Am I too old to go back to school to be a dentist?

[kiwifruit2]

Wow, these are all very insightful answers. I am glad I found this forum. Much better than Yahoo Answers. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to answer my question.

[CaseENT]

You're age will certainly not prevent you from getting into Dental school. I'm my med school class there were kids starting in their late 30s. Some schools preferentially let in traditional young applicants while others are more open minded. What degree do you have now? If you are 26 and only have a high school degree it is going to be a long road. First, I doubt you can go the community college route. Dental school is competitive to get into and don't think they will be taking people from community college. Also you need to do well on standardized tests to get into dental school. Ask yourself if you are the type of person who can score in the upper 25% of standardized tests. How well did you do on your SATs?

Careers like physician's assistant and nursing will be an easier path and still offer six-figure incomes. They are also going to be challenging to get into but much less so.

[MovedfromFL]

Keep in mind that it is not easy to just "be your own boss" and open a dental practice from scratch! It takes a LOT of money, time, and knowlege. Plus, it will take awhile to even get your operation in the "black."

Personally, going to dental school is not the route I would take if I were you. Sure, you can do it, but the risk is pretty high. How about dental assistant, physical therapist, physician assistant, LPN, or RN? These fields are also in demand but are more attainable and won't put you $250k in debt.

I worry that the dental field is becoming oversaturated. Not everyone has dental insurance and this could be an issue with finding customers. Local dentists in my area are offering coupons for as low as $100 - exam, cleaning, and x-rays for uninsured customers. I guess they need the business.

[catasonhos]

Hello everybody,

I am another person who is dreaming of doing Dentistry this year or the next. I have actually a bachelor and master degree in Industrial Management and a less than two years of working experience. But I would like to go back to school and dentistry. Well, there are a lot of obstacles for me such as the payments or my age as I am becoming 31 years old in less than two months or even my education. I had some doubts to even going for dentistry as I started contacting universities and searching for schools and found out that for me as an international student there won't even be any scholarships or proper loans. But mostly I was concerned because of my age which after redaing your comments or in other pages I have got encouragement to go for it. But here I have got a question. How can I even get through it? How should I convince authorities at school that I am a good candidate and should get admission? What should I emphasize on during any internview or in my resume. By the way, I would be happy to know why some of you in your 30's or 40's after doing something else like engineering or even being a houswives want to go back to school and especially doing dentistry? have you ever talked about your motivations for doing it during your interviews?

I will be so happy and more encouraged if you guys try to give me some piece of advice.

Thanks for your concern.