About research experience! help!

[Jobe]

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I participated in the genetics research for about 2 months, which was only about 50 hours.
I only did it from October to December of last year, but I had stop doing research due to academic conflicts and DAT studying..

so, 1. Can I consider this as my research experience even though my name is not listed in the publication?

2. Also, do dental schools actually call my school to check if I did the research with the professor?

3. What kind of questions do interviewers ask you about research experience?

Thanks!

 

[dentaldam5]

1. Yes

2. Don't lie, they CAN call...

3. I was asked "tell me about your research"

 

[Jobe]

1. Yes

2. Don't lie, they CAN call...

3. I was asked "tell me about your research"

Did all of schools that you interviewed with ask you about your research experience?

What was the main story in the majority of the interview?
your experience? the reason you wanna become a dentist? about yourself?

 

[sfrice80]

Every single school I interviewed at with the exception of Midwestern asked me about my research, some of the questions got real detailed depending on the interviewer. They can call and find out but in all honesty it's easy to figure out whether you legitimately did research just by talking about it.

 

[Jobe]

Every single school I interviewed at with the exception of Midwestern asked me about my research, some of the questions got real detailed depending on the interviewer. They can call and find out but in all honesty it's easy to figure out whether you legitimately did research just by talking about it.

hey um..
my research was about genetic analysis using drosophila and basic purpose of the research to figure out what the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in specific developmental processes is by assigning chromosome linkage to each unknown gene and by testing if a gene is on chromosome X or 2 or 3.
But.. unfortunately, i was not able to finish the entire research since I had to stop after working for about 7 weeks.. which was only 50 hours..
So what I did for those 50 hours was..
1. I basically crossed the wild type fly with mutant fly. I did this for 3-4 times with different mutant flies.
2. Then I had to determine which one was sex-linked. Also, I had to determine which phenotype of either mutant or wild type flies was dominant by scoring at least 200 flies of each cross.
3. Then I basically had to collect data and go through big punett squares in order to determine which which phenotype (eye color, hair, wing) was dominant.

This is what I basically did for 50 hours..
I didn't finish the research.. so.. I was not able to find out the role of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in developmental process..
Wouuld this be okay???
Thanks!

 

[dentaldam5]

Yes, that is OK. You performed research and it should be stated in the research experience section of the application. And, if asked during an interview, explain exactly what it was that you carried out. The research did not have to reach any sort of milestone for it to be mentioned.

 

[sonofapizzaman]

The best piece of advice that I received from my pre-med advisor was to keep it simple! Try not to get overly detailed (I think what you have written is probably good). You don't want to put yourself in a position where the interviewer is asking very specific questions about your research, and it would likely be you that leads them to do that.

Remember, they have had plenty of scientific training, but they will likely not be experts in your field of research, so if you make it more confusing, they'll ask more questions. Don't say anything that might lead you to a place that YOU don't understand because you could get stumped.

Also, they should understand that you are also no expert. It takes years to master a research topic.

 

[Jobe]

The best piece of advice that I received from my pre-med advisor was to keep it simple! Try not to get overly detailed (I think what you have written is probably good). You don't want to put yourself in a position where the interviewer is asking very specific questions about your research, and it would likely be you that leads them to do that.

Remember, they have had plenty of scientific training, but they will likely not be experts in your field of research, so if you make it more confusing, they'll ask more questions. Don't say anything that might lead you to a place that YOU don't understand because you could get stumped.

Also, they should understand that you are also no expert. It takes years to master a research topic.

Oh okay.
One more question.
The professor that I had research with might retire next semester.
What happens if the dental schools call my school to check if I did the research with him?

 

[artist1980]

I've seen contradicting posts answering this question, so now I don't know what the best thing to do is.

I co-authored research articles. When listing/describing the activity (with its 175 character limit), is it better to:

1. Write the entire article name, despite taking up all the space and being unable to describe any specific tasks within the research.
Like: "V-Star eye laser treatment of dermatological rhytides". Poster presented at American Academy of Dermatology Conference, Louisiana April 2004.

OR

2. Briefly refer to the subject of the investigation, and use some space to describe what I did.
Like: Investigated treatment of dermatological rhytides. Created protocol for three-armed study. Ascertained subject progress with monthly assessments.

Thank you for your help.