From Teaching Assistants to Dental Students
It feels like just yesterday when I got the call from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Admissions Office. Getting accepted into their incoming class of only 34 students felt truly unreal. At the time, my identical twin sister and I were working as teaching assistants for an undergraduate class, and we had been told that acceptance calls would begin that day. So when my phone began to vibrate with a Massachusetts area code, I ran out of the lecture hall, leaving 200 students looking back at my sister and me.
Standing outside those doors as I received the news, I experienced an intense rush of emotions: profound gratitude that years of relentless hard work had finally paid off, immense excitement for the future, and a sharp, paralyzing anxiety that my twin, who had applied during the exact same cycle, might not get the call. For a few frantic seconds, I was ecstatic but terrified. Then her phone rang.
When she was also accepted, it felt like every late-night study session and sacrifice was instantly worth it. The second-best part of that conversation was finding out that we had both been awarded a yearly scholarship. While those funds ultimately covered only a fraction of our cost of attendance, we were incredibly grateful for any ounce of support. For the rest of our tuition, we did what the vast majority of graduate students have to do: we took out student loans.
Comparing the True Cost of Grad Programs
Now, as Harvard-educated dentists, my twin and I use our social media platforms to mentor the next generation of predental and prehealth students. No matter where students are in their journeys, they always ask us the exact same questions: “Is graduate school actually worth it?” and “How much does it really cost?”
First off, the reality of any professional program is that it is extremely expensive. Since our other sister attended law school, we were already familiar with the financial burden. That experience, along with our own paths, gave us a clear, firsthand view of different graduate schools and their respective price tags. The final numbers often surprise people. So let’s rank them, from least to most expensive.
Number 3: Law School
The reality is that law school is the only one of the three that is inherently a three-year program. The exception to this is accelerated healthcare tracks, which are rare anomalies in their own right. While a three-year commitment to a top-tier law program easily costs low-to-mid six figures, the fourth year of tuition required by healthcare doctorates means taking out more loans and planning further ahead.
Number 2: Medical School
Medical school’s financial commitment takes a massive leap. By the time an applicant factors in four years of tuition, living expenses, and mandatory board exam fees, which honestly feel endless, they are looking at an investment ranging anywhere from $200,000 to well over $350,000.
Number 1: Dental School
Yet dental school still takes the top spot as the most expensive graduate school. If prospective students think medical school is a heavy burden, some private dental programs in the United States are pushing total costs of attendance past $700,000. This staggering price tag is directly tied to the cost of specialized equipment and training supplies, including loupes and sim lab materials.
This financial divergence only intensifies after graduation. With medical residencies, graduates typically earn a modest stipend or salary. Meanwhile, many advanced dental residencies, such as orthodontics and endodontics, actually require additional tuition while earning zero income. The exception is if the program is affiliated with a hospital or is one of the rare programs that offer free tuition.
Depending on the school, you may be allowed to work on weekends and moonlight as a general dentist, but most residents still have no income during residency, causing student loans to pile up even further.
Drawing from our own experience, we recommend College Ave to help students set up a financial plan that works for them, not against them. Their dental school loans can cover up to 100 percent of your school-certified cost of attendance with zero origination fees, terms up to 20 years, and a grace period with residency deferment, so you can focus on school, not payments. It’s a system built to set students up for success, no matter their financial background.
Shifting Your Mindset: Applicant to Informed Consumer
We always advise prospective students to shift their mindset from being an applicant to an informed consumer. In the hypercompetitive application cycle, it is easy to get trapped in a never-ending checklist: shadowing hours, your personal statement, secondaries… the list just goes on. Instead, ask yourself: “Which school do I actually want to go to, how much will it truly cost, and what is my ROI?”
To calculate this, prospective students should ask informed questions to the schools they’re applying to:
- What exact percentage of your graduating class enters private practice immediately upon graduation?
- What do the starting salaries look like for recent alumni?
- What is the comprehensive cost of attendance when factoring in localized rent, equipment fees, and licensing boards? Many students forget to account for their living expenses and usually equate the cost of attendance only to tuition. That matters because those added costs directly affect your return on investment.
What Makes a Grad Degree Worth It
Ultimately, it’s crucial to make well-informed choices prior to choosing a grad school. If you know a professional path is for you, it’s always worth it to go chase your dreams. My twin and I knew early on that advocating for increased access to oral health and advancing the dental industry was our true calling. That clarity helped us pursue a path to elevate patient care and help dental owners optimize their clinics through technology.
A professional degree is incredibly powerful because it isn’t a one-size-fits-all track. It grants you leverage to innovate and impact the field from many different angles. For instance, we were recently flown to Los Angeles to appear in three episodes of a TV show, a pinch-me moment, to show young girls that women belong in STEM and have the power to lead the way in science and technology.
The debt associated with graduate programs can be daunting. However, when you understand the costs, plan for your ROI, and stay passionate about advancing the field, these paths remain incredibly transformative and rewarding.
