If rejected from med school, consider dental or pharm?

<p>So i know i want to do something in health prof (medmostly) but i understand that medschool is extremely competitive. If a student gets rejected from every med school, what are their options? Would it be possible to take the DATs/PCATS to become a dentist/pharmacist after going through the whole med school application process?</p>

<p>taking a year off is a good option</p>

<p>Getting into either of those programs is becoming just as competitive as medical school admissions (dental school acceptance rate was 47% last year while med was 45%), plus those programs are seeing a faster % increase in applications than medical schools (but all programs are dealing with more applicants).</p>

<p>Further, and most importantly, those programs, just like medical schools want to see that you have a real genuine interest, experience, and understanding of what that field is about. So you'd have to do things like work as a pharmacy tech/intern, work at a dental lab, or shadow a dentist/pharmacist. Gone are the days when the joke "what do you call someone who couldn't get into medical school? A dentist" was even remotely true. It's simply not the case anymore. THESE SCHOOLS DO NOT WANT FAILED MEDICAL APPLICANTS.</p>

<p>If you get rejected from medical school, most (at least in my experience) will give you an exit interview with information on weak parts of your application and what they think you should work on if you choose to reapply. You'll likely probably know where you're weak though, already. From there it could be doing things like re-taking the MCAT, doing upper level science coursework, or getting more clinical or patient experience.</p>

<p>If you aren't sure which program you want to go into then spend some time exploring each, gaining experience and finding out which is the one for you, then throw all your energies into getting into that program.</p>

<p>Pinkpig,</p>

<p>Check out the discussions at the below thread. Might be helpful. </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=298258%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=298258&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Good luck!</p>