<p>i know both of these schools are competitive to get into. but is dental slightly less? do many people that dont get into med school go to dental school?? im thinking about going to UC davis and majoring in psychology. if i maintain a high GPA and do well on the DAT as well as stay involved in my school...would i even be a competitive candidate for dental school?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>The days of Dentists being failed med school applicants are over. Dental schools are looking for the exact sames things that med schools: The intelligence to handle the schooling and intellectual nature of the profession along with a passion and dedication for it as well. With that in mind, if you do things to show that you understand the field, that you are committed to it, doing well on the DAT, good GPA, and plenty of campus and community involvement will make you a competitive candidate for dental school.</p>
<p>Things that you can do to show your interest in dentistry include shadowing dentists and working in dental labs.</p>
<p>cool thanks!!...im def going to work hard at it =)</p>
<br>
<p>The days of Dentists being failed med school applicants are over.</p>
<br>
<p>i don't agree. perhaps its not exactly as u describe it, but a medical school class, down to the last person, will still remain stronger than a dental school class.</p>
<p>practically everyone in science undergrad everywhere is interested in medicine. u can't say that about dentistry. further, if u just consider the work they do. both are medical fields, but ultimately, the buck stops at the MD. u'd never expect nursing or pharmacy to overtake medicine, simply because the MD has the greatest power. true, dents and meds don't overlap much, but in the greatest context of things, all of medicine swamps all of dentistry. there are inherent characteristics about medicine that allow it to "reign" over dentistry and other health professions (in prestige, power etc.), and those characteristics are defining of the professions, so u can't just ignore them, and they haven't been ignored, and won't be.</p>
<p>BOOM beat that 14 o spades..lol</p>
<p>14,</p>
<p>BRM's point was not that medical school classes aren't still stronger. His point was that the overlap no longer exists between the pools. Dental school pools now differentiate themselves earlier than (perhaps) they might have in the past, and it's no longer viable to apply through AMCAS, get rejected, and then take the DAT's and expect to be admitted to highly-powered dental schools. You will not have the extracurriculars and commitment to the field that you are expected to demonstrate.</p>
<p>(I am rephrasing his point as I understand it.)</p>
<p>wow. great "boom"</p>
<p>Why Dentists Earn More Than Some Family Doctors</p>
<p>heck, in ontario, i can tell u that the avg. family physician salary is 110,000/year, while the avg. dentist earns 120,000/year. the avg. medical specialist in ontario earns 180,000/year.</p>
<p>my point isn't to nitpick over small differences in salary. we're talking about admissions/prestige aren't we? </p>
<p>WHERE THE HECK IS THE PRE-DENTAL FORUM HERE?</p>
<p>last time i looked, there was more than 27 000 POSTS in this pre-med forum - about as much as the law, business and grad school forums COMBINED.</p>
<p>if dental was so popular as u say, and there are all these people clamoring to get in, then why isn't there a forum for them? or is it just the reality, that dents is secondary to medicine, and the best they can do is be a minor thread in a forum dedicated to MEDICAL admissions.</p>
<p>thanks for coming out. the fact that ur pro-dents and ur resigned to posting in a pre-med forum implies the significance of medical admissions over dental admissions. </p>
<p>LuckMC11 here's some advice: take ur DDS degree, hang it on the wall along with ur medical school rejections, and happily make ur 120,000/year.</p>
<p>14,</p>
<p>You are still failing to respond to the core argument, which has nothing to do with difficulty of admissions but rather differentiation.</p>
<p>i disagree with this statement because i feel that I HAVE responded to the core argument. look at my first post above, my very first statement says:</p>
<p>I don't agree. </p>
<p>that's my position.</p>
<p>the OP started this thread with, "i know both of these schools are competitive to get into. but is dental slightly less?". so the OP is obviously wondering whether its a little "easier' to get into dental school. it is my position that it is. it may be ur position (and BRM's position) that the applicant pools are DIFFERENT, but its my position that comparing the two, which is what the OP essentially wanted us to do, medicine is a stronger class.</p>
<p>The OP had a second question:</p>
<p>
[quote]
do many people that dont get into med school go to dental school??
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The answer - as stated earlier in argumentation - is "No", because the differentiation has to happen too early for the overlap to exist in such a manner.</p>
<p>Your rather aggressive - and that's a euphemism - derogation of dental school students aside, the key point remains undiscussed: medical students cannot use dental school as a backup.</p>
<br>
<p>medical students cannot use dental school as a backup.</p>
<br>
<p>i understand ur gist, and though i'm not necessarily going to agree with it, or disagree with it, that doesn't change the fact that if u survey an 1st-year dental class, u will undoubtedly encounter students who applied to, but weren't accepted to, medicine. the reverse doesn't occur nearly as often.</p>
<p>the three (all three, i'm not exaggerating) people i know who went into dentistry all had medicine as their first choice. but i guess its easy to say that due to sample-size concerns, such an anecdote is irrelevant..... although i have never in my life met anyone who had turned down medicine for dentistry.</p>
<p>as for "derogation" of dental students, i mean, i think that's going a bit far.</p>
<p>i've simply said that its my opinion that a medical school class on average is stronger than a dental school class. heck, maybe a lot of dental students would say the same thing. how about i say this: a medical school class is on average stronger than every other para-medical school class, on average. i don't really think i'd be in the minority with that opinion. </p>
<p>i haven't made up what i consider lies about dental students. but there are "facts" and u can choose to address them, or ignore them. i like to address them, and i've mentioned them here.</p>
<p>1.) Again, I don't think there's any disagreement over whether medical school classes are stronger than dental school classes.</p>
<p>2.) The question is simply this: can one apply to medical schools, get rejected from all of them, and then apply to dental schools with the expectation of an admission? I think the answer is clearly no, for the early-differentiation reason that has been articulated several times now.</p>
<p>that's fine. but keep in mind WHY the dental schools have to differentiate - its cause they keep getting what are obviously "safety" applicants - and no one wants those. get back to why things occur to begin with, and the truth becomes more obvious.</p>
<p>lets talk about that silly link posted above posted by luckyman... why is such a thing newsworthy? its cause it runs counter to everyone's expectations. we would never see articles entitled,</p>
<p>"Neurosurgeons make more than dentists"
"Family physicians make more than physical therapists"
"Dermatologists earn greater respect than chiropractors"</p>
<p>why don't we see such articles? it's because they are so obviously true in nature, that they aren't NEWSWORTHY. only stuff that comes across as "news" is newsworthy. so a couple reporters collect data showing dentists make more than some family physicians - what happens? --> they can publish in the Wall<em>Street</em>Journal.</p>
<p>to me, that link demonstrates that overall, medicine is on top, not the reverse, as Luckyman seems to imply.</p>
<p>so luckyboy, what Boom?</p>
<p>then again, how many years does it require one to become a neurosurgeon?? compared to a dentist??..a WHOLE lot more</p>
<p>and that's a specialized field of medicine...try comparing to a specialized field in dentistry</p>
<p>o and btw, i like using the word Boom (its a cool word, next 2 KaBoom)</p>
<p>Yes, many people start pre-med and then change to pre-dent. However, I believe that sequence is more likely due to the lack of creativity, exposure, and knowledge to many career choices of most HS students. Whether prestige and prominence plays into it, I'm not entirely sure, but pre-med is a stereotypical entering major. People who have no business being pre-med come in as freshman year being just that because they have no clue what they really want to do. </p>
<p>And just because interest ebbs unidirectionally, that doesn't mean that individuals who go to dental school aren't strong enough students to enter medical school. In fact the two most insanely intelligent people I know are both in dental school (one graduated in may), and could have just as easily excelled in medical school, but had a passion for teeth. </p>
<p>Further, given that there are significantly fewer spots in dental schools compared to medical schools, the competition for dental schools is nearly as intense as it is for medical school. I believe there are only about 4,000-5,000 spots in dental schools compared to nearly 16000 spots in medical schools. </p>
<p>Finally, Luck brings up a key point about the salaries in terms of length of training. Compound that with the fact that most dentists have much, much, much better hours than nearly any field of medicine, their salaries are more valuable in non-monetary terms. A lot of dentists I know only work 3.5 to 4 days a week, have no call, and minimal malpractice premiums.</p>
<p>As for specialized dentistry fields, orthodontists certainly have the potential to earn far more money than most fields of medicine if they run their practice right. My personal orthodontist's practice is probably bringing in close to 3 mil a year gross. He's got 4 offices, 4 orthodontists working directly under him, and he works two and half days a week.</p>
<p>Honestly if anyone can stand to look at teeth all day (which I absolutely can't) and want to be in the medical field, dentistry is probably the smartest choice possible. Comparable benefits to being a doctor with little of the hassle.</p>
<p>thanks bigredmed for that clarification. i really want to go into the medical field and i would really like going into dentistry (which is my first choice.)</p>
<p>"take ur DDS degree, hang it on the wall along with ur medical school rejections, and happily make ur 120,000/year."
personally i wouldnt mind the 120,000. and i really dont think you would be a failure because you go your DDS and not an MD. i mean if you like your career then why does it matter?</p>
<p>"then again, how many years does it require one to become a neurosurgeon?? compared to a dentist??..a WHOLE lot more"
it would be so cool to be a neurosurgeon but i cant justify all the years of school. to become a dentist at least there is a reasonably amount of schooling and a lot of other benefits that bigred mentioned.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the two most insanely intelligent people I know are both in dental school
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Obviously, he means besides me. =D</p>
<p>BRM - good reply.</p>
<p>and btw - i don't think dentists are failures - not at all. in fact, i'd say in many cases, dentists might be more intelligent than many doctors because they chose to go into dentistry - i'd say the average lifestyle of a dentist easily exceeds the average lifestyle of an MD. over a lifetime, that obviously says a lot.</p>
<p>but then came the "boom" and "lol" - and i admit to not taking internet arrogance too well when its directed at me, so i replied in kind.</p>
<p>good points BRM...yea, i wouldn't want to have sporadic working hours</p>
<p>oo, and the info i put in is from the knowledge i have from my parents...since both of them are dentists</p>
<p>peanut butter, u were right about the amount of years in school, it is soo many more years to be a neurosurgeon than to be a dentist</p>