<p>i'm going to be a sophomore next year with no science or math under my belt. i've always been more of a polisci kind of person, and that's where i focused my attention frosh year.
i've never thought i'd even consider the pre-med route, but recently, i found myself thinking about dentistry. nothing dramatic happened to my mouth or anything along those lines. i have a lot of dentists in my family, and i sort of just woke up and was like, "what am i doing?" </p>
<p>i know i sound really wishy-washy, but that's because i'm super confused, super scared about totally switching my life's path, and wanted to know if this sounds crazy or doable. i was great at science in high school, but the humanities just interested me more intellectually. still, i know plenty of pre-meds who love other subjects as well.</p>
<p>help?</p>
<p>Note that if you want to become a dentist, you’re pre-dental, not pre-med - they’re not the same thing. Still, a lot of pre-health students choose to major in totally unrelated subjects while completing the required courses. Required courses aren’t determined by the college, but rather the dental school you apply to - at UNC dental school, for example, they are 4 semesters of chemistry, one of biology, one of anatomy, two of physics, and two of english. At Harvard, it’s one semester biochemistry, 2 biology, 2 general chemistry, 2 organic chemistry, 2 physics, 2 calculus, and 2 English. If you’re really serious about dentistry, you’ll probably need to start taking these classes as soon as possible (especially if you have no AP credit for any of these). But since you sound unsure, I’d strongly recommend you talk with your academic advisor, as they can give you more concrete, practical advice. It’s absolutely not crazy, nor “switching your life’s path,” to change your mind after completing a single year of college - my best advice would be just to go with your gut.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice. yeah, i know pre-med and pre-dent aren’t the same, but i’ve heard some of the pre-dent kids just group themselves with the pre-meds because they have many of the same pre-reqs.</p>
<p>what i’m nervous about, in particular, is to really go with this and enroll in chem and calc this semester. not sure if i can handle it, particularly because i don’t think my high school really prepared me. i’d don’t want this “sudden whim” to destroy my gpa and ruin other grad school plans. i know that’s not the attitude to have, but i can’t help but be anxious.</p>
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<p>If you can’t handle chem and calc, then you wouldn’t be able to handle dental school. Better to learn sooner rather than later. However, that doesn’t mean that I think you should necessarily be pre-dental automatically. You really have to make that judgment call for yourself. You can take a couple classes and see how they go and always change your mind again. I also know people who took post-bacc or masters programs before heading off to medical/dental school to fulfill their remaining requirements. Although this isn’t ideal since it costs more money and delays the professional school but it’s also an option. It’s normal to change interests in college, so don’t sweat it. Just go with your gut and see how it goes.</p>