem and still not come up with a good legal solution. Furthermore, lawyers are taught to creatively "think outside the box" whereas dentists are taught to think based on rules. That's one of the hardest lessons for me to learn while I was in law school. It was hard to learn to let go of the rules and formulas that I was accustomed to and learn to think in a free form manner. The best analogy I can make is that the law is similar to a chess match of argument and counter-argument whereas dentistry is similar to solving a jigsaw puzzle where you take the pieces you are given (i.e. symptoms) and attempt to piece together an overall picture (i.e. diagnosis). For a jigsaw puzzle, once a few pieces fall into a place, the subsequent pieces become easier to place whereas in chess, every move creates and adds new problems to the situation. I don't know about anyone else but I find chess to be much more challenging than solving a jigsaw puzzle. That's just an opinion of a dentist who didn't enjoy law school as much as dental school

 

[tinman831]

where you go to law school (the name) carries a larger weight after graduation vs. dental schools. firms and clerkships look for school name and experience, from what i've heard.

Absolutely. Someone who graduated from Yale or Harvard can probably work in any firm they wanted to out of graduation, whereas someone who graduated from Podunk U will need to look towards a smaller firm or lesser salary. Pretty much any dental graduate, regardless of where they graduated, will be able to get the same job. Name is everything in the world of law, and the more names you can throw around, the better off you'll be.

 

[Black Teeth]

Absolutely. Someone who graduated from Yale or Harvard can probably work in any firm they wanted to out of graduation, whereas someone who graduated from Podunk U will need to look towards a smaller firm or lesser salary. Pretty much any dental graduate, regardless of where they graduated, will be able to get the same job. Name is everything in the world of law, and the more names you can throw around, the better off you'll be.

No disagreement here. Reputation of the dental school, class rank, and extracurriculars (e.g. law review) is key to getting top positions and income in a law firm.

 

[dr bojangles]

No disagreement here. Reputation of the dental school, class rank, and extracurriculars (e.g. law review) is key to getting top positions and income in a law firm.

i believe you meant law......your worlds are blending, black teeth!
and for EC's: don't forget being a good master(de)bater = moot court

 

[Black Teeth]

i believe you meant law......your worlds are blending, black teeth!
and for EC's: don't forget being a good master(de)bater = moot court

you're right...my bad

 

[NyCzPeter]

lol? I never said biochem was a joke per se. I said biochem is a joke compared to many topics found in the humanities. As for my own dat scores, I was rather disappointed and have no excuse, but how does that relate to the topic at hand? Because I didn't ace my dats means science is harder than humanities? Based on what I see here, I think intro to logic should be a pre-req for every dental school.

 

[hellonurse]

lol? I never said biochem was a joke per se. I said biochem is a joke compared to many topics found in the humanities. As for my own dat scores, I was rather disappointed and have no excuse, but how does that relate to the topic at hand? Because I didn't ace my dats means science is harder than humanities? Based on what I see here, I think intro to logic should be a pre-req for every dental school.

Your DAT scores do have something to do with this because you cannot really tell anyone that sciences are "monkey's work" if you have not even mastered them. You should be proud of your scores. They are very impressive. By no means have you mastered any sciences. But that's okay, you don't have to. Just don't act like you already did and now you can tell everyone else that it's "monkey's work." If you could, just lighten up a bit.

 

[NyCzPeter]

Your DAT scores do have something to do with this because you cannot really tell anyone that sciences are "monkey's work" if you have not even mastered them. You should be proud of your scores. They are very impressive. By no means have you mastered any sciences. But that's okay, you don't have to. Just don't act like you already did and now you can tell everyone else that it's "monkey's work." If you could, just lighten up a bit.

Thanks for the input but I am still rather disappointed since I know I could have better with more time, but that's of course no excuse. Rest assured, I'm light as a feather but I probably do come off as an arrogant old man mad at the world which I am. Granted, monkey's work was an obvious over-exaggeration, but nevertheless, it still doesn't take a genius to memorize and plug in numbers.

 

[shinbone86]

Getting into any dental school is much harder than getting into any law school. Getting into the top dental schools is just as competitive getting into the top law schools. And most definitely, the level of difficulty of major is tougher for those who go to dental school than those going into law. I know two students from my school who majored in sociology (a weaksauce major) who got into USC law, which is a top tier program.

 

[a1pha]

Getting into any dental school is much harder than getting into any law school. Getting into the top dental schools is just as competitive getting into the top law schools. And most definitely, the level of difficulty of major is tougher for those who go to dental school than those going into law. I know two students from my school who majored in sociology (a weaksauce major) who got into USC law, which is a top tier program.

Nope. No comparison. With so many more applicants and law schools, it's unbelievably hard to get into Yale/Harvard. My friend didn't get into either of them and he's been accepted to a handful of "top" schools like Berkeley, NYU and his gpa/percentiles/overall resume blow mine to pieces.

 

[NyCzPeter]

Nope. No comparison. With so many more applicants and law schools, it's unbelievably hard to get into Yale/Harvard. My friend didn't get into either of them and he's been accepted to a handful of "top" schools like Berkeley, NYU and his gpa/percentiles/overall resume blow mine to pieces.

I agree. Law school in general is much easier to get in, but harvard/yale law is frikin ridiculous. Average student has a 3.9 gpa and about a 175+ out of 180 Lsat which is like 99.9%tile