Hi Amarbeer, I liked your curiosity
👍👍
Practically speaking, no one gets time to do so as it requires lots of extra time and dedication, you have to maintain your grades (B+ for most schools) to continue research work and DDS/DMS programs hardly give you extra time/space to do so. At least, this bitter fact is so truthful for dental schools I visited, international current students hardly get time to do so. While doing DDS/DMS, I rarely saw anyone doing RA till now. It's just overwhelming thing !!!
I personally have very little interest for research but assisting a professor with research provides many other valuable opportunities including developing a mentoring relationship with a faculty member, professors know you very well by this experience and may favor you getting outstanding letters of recommendations. So, indirectly, RA (research Assistant ship) experinece helps to give you admission for DDS/DMD in the same school in future.
# How to convince a faculty member at dental schools?
firstly, you gotta visit dental schools nearby you and visit them at regular interval to be friends with current students there. Current students may introduce you to a faculty member actively involved in a research. Keep your files and documents ready to show all your previous best achivements and be a 'pakka' (strong) salesman/woman the day you get opportunity to sell yourself. Learn presenting yourself and lead a faculty member towards the direction you want him/her to be, Let faculty know that you're interested in getting involved in research. Approach faculty during office hours and ask for leads on who might be looking for research assistants. When you find a faculty member who is looking for an assistant, carefully and honestly describe what you can offer (computer skills, Internet skills, statistical skills, and the number of hours per week you're available). Let the faculty member know that you're willing to work hard (be honest!). Ask about specific requirements such as the duration of the project, what your responsibilities will be, and the length of commitment (a semester or a year?). Remember that while you might not find anyone working on a project that you find fascinating, you will obtain excellent experience; besides your interests most likely will change as you gain more experience and education.
Explain him/her that you can do the following for him/her:
- Collecting data by surveys and interviews
- Scoring and entering data into a spreadsheet
- Conducting literature searches, making copies of articles, and ordering unavailable articles
- Developing thoughtful and lively new research topics, build ideas on them
- explaining your Intermediate/advanced computer skills such as word processing, specific software knowledge, spreadsheet, scheduling and statistical analysis programs
- Assisting in preparing submissions for local conferences
- Working on poster or oral presentations for professional conferences
- Assisting faculty in preparing a manuscript to submit the results of your collaborative research to a scientific journal
Bottomline - self-confidence is the key, convince a faculty member about your very much own potential, activeness and enthusiasm for the subject!!!
No process in the world is one sided. Symbiosis works almost every single place. Newton's THIRD law tells: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!!!
Don't think only you get benefit out of RA, Benefits are for Faculty too: They get a hardworking student to do some labor-intensive parts of research. Many faculty have ideas for studies that they don't have time to conduct. This way, faculty witnesses a student's professional growth, which can be quite rewarding in future to get admission into the same school. As you can see, student-professor research relationships offer benefits to all involved; however, the commitment to become a research assistant is a big one.
I prefer 'CLINICAL RESEARCH' and I feel it comparatively is easier to get in,
Things You will Need are (Minimum requirements, more is better!):
1) Previous Clinical experience (varies)
2) Bachelor of Science degree
# Steps:
1. Prepare to become a clinical research assistant by obtaining the necessary educational requirements. You will need a Bachelor of Science degree and few years of practical clinical experience in applied dentistry, previous research in home nation or even let it be dental material companies/pharmaceutical industry/similar background organization.
2. Expect that you may be able to become a clinical research assistant without having any previous clinical experience if you possess an
advanced degree, such as MDS or Ph.D. from home country
3. Be prepared to demonstrate excellent organizational and communication skills. The clinical research assistant is often called on to recruit investigators for clinical studies, as well as prepare protocols, draft procedures and reports and present them at meetings and conferences
4. Be aware that you should have at least a basic understanding of statistical analysis and data management systems
5. Know that the clinical research assistant also plays the role of "watchdog" in terms of making sure clinical trials adhere to regulatory standards and ethical guidelines. To this end, you must be familiar with Good Clinical Practice standards regulated by the Federal Drug Administration.
6. Various online professional organization offers an annual conference, networking resources to find a job as a clinical research assistant, advanced educational courses and
certification programs
7. Browse the online classifieds on the Society of Clinical Research Associates website to apply for a position as a clinical research assistant
Hope it helps
👍👍👍,
nehra
