Dental School or Investment Banking after college?

English lit PhD into being a professor. You could actually wear a tweed jacket with elbow patches without laughing at yourself and co-eds will want to fuck you well into your 40's.

There are a few other pretty extensive threads on dentistry vs. finance on here. I'd check them out. If I remember correctly they had some good info on them.

You have a better work/life balance once you are actually a dentist, sure. But the same years in which you are working 80-100 hour weeks in IB are the same years where you'll be grinding in dental school. Not sure about the differences between dental school and medical school, but the friends I have in medical school definitely aren't enjoying their 20s given the amount of studying they have to do. The residency can be even worse than med school in many instances too, so be prepared for that.

Basically, you won't be enjoying the fruits of medicine until you're in your 30's, at which point the hours in finance should be more manageable for you. I'd recommend you choose the field you are more interested in, as that is the ultimate driver of happiness in the long run.

From what I know about Dental School, and I know very little, you will likely spend your early 20s (22-25?, 26?) in school and doing "shadowing" or whatever it's called. The work will be easier and at a slower pace, and you will likely be earning way less. In finance, the work will be much harder and faster paced in your early mid twenties, and you'll be making a lot more money. Eventually (as we all hope it works out) you'll be working less hours, but the stress will probably be the same.

All in all, you have to really, really envision yourself at the age of 30, 40, 50. Do you see yourself working as a dentist? Or do you see yourself in a high finance related position? Both will bring you great monetary satisfaction I would assume, but money isn't everything (so they lie to us).

Your dilemma could be a good story if you eventually interview for PE groups with a focus on healthcare/dentistry. At the age you are at, you can hack those long hours, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. I would agree with the other comments about going for what interests you most, but from what you've said, if you're good enough for IB then try and do that with a focus on healthcare (i.e. healthcare sector with piper j.) and eventually go into PE in the same sector which would allow you to deal with the financial and operational aspects of relevant businesses that you find interesting whilst maintaining a financial career - that you've stated you find more interesting. Good luck!

The thing I'm also worried about in finance is what if I don't "make it." What if I don't advance at a bank or a pe firm. There can't possibly be enough spots for people who want to be MDs to be MDs. This is opposed to dentistry where the number of dentists each year is artificially restricted by the number of schools.

Also, I feel like the life of a dentist who owns his own practice is much better than that of an MD since he could choose his own hours. Also, I feel like if you put in thesame hours as finance along with some competitive drive, you could make a very successful practice that provides for a much better worklife balance (even compared to an MD) than any you would see in finance.

Biggest regret I have is not doing medicine and I have it pretty good in finance by a lot of measures!

The thing with finance is a lot of people bring a lot of intensity at grad recruitment level and I think a lot of people have a view that you get a foot in the door, work hard and you can have a solid career but in reality that intesntiy of competition never ends. I know medicine is competitive but finance is a career where you cannot stand still...you either move forwards or your moving backwards...with medicine you can get to a level where you are comfortbale and can just do your job everyday and have a good lifestyle. There is a constant uncertainty iN finance...will I win the client, will I beat my benchmarks, will we close the deal...will I have a job at the end of the year...you just do not get the same extent in medicine.

I think there are many more guys in finance that wish they went the med route but I cannot imagine the same is ture vice versa (to the same extent). That's just a personal view.

Dentist

the way i look at it from a comp perspective you'll initially have a hire comp in IB, but further down the road dentistry i feel will have a higher earning potential. for example u could open up multiple of dental clinics. look at the worlds wealthiest people and you'll see that none of them got their networths' from working for someone else. they are all starters.

Even though I'm sort of interested in finance I don't want the lifestyle associated with finance. During my internship last summer, I saw everything my boss had to go through. This guy is 45 years old, but looks like he's in his late 50's. He gets to the office before everyone else around 7-8am then leaves around 9pm. Not only that, he travels across the country every other week to meet with companies and I've seen his itinerary. It's filled to the brim with meetings with current and prospective clients. There's absolutely no time to do anything after those meetings.

While I may not absolutely love dentistry, from shadowing my dentist it seems like something I wouldn't mind doing. I would love the business aspect and worklife balance of dentistry much more than that of finance.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no such thing as an extremely successful person that DIDN'T work their ass off through their 20's. Sorry bro. Go do some of that tech start up shit and then MAYBE you can make it lounging in a bean bag all day, wearing jeans, and explaining to people how much of a "disrupter" you are.

But seriously, dental/med school are tough shit. Dentists have great hours, but if it's medicine you're looking at (you interchange the words so I don't really know which you're more interested in) you'll be on call for most of your life unless you get into dermatology or some other posh little gig. But even then, it's 4 years of med school, multiple years of residency, and then usually a fellowship if you go into a high specialty. You work just as much and don't make the big bucks until you're thirty by which time most bankers can easily have $500k saved up if they're frugal. Oh, and if it's stress you're worried about in finance...try having a person's life in your hands and then talk about stress. Get real.

I'd just like to echo what others are saying - no matter what you are going to work hard. The fact is, no path in dentistry leads to a a completely stress free existence. The most chill path I can think of is if you were just a general dentist (i.e. no residency), but then you are severely limiting your earnings potential. The types of dentistry that pay anything close to what you'd make in a mid-career PE or HF position will require a brutal residency, which will come with a hefty price. So please do not believe that dentistry is the stress free path.

The only kinds of people I've seen that really love dentistry - and this also goes for the more lax medical specialties too like podiatry, dermatology, or radiology - are the ones who either have a real passion for it or the ones who are just doing it as a life-style profession. Ya know - the 6 hours a day, 3-4 days a week type guys. And believe me, they fucking love it. And if that's you, then fucking go for it. Those guys are on cloud nine.

But if you are planning on cranking it out Monday through Friday, tearing it up with the billable procedures, and that's not where your real passion lies? You will hate it, and you'd be better off maximizing your earnings potential in finance. Especially if that's what you are actually interested in.

Seriously do dentistry, it's an absolute no-brainer, you will have a vocation and a job for life, you will never be destitute. Also, what you do actually improves peoples lives.