Should i become a dentist or a doctor?

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Ivy dents and some toptier state dental schools are tougher than low tier MD or Established DO schools(pcom, msu). But they are never tougher than midtier med schools or above. 25 on DAT is roughly equivalent to 31 on old MCAT.
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Just out of curiosity, do you think if you really wanted to you could grow your wealth to a nine figure by 45 (after retiring around 35) just from investments? And how would you go about achieving the feat? I'm thinking investing in startups/venture capital funds provides the highest likelihood of success.

Not likely, unless you consider businesses as an investment. I'll be taking over as CEO in about 3 years for one of my companies; I think that one has the potential to grow into 9 figures but not likely in 10 years unless I can acquire a large capital infusion. However, that will not be my personal wealth. Startups are probably your best bet.
 
Just out of curiosity, do you think if you really wanted to you could grow your wealth to a nine figure by 45 (after retiring around 35) just from investments? And how would you go about achieving the feat? I'm thinking investing in startups/venture capital funds provides the highest likelihood of success.

You can't possibly have over 8 figures to your own wealth, unless you're counting all assets that don'e have liquidity either.
 
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I know my anesthesiologist neighbor does pretty well. Well ... that was before his wife caught him with his mistress. :)

I've lived a pretty good life as an Orthodontist. Hours are good. But I would say that being a medical doctor would probably shield you from recessions. Orthodontics is elective. Dental procedures less so. Medicine not elective.
 
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I know my anesthesiologist neighbor does pretty well. Well ... that was before his wife caught him with his mistress. :)

I've lived a pretty good life as an Orthodontist. Hours are good. But I would say that being a medical doctor would probably shield you from recessions. Orthodontics is elective. Dental procedures less so. Medicine not elective.

I hope dentistry always remains elective (or perceived elective). Once you start touting it as medically necessary, then people will feel entitled to dentistry, and I'm afraid that government would start regulating it to the point where there would be downward pressures to the price points/reimbursements. Given that there's a lot of dentists flooding into the market (increased supply), combined with the attack from midlevel providers, if you throw in more government regulations because it is deemed medically necessary, I'm afraid that our profitability would decrease significantly unless we are able to utilize those midlevel providers as a cheaper source of labor. Maybe at that point, I'd consider opening a bunch of offices, but I'm way behind the game already :).

Maybe I'm wrong in this analysis, this is what my gut tells me when I hear people wanting to make dentistry seem like it's necessary/required/non-elective. People are still willing to pay when they are in severe pain during a recession and the ER turns them away or just gives them meds and tells them to see a dentist.
 
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