The Student Room Group
Reply 1
You'd probably have a betting starting salary as a dentist, and if you went into a managerial role in either profession you again could expect to earn roughly the same.
Also words of warning: a dentistry degree form anywhere will be very well respected, but a chem eng degree will give you a lot more opportunity if it has been obtained from a top uni.
Various predictions have been made in the long and short term about these careers: short and long term, we need more chemical engineers and in the long term, we have too many dentists! Maybe you want to think about taht, although at the mo their is still plenty of work for dentists and I'm sure there will be for the next two decades.
yea i saw that these two professions earn the same roughly...


regarding your point about only chem engineer degrees will be respected from only top unis. i havent seen a uni that offers less than 3 BBB's for Meng Chemical engineering and yes it does go up to AAB but it has to be respected from anywhere. i mean a degree is a degree, isnt it?


ps thanx for the help.
Reply 3
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but i dont think a degree is a degree at the end of the day.
When you graduate, im sure the name of the university carries a lot of weight. For eg, for banking (albeit different sector) Merril lynch state that any degree from eg imperial/ucl/warwick/durham would stand you in good stead with regards to getting in, and that they employ people with a wide range of degrees.

also large companies have target unis, where they headhunt, and so theyre obviously going to spend their money going to a good uni as opposed to a lesser uni, in the hope of getting a better quality of employee.

Say you were the employer, would you rather take of a grad from UCL/Imperial/Warwick etc, or someone from Kingston/london met uni (with all due respect), when both have identical degrees, same EC similar individuals etc?

With chem eng, the offers are probably low because of the relative demand for uni places. Dentistry applications for 100 places is in some places approx 3000 i think (i think kings had that last yr or year before).

Erm, thats pretty much what i was told by the HR rep at Merll lynch,.
I originally had my heart set on dent, didnt get the grades, and am hoping to do chem eng at ucl. pm me if u wana chat or w/e
so ... er yeah.
w00tt
Francypants

Various predictions have been made in the long and short term about these careers: short and long term, we need more chemical engineers and in the long term, we have too many dentists! Maybe you want to think about taht, although at the mo their is still plenty of work for dentists and I'm sure there will be for the next two decades.


uhh... no, you are completely wrong there. With the population increase and more people actually concerned about oral care, there is still a huge shortage of dentists and will be for years to come. They enjoy good working hours (unlike doctors), dont need to travel around, well paid and have many other benefits.

The biggest difference i can see is that dentistry is very hands on and you're basically a surgeon, not to mention the aspect of dealing with people on a daily basis and building relationships. I'm sure chem engineers are hands on too since they solve practical problems, but its a different type of profession and its very physicsy. Perhaps you should get some work experience in a surgery and see how things go.