Looking for career help

alpha_q:

That's an interesting progression that advanced in your undergrad career. I do think that there is an opportunity cost with respect to getting a dental degree, but in principle all of medicine is not necessarily prudent from an economic standpoint (~10 years of lost earnings or marginal earnings; steady floor but minimal ceiling for physicians excepting major surgeons; burdensome regulatory environment). Do you still feel like you would like to be a dentist (putting the economics aside for a second)? If so, it probably makes sense for you to continue studying what you like. The money will be there and you should be able to pay it back in due course. (I say this because the 300k on the margins would be around the same for you in all in given the MBA comes with a ~200k all in cost not including opportunity cost)

I think you should be able to find something for certain. It's a bit late for recruiting, but you might be able to network around and land something at a smaller shop. The BBA in accounting/finance could help, but I don't think it would be as useful for you given you are looking to do an MBA in the future. One alternative, which also serves a middle ground, could be looking to go into some form of research role at a medical institution or thereabouts. You could do this for 3-4 years, and then head to business school to get your MBA. From there you should be able to more easily transition into healthcare focused IB / consulting given your pre-MBA experiene.

Ideally you would have been a sophomore with time to switch and just take the linear path, but I don't see a real upside for you in pursuing a BBA in finance. Looking to do something interesting that relates to what you studied over this transient period could be interesting for you, and would likely make for quite an interesting MBA application vs. the mountain of uniform finance folks :).

See if my health was right and I get accepted, financially it would make all the sense in the world to pursue dentistry. But I still have some health issues I am working on and I just don't want to end up going into all of that debt and be forced to work with pain and come home in painand just hate my life. The other thing is is that, I hate the sciences, dentistry is the only field in healthcare I like because it combines business with hands on work and helping people, and I figured I could just push myself enough to get through the sciences, and I did do well in them, but I just hate biology, chem, physics, etc. I won't be upset if I can't pursue dentistry. I'm really not interested in lab work or research and working in the healthcare industry. I don't want to be involved in running a business that often times screws over and takes advantage of patients, and forces it's doctor to produce like crazy and not give enough time to their patients.

I wonder if work/MBA is even the best route for me, maybe I could just start a small business now and at least start taking some business classes and see how I like it.

And honestly it would only take me 1.5-2 years to do accounting or finance, only cost 14k(and I wouldn't be paying for it, currently have 0 debt, parents helping with undergrad), and I'd always have a set career to go into as a fall back.

I want to do business, my own and perhaps be working for others and helping their business, but business is unpredictable and I also want something that will provide me income and a stable career.

Maybe getting a BBA in accounting or finance would be beneficial while at the same time I start a business and learn first hand, and I'm sure the classes I'm taking along with starting my business would help.

Then depending on how the businesses go, if it goes well I could quit accounting/finance, or if it goes poorly decide to get an MBA.

I know you said ideally I would have been a sophomore, but time up to a point doesn't matter to me right now. I am still young, single, have no commitments and wouldn't mind going back to school. I used to be the guy who wanted to do everything as perfectly as possible and not waste any time or future income potential, but in the long run a couple years now is not going to kill me and my life is not all about money.