Hey guys, I’m about to go off for college in a year. I had some dilemma as to what I should choose as a career. I’m a pretty good student (other people call me smart) who performs well in school. I am stuck between choosing to become a Product Manager or Dentist. I was looking to do Product Management (tech) because the job allows you to be a mini-CEO of a certain function/product of a company and the job will make me prepared to make a tech startup. PMs get to be at the forefront of leading innovations in the tech industry. PMs don’t get outsourced because they’re the ones in control. I was looking to Dentistry because I was interested in teeth every since I was a kid and like the surgical and hands-on aspect of dentistry. I also liked the idea of creating and owning several dentist practices which can be passive-investing like real estate (requires a lot of work and is worth it). However there were several drawbacks.

For Product Management, I saw that you have to move into a high COL city to have get more opportunities and pay. I also think that the U.S. will collapse very soon because of hyperinflation, debt to GDP ratio, endless printing, and real estate bubble collapsing (I don’t know if tech will collapse as well). I also don’t think PM is a transferable skill because you get the role based on your knowledge and understanding of the product (I hope I’m wrong). For dentistry, I’m worried about the massive student loans that I’ll have to take out ($500,000) and the possibility of failing dental school (I just want to be a general dentist, so I have heard that I just have to pass). I’m also worried that I will have to focus only on dentistry and not have any room for more sources of income.

For university, I’m probably getting a full ride to a state school. For PM, I was going to major in systems and industrial engineering (maybe a minor or double major in computer science). I would move out and house-hack (sign mortgage and rent out rooms to tenants, and then sell the house after graduating) to cover housing and food. If I’m pursuing dentistry, I would do a direct bs-dmd program that guarantees admission to dental school and would have to live with my parents for 7-8 years (I’m not taking any risk with not doing the program because it’s getting harder to get into dentistry school so I want to save myself some of the pain). Personally, I want to move out and do some investing and build a startup while in college. I’m also a person who doesn’t stagnate in terms of career because I want to constantly improve myself. What do you guys think I should do? What would you do if you were in my shoes?