What is the average take home monthly salary for dental associate fresh out of school?

[LFA20]

I don't know the exact rules for commissioning as far as HSCP, such as whether you do it right after graduation or not. But if you want you can push it as far back as possible. But then comes the possibility of getting a specialty out of school, because those start July 1st and you will already have needed to complete ODS for that and on station. If I had the choice, specialty would take priority.

Yes. You would be an O3 > 4YOS. You wouldn't get the E. But then again, the E doesn't start to make a pay difference until you hit your 14 year mark, so financially I guess it doesn't make a difference for you because you'll be LCDR by then.

thank you!
I think the only difference is that if you have the E designation your BAH pay is higher.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Cello]

Her classmates also have a huge load of debt that she doesn't, plus she has a lower tax liability. I think there are a number of ways to look at this.

This sort of knowledge and creativity is the reason MWU loans won't scare you and you will do very well financially. Good for you, man.

Haha, well I appreciate the compliment but it is hard for me to think of an easy way out of $400,000+ in debt without going military. If I was single, then I would absolutely do the military (and not just for the money either).

I think Coldfront's original reply to this thread was spot on and very realistic across a vast amount of the country today. The numbers can work, the key component, and this is a BIG issue for some, is that the "dentist lifestyle" that they're expecting from day 1 after graduation, realistically can happen, but it is far more likely to happen SLOWLY over time after say year 3 or year 5 or year 10.....

As it should! Dental school is tough, and we work hard to become dentists, but it does not entitle us to anything that the docs who have been in practice had to work very hard to earn for themselves over years of practice. The dentist lifestyle is not what you practice from day 1, it is what you achieve with years of hard work and dedication to the profession.

So the student loan genius program would have the matching contribution go towards student loans instead of an investment account?

I think it is the other way around. Student Loan Genius puts money into your 401k to match the payments you made towards your student loans. You have to make at least the minimum payments anyway, so tax-free money from the s-corp towards your 401k is a pretty good deal! I am no accountant or tax expert though, so there may be something I don't understand about these kinds of programs.

 

[distressstudent]

I think it is the other way around. Student Loan Genius puts money into your 401k to match the payments you made towards your student loans. You have to make at least the minimum payments anyway, so tax-free money from the s-corp towards your 401k is a pretty good deal! I am no accountant or tax expert though, so there may be something I don't understand about these kinds of programs.

Ah gotcha.

Not sure which part is the tax-free money then. To have make tax-free contribution to anything it'd be above the line deduction. So can this program make it so that IRS treats student loan payment as a traditional 401k contribution?

That doesn't seem to be case because they wrote this
"Our 401(k) contribution feature works with existing benefits frameworks, so we don't have to wait for Congress to make a change to the tax code to enable companies to use pre-tax dollars for a student loan benefit,"


this is the part I was talking about
"Student Loan Genius' 401(k) contribution feature introduces another option to its existing 'Genius Match' service, which enables employers to contribute matching dollars directly toward employees' student loan payments"

which sounds great initially, but that means you're losing out on matching contributions towards a 401k. which depending on your refinanced loan APR, it might be better to leave it in the market

I think it could still be decent for some people. But I think they use a lot of confusing terminology to make it sound a lot better than what it is. From what I am reading it seems like they are moving a lot of the same money under different names.

 

[Cold Front]

I think Coldfront's original reply to this thread was spot on and very realistic across a vast amount of the country today. The numbers can work, the key component, and this is a BIG issue for some, is that the "dentist lifestyle" that they're expecting from day 1 after graduation, realistically can happen, but it is far more likely to happen SLOWLY over time after say year 3 or year 5 or year 10.....

I think the reality from the perspective of a pre-dental and dental students on dental income and lifestyle is very much different than the one an average "dentist" leads.

It pretty much boils down to 3 main factors for me when it comes to how future dentists think (and I have been there):

1. Financial: "The 6 figure income from day 1 and most of all problems will be solved and good times will start to roll in". In reality, your first few years as a dentist will still require you build a strong foundation for the middle of your career, and later for your retirement. If you think you will come out of school and have little worries (as most future dentists see it), you will be in for a big surprise on how much stress and hard work awaits to just keep the engine running on your career. I have been out of school 6.5 years, and I work more or less the same stress level and push myself the same way I did in dental school. I wonder if this outlook comes as a surprise to an average dental student?

2. The lifestyle: Most future dentists think you can choose to be flexible with your hours and even with 3-4 days a week schedule, and to an extent believe that's what most dentists are doing. Wrong. Most young dentists between 25-45 work 40 hours or more. Since dentistry is now sucked into the plague of our debt ridden society, and carry more various debt than any previous dentist generation in the history of the profession, not to mention the stagnant income and insurance reimbursements, we can't afford to be flexible without serious plans and efforts. So, that's another dose of reality.

3. Exceptions: Many who chose dentistry as a career purely based on what they think the career has to offer, whether it was from articles they read on publications or what a family or a friend told them (which was in my case), they don't realize that you almost always have to "decouple" the dentsit from the person. An ambitious mind can come from anywhere in our society, and can excel in life financially and socially through different routes. Most successful dentists have unique set of skills, abilities and habits that make them stand out from the rest of their peers. All of which one can learn and eventuslly produce the desired results to help them become the "exception". Unfortunately, the distinction of this exception almost never crosses the mind of future dentists, and most feel the hard work in college and dental schools entitles them to unrealistic rewards when they enter the profession. It happens, but they will grow to understand that the profession is only as rewarding as much as you put into it.

 

[PaulS]

I think the reality from the perspective of a pre-dental and dental students on dental income and lifestyle is very much different than the one an average "dentist" leads.

It pretty much boils down to 3 main factors for me when it comes to how future dentists think (and I have been there):

1. Financial: "The 6 figure income from day 1 and most of all problems will be solved and good times will start to roll in". In reality, your first few years as a dentist will still require you build a strong foundation for the middle of your career, and later for your retirement. If you think you will come out of school and have little worries (as most future dentists see it), you will be in for a big surprise on how much stress and hard work awaits to just keep the engine running on your career. I have been out of school 6.5 years, and I work more or less the same stress level and push myself the same way I did in dental school. I wonder if this outlook comes as a surprise to an average dental student?

2. The lifestyle: Most future dentists think you can choose to be flexible with your hours and even with 3-4 days a week schedule, and to an extent believe that's what most dentists are doing. Wrong. Most young dentists between 25-45 work 40 hours or more. Since dentistry is now sucked into the plague of our debt ridden society, and carry more various debt than any previous dentist generation in the history of the profession, not to mention the stagnant income and insurance reimbursements, we can't afford to be flexible without serious plans and efforts. So, that's another dose of reality.

3. Exceptions: Many who chose dentistry as a career purely based on what they think the career has to offer, whether it was from articles they read on publications or what a family or a friend told them (which was in my case), they don't realize that you almost always have to "decouple" the dentsit from the person. An ambitious mind can come from anywhere in our society, and can excel in life financially and socially through different routes. Most successful dentists have unique set of skills, abilities and habits that make them stand out from the rest of their peers. All of which one can learn and eventuslly produce the desired results to help them become the "exception". Unfortunately, the distinction of this exception almost never crosses the mind of future dentists, and most feel the hard work in college and dental schools entitles them to unrealistic rewards when they enter the profession. It happens, but they will grow to understand that the profession is only as rewarding as much as you put into it.

yup, life is hard then you die

 

[ebisu]

I have good reasons to believe that the dental education is slowly collapsing, this is evident from the fact that many high tuition private schools are pushing their application deadline all the way to the official ADEA AADSAS deadline of february 1, or near that date. This is because these schools are having a hard time attracting students. Many state school have no difficulty attracting students, thus are fine with a deadline of October or November. I believe the number of schools to push back application deadlines will increase in the coming year. Maybe some students are finally realize the consequences of nearly half a million dollar of debt, especially at president's trump new interest rate of 6-7%.

 

[WingZeroM3]

I'm not fresh out of school... ....the avg take home 623.00 a day in Southern California with a corporate chain.. Some location less...some location maybe a little more.
One the resident landed a position with a Corporation in California.
Another resident landed a position with Pacific Dental in Vegas for 660.00 a day.
This is first hand information from the residents that are graduating in 3 weeks from GPR.

Hope that helps

 

[SnozzBerry]

I'm not fresh out of school... ....the avg take home 623.00 a day in Southern California with a corporate chain.. Some location less...some location maybe a little more.
One the resident landed a position with a Corporation in California.
Another resident landed a position with Pacific Dental in Vegas for 660.00 a day.
This is first hand information from the residents that are graduating in 3 weeks from GPR.

Hope that helps

Did you do a GPR?

 

[allantois]

In other words, schools have increased tuition prices despite the fact that associate income has not changed for a decade.

 

[wengerout]

I have good reasons to believe that the dental education is slowly collapsing, this is evident from the fact that many high tuition private schools are pushing their application deadline all the way to the official ADEA AADSAS deadline of february 1, or near that date. This is because these schools are having a hard time attracting students. Many state school have no difficulty attracting students, thus are fine with a deadline of October or November. I believe the number of schools to push back application deadlines will increase in the coming year. Maybe some students are finally realize the consequences of nearly half a million dollar of debt, especially at president's trump new interest rate of 6-7%.

A simple look at the ADEA guide will show this is false.