Do dentists live in apartments temporarily before buying anice big house?

Sweetie, one of my best friends is a dentist. And I have to tell you some things you need tounderstand:

First of all, becoming a dentist isn't cut-and-dried. First you have to qualify for dental school, andthat means a minimum of three years of undergraduate college, usuallly with a major in thebiological sciences or what the colleges call "pre-professional." This is to meet the entrancerequirements for dental school. It takes Choosing Correctly - Caring for your Teeth at least threeyears to meet these requirements before you can even apply, and most applicants get a Bachelor ofScience degree before applying.

If your grades are in the upper 10% of your class, and if you score well on the GRE exam, then youcan apply to dental school. No guarantee that you'll be accepted; many more people get rejectedthan get accepted.

If you get accepted, you have four years of dental school to get through.

What this means is that you will have to find a way to pay for 8 years of college before you earn yourdental degree and earn even a dime of money. My friend the dentist estimates that it can cost you inexcess of $175,000 to complete your education to become a dentist. Since most people don't havesufficient savings to pay for this much school, most people take out loans. Many dentists start theircareers with $80,000-$100,000 in school loan debt to pay off, usually over a period of 10-15 years.

How much a dentist earns depends to some extent on where he/she practices and what kind ofdental specialty, if any, he practices. It also depends on whether he works as an employee of a clinicor dental group, or as a partner in a practice, or owns his own practice.

My friend is a partner with four other dentists in a practice that has two offices. When you own yourown practice, you have to pay the rent for the office, the salaries for the administrative workers (likethe receptionist who does the appointments, the person who handles things like billing and orderingsupplies, the janitorial staff that cleans the office, and any other people necessary to run the office).You also have to pay for all the supplies the office uses, and for things like malpractice insurance,which for certain kinds of specialties can be very high.

If you're a partner or own your own practice, since you're self-employed, that means you have to payfor your own social security tax, and you also have to pay for all your own benefits, like medicalinsurance for yourself and your family. If you intend to take vacations, you may have to pay to haveanother dentist cover for you when you go on vacation.

So you can see, it isn't just about how much money you earn: you need to take into accountexpenses, which can be quite high.

As for buying a house, that's an entirely separate thing. FWIW, my friend the dentist used to own hisown house, but when he and his wife divorced, the house had to be sold, and he had to live in anapartment for a while. One of the other dentists in his practice has been married and divorced twice

and is paying child support for 5 children who will all be in college at about the same time. No housefor him anytime soon!