Anyone switch from Dent to Med?

[DentistrytoMed]

Hello a dental student here.

I am currently in my first year of dentistry and after much deliberation, I've decided that I want med. I know I am in an awkward position and I was wondering if there's someone on this forum who went through this (switched from dent to med) whom I could talk to.

I am just lost and would really appreciate some guidance.

Thank you!

[JohnGrisham]

23 minutes ago, DentistrytoMed said:

Hello a dental student here.

I am currently in my first year of dentistry and after much deliberation, I've decided that I want med. I know I am in an awkward position and I was wondering if there's someone on this forum who went through this (switched from dent to med) whom I could talk to.

I am just lost and would really appreciate some guidance.

Thank you!

You would simply re-apply to Medicine just as anyone else. You won't be able to get any credit for your dental school training. So if you want to change, just apply to medicine and see if you get interviews.

[DentistrytoMed]

7 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

You would simply re-apply to Medicine just as anyone else. You won't be able to get any credit for your dental school training. So if you want to change, just apply to medicine and see if you get interviews.

Thank you for your reply but that is not what I was wondering.

-Do you think my history as a dental student will be favourable or disadvantageous in pre-interview and post-interview stages? Should I disclose it and wear it proudly or try to hide it unless brought up?

-How would my LOC work? Would I open a new one or would it carry over?

There are more questions that I just think people who have been in my shoes would be more informed of. 

[bearded frog]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:46 AM, DentistrytoMed said:

-Do you think my history as a dental student will be favourable or disadvantageous in pre-interview and post-interview stages? Should I disclose it and wear it proudly or try to hide it unless brought up?

It depends on how you spin it. If you can give a convincing story about how you were conflicted about dent vs med and now doing dentistry you are doing well in your classes but feel like you will be unfulfilled compared to potentially doing medicine, it may look ok, but you have to acknowledge you are giving up a privileged position that a lot of dent applicants would love to have. You need to convince them that medicine is really all you want and you're not going to switch to something else a year in wasting a spot.

You're not going to be able to hide it, you will need transcripts from dental school at the very least.

On 6/28/2021 at 11:46 AM, DentistrytoMed said:

-How would my LOC work? Would I open a new one or would it carry over?

If you already have the medicine LOC then it would just continue I assume, although there may be paperwork involved in switching, if not then it would probably be switched to the medicine LOC. You should ask your financial institution.

[Scrubadubdub]

On 6/28/2021 at 12:12 PM, DentistrytoMed said:

Hello a dental student here.

I am currently in my first year of dentistry and after much deliberation, I've decided that I want med. I know I am in an awkward position and I was wondering if there's someone on this forum who went through this (switched from dent to med) whom I could talk to.

I am just lost and would really appreciate some guidance.

Thank you!

I know someone who did this. He kept it very hush hush and didn't want anyone knowing that he was applying to med from his dental class/faculty. Part of it was that he feared that they might not be supportive/treat him differently if they knew he wanted to do med and the other part was that if he didn't end up getting into med, then people might look at/treat him differently once he stayed within dental school. In reality, I'm sure your faculty/class want you to be happy in the career you choose regardless of whether thats med or dent.

On 6/28/2021 at 12:46 PM, DentistrytoMed said:

Thank you for your reply but that is not what I was wondering.

-Do you think my history as a dental student will be favourable or disadvantageous in pre-interview and post-interview stages? Should I disclose it and wear it proudly or try to hide it unless brought up?

-How would my LOC work? Would I open a new one or would it carry over?

There are more questions that I just think people who have been in my shoes would be more informed of. 

I think whether it holds you back or helps you pre-interview/post-interview is how you frame your dent experience.

Reflect on things outside of dental school that helped you realize med is for you (for example: volunteer/work experiences, ECs, life experiences) and emphasize those. You want to think about who you are outside of dental school and how it relates to being a doctor.

Like another poster said, you're on par with every other applicant. Apply, see if you get interviews based on your GPA, MCAT, ECs, references and possibly CASPer too. 

In terms of LOC - I would talk to the bank about what they want you to do. Scotia for example has a professional line of credit that they use for medical and dental students but the loan limits might be different and the date that you start paying back your loan might be different because of residency (?) Your time in school will also be longer than 4 years of dental, since you did 1 year of dent and still have 4 years of med so you'll have to let them know anyway and they'll let you know what the next steps are.

 

[hopefulpremed98]

Idk how relevant it is to you but it explicitly advantages you in Quebec. The French schools openly put that you get more preinterview score if you did dentistry, and I asked a McGill admissions person and they said it doesn’t disadvantage you and since it’s a professional degree they add a bump to the preinterview score. Anecdotally I asked someone that made the switch and they told me there’s no disadvantage, schools don’t care, it’s not like America where it might matter. Also I asked a loc rep from scotia bank about what happens if I switched and they said they just continue the loc. I wouldn’t talk about it with your classmates tho but in the application I don’t think you‘d need to hide it and if you think you did dentistry related activities that demonstrate qualities school want you should put them 

[VivaColombia]

I know of two instances:

1) someone left a dental school in Canada, tried law school in Canada and then switched into med and is currently in 3rd year of medicine in Canada. It's possible, you just need the drive. Mind you, this person was super bright and got into dental school right after UG, dropped and got into law and then switched a year later into med. So they were the "average age" of their medicine class but had prior professional school experience in dent and law. This person is likely to match to a competitive specialty too.

2) A friend of a friend failed dental school in Canada and one year later, got into med in Canada, and just matched into Emergency Medicine. Again, if you got the drive, anythings possible, even with a failure on your transcript that probably got dropped in the GPA calculation but still would be looked at by admissions, who gave this individual another chance. There are success stories

[JohnGrisham]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:46 AM, DentistrytoMed said:

-Do you think my history as a dental student will be favourable or disadvantageous in pre-interview and post-interview stages? Should I disclose it and wear it proudly or try to hide it unless brought up?

They won't really care. No need to hide it, in fact that would be a bad thing to do.