so uh, anyone think about their future and gets overwhelmed??

im with you man, i thought i wanted to go to med school.... not anymore after serious thoughts. I jumped from major to major. one of those majors seriuosly f'ed up my GPA. kinda sucks...but you live and learn. its exciting to learn. not to sound selfish but its your life. not your parents. you gotta do what makes you happy.

so how do i go about doing this career? sounds perfect for me.

 

Its not so easy as it sounds. First, you have to go to Dental school. While not quite as hard as medical school, it is still pretty tough to get into. You'd still have to sit for the MCAT I think, if I remember correctly.

Once you complete dental school, most practice dentistry for a couple of years.

Now the hard part. Orthodontics school. They limit incoming folks depending on how many Orthodontists are practicing in the US. They basically want to keep the supply of Orthodontists steady, and many schools have very limited slots. That is why they usually take Dentists that have practiced a few years instead of folks right out of Dental school.

Once you get through Ortho school, you either work for another Ortho for a couple of years for 100-150K a year, or you try to start your own practice immediatly.

My cousin bought out an existing practice in Austin, and after he makes his student loans payments, loan on the practice payments, pays all of his techs and overhead...he nets about 750K a year.

His hours are Monday through Wednesday...a half day on Thursday...off Friday through Sunday.

I think his hours are going to go up, because I think he's trying to open a second office...but he predicts another 700-800K a year from the new office, so he thinks he'll be OK with working a full 5 days a week.

 

These days, it is almost as difficult to get into dental school as it is med school. There are only 55 dental schools in the country, whereas there are 9 med schools in Texas alone. All in all, there are a bunch more med than dental schools.

Also, now with managed healthcare screwing up the salaries in medicine, many of those who wanted to go to med school just for the money are now switching to dental school. 35 of the dental schools in the country now have average acceptance GPA's of 3.5 - 3.7. That is insanely high. Plus, the DAT (dental admission test) tests the same material as the MCAT does. The difference is that the DAT has a perceptual ability section and math whereas the MCAT has physics. In my opinion, although both test consist of the same biology, inorganic and organic chemistry material, the DAT is a little easier in the sense that you don't have to analyze as much while taking the test. It is more straightforward. I have taken the DAT myself, and am familiar with the MCAT because I teach prep classes for both of those tests plus the PCAT and OAT.

Once in dental school, in order to compete for the top residencies, you will have to be one of the top in your class. That is no easy feat! So make sure you know what you are getting into before wasting time. Shadow a dentist to get some experience. You will need to do it anyways as most schools require a good amount of shadowing experience, plus it shows that you want to pursue dentistry as a career.

I know what you mean about feeling overwhelmed. In my case, I have taken the DAT, done well, and am now interviewing for dental school. This process takes way to damn long! I have found myself drinking after classes and work more often during this application process than I ever had before!

 

Oh yeah, one more thing. There is definitley a lot of money to be made in all the dental specialties. Getting in is the hard part. For example, Boston University had 3,100 applications for 102 seats last year! This year, some schools are reporting 25-50% increases in the # of apps. Make sure you rock all of you science class and keep that GPA way way way up! It will make life a lot easier come application time.

 

Oh man, "overwhelmed" has been my last name lately. No matter how much I try to push my parents' nagging words out of my head, I always feel guilty in the end because after all, they are paying for my education. I haven't been very responsible with my money this year so far, and I've run into some unforseen expenses that are really starting to make me worry. Not only that, but it seems that my parents are trying to plan out my future for me, where I need to transfer, which major I should declare (they aren't too fond of my current English major), and when I should get serious about marriage.

I sort of have it all planned out in my mind, and honest to God I wish I had the guts to just come out and tell them exactly what I want in life, but I don't.

Actually my views are kind of the opposite; I just wish the future would come already. I want to be graduated and have a steady job and be married. Right now is the hard part. I'm so stressed about school and finances and my parents that I'm pretty sure I'm driving myself crazy.

 

You gotta tell them man. Although my parents are not like that, many of my friends' are. I had one buddy whose parents were paying for his school and wanted to dictate what he studied, where her went to school and so on. He just went out and took some FAFSA loans to pay for his school. I am telling you, I have never seen him as happy as the day when he got his finaid check and was able to pay for his own tuition and housing. His parents eventually got over it and were pretty proud of him for taking his life in his own hands and taking responsibility for his own actions and decisions.

 

Get pregnant, parents LOVE that!

 

Nothing wrong with English. Keep at it... there will always be opportunities for those that write well. A good Liberal Arts degree will also teach you how to think and process information... a critical skill in today's environment. I would plan on getting an MA if you can.

 

Agreed, I wish I could be done with college. School is so stressful, at points I tell myself, why not just get a job, although one I might hate, but why not just hate my job and get paid for it than pay college to stress me out and hate it.

 

Man, women have it so easy. All they have to do is find a rich dude, have his baby, divorce him, and take half his money.

b****es.


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My advice: Strip Club

It's quite refreshing.

 

if u want to make money...go into business...medicine is not where the money is...im a first year student..and if u truly are not passionate in medicine, chances are you will either be very unhappy for the rest of your life, or fail out...

Plus UT's business school is top notch

 

If ALL you want to do is make money, sit down and think about it some more.

 

This stuff helps me:

http://www.vipassana.com/resources/bodhi/search_for_security.php

 

If you want to make some money, go to this website.

Great moneymaker

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