Art majors make great dentists so it’s said.

In the world of linear career thinking we often take comfort in what we know to be “true.” Pre-med students should major in biology, of course. Pre-law students should major in political science or economics. The problem is that the truth isn’t nearly as obvious as it might seem. Or even true.

While waiting to do a television interview about my book yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with a dentist, Dr. Shane Matt, who was waiting to do an interview about good and bad Halloween candy. (By the way did you know that pretzels and raisins can be worse for your teeth than candy? But I digress…) When he learned that my book was about chaos theory and the lack of connection between a college major and the subsequent career, he laughed. He told me that although he was a science major in college, he now believed that the best pre-dental major would be art. He said that the fine motor skills a student would develop through art classes – not to mention the aesthetic eye needed for cosmetic dentistry– would serve the student well in dental school and in the profession. He also said he wished he had taken more business courses-and that most pre-professional students would benefit from at least a minor in business.

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