kevinkwon84 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Hello people As the title shows, I'm in a huge dilema. My friends told me to apply to BOTH schools, but I don't want to do that. I would like to set a solid goal (either medicine or dentistry) and give it everything I've got. So I would really appreciate it if anyone can tell me the pros and cons of both fields. thanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippie Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Go for your passion my friend. I wouldn't become a dentist even if the hours are better and the pay is double. I would still become a MD even if the condition of my acceptance is to spend the rest of my life in Tanzania working for doctors without borders. (As long as I have no debts ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowaH Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Go for your passion my friend.I wouldn't become a dentist even if the hours are better and the pay is double. I would still become a MD even if the condition of my acceptance is to spend the rest of my life in Tanzania working for doctors without borders. (As long as I have no debts ) Wow, that is COMPLETELY different for my reasons for pursuing medicine (money and prestige). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Wow, that is COMPLETELY different for my reasons for pursuing medicine (money and prestige). You've picked the wrong field....if you want money, you want to go into business. I was in Econ for 2 years and all of my friends from that program came out of undergrad with $80,000-100,000 for their first year salary and $10-20,000 in signing bonuses (for relocation). In contrast, if you go into medicine, you'd have to wait AT LEAST 7 years from your senior year of undergrad to start making that kind of money....by which those investment banking kids will be at 1-2 million a year, which is impossible to make as a doctor in Canada. Oh and don't forget, they won't have an extra 4 years' worth of debt either. A good number of my Econ friends are planning to retire by the age of 35, while in medicine, that's likely to be the age at which you're done with debt (unless you go to school with very low tuition and live with your parents during med). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeDoc Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Wow, that is COMPLETELY different for my reasons for pursuing medicine (money and prestige). If those are your only reasons for pursuing medicine, think twice about it. It's a long and arduous path. Money isn't everything as cliche as it sounds. Also, for the amount of work an MD does to get to their level of practice is INSANE. They don't make THAT much compared to big business folk and CEO's. Yeah they live comfortably, but they are working 85% of the time, so they only get to spend/enjoy themselves and that money 2-3 weeks out of the year. Ask any physician in the field, they work like dogs most of them. Some don't. You need to have passion for what you're doing, and frankly, not to be rude, with that kind of attitude I wouldn't want you to be my doctor. Also, doctors nowadays don't have as much prestige, if any. Patients don't give a damn anymore, they are uncooperative, unwilling to follow treatment and medical advice. So if you think you can handle being sh!t on, and treated like garbage, and still come out on the other end glad that you can put your talents to good use, then by all means go for it. In no way am I hindering you from your dream to become a physician, no one has the right to crash on someone's dreams, but at the same time, you need to do some soul searching, and figure out if it is for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vip_138 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 If those are your only reasons for pursuing medicine, think twice about it. It's a long and arduous path. Money isn't everything as cliche as it sounds. Also, for the amount of work an MD does to get to their level of practice is INSANE. They don't make THAT much compared to big business folk and CEO's. Yeah they live comfortably, but they are working 85% of the time, so they only get to spend/enjoy themselves and that money 2-3 weeks out of the year. Ask any physician in the field, they work like dogs most of them. Some don't. You need to have passion for what you're doing, and frankly, not to be rude, with that kind of attitude I wouldn't want you to be my doctor. Also, doctors nowadays don't have as much prestige, if any. Patients don't give a damn anymore, they are uncooperative, unwilling to follow treatment and medical advice. So if you think you can handle being sh!t on, and treated like garbage, and still come out on the other end glad that you can put your talents to good use, then by all means go for it. In no way am I hindering you from your dream to become a physician, no one has the right to crash on someone's dreams, but at the same time, you need to do some soul searching, and figure out if it is for you. Lol, i think RowaH was being sarcastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostintime Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 But Jochi, is it true that ALLLLL Econ majors end up making those crazy amounts? I think what people like about medicine is also the stability (on top of other things). If EVERYONE made that much, I think people would be hopping to econ now like crazy and not all trying to get into med (yes, there's other reasons, but I fail to believe that ALL the people who are trying to get into med right now are doing it because they loooooove the profession). The best example is for countries where doctors don't get much prestige. In China, people don't try very hard to become doctors, because it's not even that pretigious. It changes from year to year, but engineering is a lot more competitive and prestigious. I dont' think it's because there's less people passionate about medicine in China, but because the people entering the field for the money and prestige are no longer there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 But Jochi, is it true that ALLLLL Econ majors end up making those crazy amounts? Not all, but the ones who are smart enough to also be competitive in medicine definitely do. Of course, we had a few people here and there who only graduated to a 40-50K job, but these were bottom of the class folks (think 3.0-3.2). Most people went to JP Morgan, ML, and the likes, as well as smaller IB firms (which still pay TONS). But then again, I went to a very selective undergrad, so obviously our grads tended to be more competitive than many other applicants for the same positions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 OK, I actually went to check the exact numbers for our 2006 Economics class and there are 22 people... 4 Merrill Lynch (San Fran, London, and 2 NYC) 1 Morgan Stanley (London) 1 JP Morgan (San Fran) 2 Citigroup (NYC) 3 Bank of America (2 Chicago, 1 NYC) 1 TD Securities (NYC) 1 Piper Jaffray (investment banking division of US Bank, based out of Minneapolis) 1 Mackenzie (NYC) 2 Clifton Group (another local Midwestern firm) 2 people went to law school 2 people went to do Masters/PhD (both at MIT) And then 2 folks got crappy analyst jobs at non-financial firms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostintime Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Wow...so are you making big bucks too? You should start working now Jochi! And then when you pay the loans, you would have so much saved up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Wow...so are you making big bucks too? You should start working now Jochi! And then when you pay the loans, you would have so much saved up. No, I dropped out of Economics, lol. I hated every second of it...and I didn't like the people generally. None of my close friends were from the Econ department. I found the atmosphere to be toxic and I hated the subject itself as well. I did enjoy some aspects of it (Capital Markets, Financial Accounting), but it was very theory-heavy otherwise, and I hated all that micro/macro stuff. We didn't have a business/commerce major since I went to a small school, I may have liked that better, but Econ was definitely not for me. I wish I hadn't stayed there for an entire 2 years, my cumulative GPA would've been much higher. My Econ years were something like 3.1 and 3.35....my 2 post-Econ years were 3.8-3.85, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostintime Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Which university was this? Such a small class! But yeah no point in doing something you dont' like. I actually got accepted into biotech/chartered accounting in Waterloo, which accepts like 10 people, but then I didn't think I would like the whole 'business' thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Scratch that, Econ was not THAT detrimental to my GPA, apparently....instead of 3.1 and 3.35, I had 3.25 and 3.35...and for real, my last semester in Econ is 3.43 and my next semester (out of Econ) is 3.83....talk about a JUMP, lol. But still, if I had stuck with it, I'd be there with the kids who got the crappy analyst jobs at crappy car insurance companies....hehe. I'll PM you where I went to school, since it's small, I don't wanna post it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviathan Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Lol, i think RowaH was being sarcastic. Probably not. I used to despise people like that because they take away spots in medical school from people who are actually passionate about medicine, and they go on to be horrible doctors. Now, I just feel sorry for them because they end up miserable and depressed with their lives when they're stuck doing something they don't enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sars Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 I think what people like about medicine is also the stability (on top of other things). I'm still an undergrad, so not talking from experience here, but it seems to me like you have to go through a whole lot of instability before you get to the stable part. There's so much uncertainty in where you go to school, what you specialize in, where you do your residency, etc, etc. It's still better than dentistry though..I can't think of any reason someone would want to be a dentist other than for the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostintime Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 That's true, but then again, you have about 10 years of unstability (at max), but 30-40 years of stability. Whereas if you're a CEO, you basicaly have a lifetime of instability. But I think it really boils down to what people want. And I don't see why dentistry is different from medicine. Some people are actually interested in learning about teeth (certainly not me lol). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 I know...I think the statement that no one would ever want to do dentistry if not for the money is rude...I personally don't find anything stimulating about it, but I'm sure there are people who feel the same about medicine - "ew, guts, poop, touching strange people all day, getting sued constantly" type of thing. I'm sure there are people who are very passionate about dentistry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviathan Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 I hate dentists.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bane Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 I hate dentists.... thank you for your honesty in a short one-liner. EDIT: oops, just realized i posted in the med students section when i'm not even close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowaH Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Woah, that one line of text set off such a huge firestorm of controversy? What if I were to say I was a homosexual? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorbetty Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 I'd rather study medicine since the ENTIRE human body is involved, not just the mouth/teeth/gums. Hey I know that poor dental hygiene can affect over-all health, but dentistry really doesn't cover enough of the human anatomy/physiology to be that interesting (to me). I think you need to really consider the interest factor and also the fact that as a dentist you will be looking down people's jaws all day. I know this is a very opinionated post and may not be helpful to you. Just my 2 cents. Good luck :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_2020 Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Hello people As the title shows, I'm in a huge dilema. My friends told me to apply to BOTH schools, but I don't want to do that. I would like to set a solid goal (either medicine or dentistry) and give it everything I've got. So I would really appreciate it if anyone can tell me the pros and cons of both fields. thanx Follow your heart ... it took a whole lot of soul searching for me ... and I choose medicine ... now I'm pouring my heart and soul into it ever since I made the decision to go for it! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMmd Posted April 9, 2007 Report Share Posted April 9, 2007 I'd rather study medicine since the ENTIRE human body is involved, not just the mouth/teeth/gums. Hey I know that poor dental hygiene can affect over-all health, but dentistry really doesn't cover enough of the human anatomy/physiology to be that interesting (to me). I think you need to really consider the interest factor and also the fact that as a dentist you will be looking down people's jaws all day. I know this is a very opinionated post and may not be helpful to you. Just my 2 cents.Good luck :) haaha but if you specialize in one field, well you will only be looking at one thing! lol same difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted April 9, 2007 Report Share Posted April 9, 2007 yes, and you could be looking at worse things than jaws all day as an specialist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeDoc Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 Woah, that one line of text set off such a huge firestorm of controversy? What if I were to say I was a homosexual? We take stuff like that seriously on this forum. Hmmm, maybe it's because most of us are serious about our aspirations and have a desire to be something more in life than just a leechy troll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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