How important is research experience? I want to go to all the 3 Texas Dental schools (baylor, houston, austin) Is it better to do some research or do more shadowing?
How important is Research Experince?
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I too would like some insight on this topic. Personally I have three research poistions in the past four years and two of these have been in a dental related field (periodontitis and oral cancer). Despite this, I only have approx. 100hrs of dental volunteering and 55hrs of shadowing which is less prestigous/innovative but more practical. So, just like the original poster, I don't know what would "look better" although there is probably a certain amount of subjectivity depending on who's looking at the application.
Great points! Also I think for both activities, i feel it is more about quality of ur experience than quantity of hours. I mean after all, it comes down to the interviews. if u can't talk about what u have done in ur research or during ur time shadowing, the hours u put into the activities won't matter (no matter how much time u put into it)
Last year I applied at UTDB and SA and got into both schools with zero research experience. I was also a non-traditional applicant, meaning no Biology or Health science related undergrad or graduate degree. However, I did shadow two dentists for about 4 months (about 4-6 hours a week).
So, as long as you have good GPA and DAT with shadowing experience, you should be fine! Also, make sure you do well in your interviews – That is just such a huge thing for these schools. Good luck !!
Not important at all.
I have almost 5000+ hours of research, multiple papaers as first author and did my thesis under one of the top reseach groups in the world.
I think the most important thing is your STAT, GPA and DAT.
I give all that up for a DAT of 25, 25, 25 🙂 because that would help much more than all that research.
I have almost 5000+ hours of research, multiple papaers as first author and did my thesis under one of the top reseach groups in the world.
I think the most important thing is your STAT, GPA and DAT.
I give all that up for a DAT of 25, 25, 25 🙂 because that would help much more than all that research.
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his is what I think as well; the numbers get you in.
Although I've been told many times by professors that research and publications are really important in medicine. They don't see why it would be any different in another medical field such as dentistry. I know at least at my school, having a first author publication is a huge boost to a med school application. If it's in a journal with an impact factor 10-15 or higher, they'll literally put you on a pedestal. I guess they see research as not only learning the concepts but also applying them in practice.
From what I'm seeing here on SDN though, it doesn't seem to be the case with dentistry. So, I guess the research experience only helps you after you get in. I would imagine it would definitely help you apply classroom concepts to clinical/laboratory practice.
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^ Yeah, this.
Some schools pride themselves very much on their research, while some schools aren't as well known for it despite having accomplished researchers as faculty. Do your due diligence beforehand and learn about the schools you are interested in -- UCLA, UCSF, Harvard, to some degree Columbia and to a lesser degree Penn. Sense a trend here ? The big name schools are also schools that dig research experience. In this regard, you do scientific research when you apply to these schools so you don't stick out as the person who didn't do any research.
Don't get me wrong though... schools known for their excellent clinical education like Louisville, Creighton, Loma Linda, and UoP also have some strong researchers, so opportunities are there. Research just isn't as encouraged or as stressed a part of the curriculum for undergrads as it is at Harvard.
heres a thing tho.. i hear from a lot of people that once you are in dental school its hard to do research since you are so busy with the curriculum. Then what good is the research experience if you are not gonna be able to do it when you are actually in school? and wouldnt the ad comm know about this as well and not give so much credit on all the research related experiences?
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I would think research experience would be an extra plus for SA because of how much research they do. But you'll be fine without it.
I think it depends on the student and what you get out of it. For me, I feel I did better academically because I was doing research, rather than just memorizing things for a test. 'Doing' research, by this I mean actually having an intellectual contribution to the experimental design helps you as a student tremendously IMHO. (As opposed to what some people call 'doing' research, which are just duties: labeling tubes, pippetting, and taking care of cells in a research lab setting.)
I think that it can be helpful for dental school because it can give your application an entirely different aspect and gives you something to talk about at interviews in addition to regular boring stuff. As someone posted earlier, I agree someone with solid GPA and great DAT scores might be a shoo in, but for the vast majority of applications who fall in the middle of the bell curve, meaningful research experience may give them the leg up (at least I hope, because that is where I fall!)
I think that it can be helpful for dental school because it can give your application an entirely different aspect and gives you something to talk about at interviews in addition to regular boring stuff. As someone posted earlier, I agree someone with solid GPA and great DAT scores might be a shoo in, but for the vast majority of applications who fall in the middle of the bell curve, meaningful research experience may give them the leg up (at least I hope, because that is where I fall!)
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i agree 100% with this statement. A lot of people say they are doing 'research' when they work in a lab; doing dishes, pipetting, cell culturing, etc. What they don't get is that they're just doing 'lab work', which imo, any monkey can do.
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What good is research experience ... are you serious ? MANY schools have the following mantra -- training dentists committed to lifelong learning. Research is one way of showing this character. It's not so much about whether you will become a research scientist. Save that discussion for later. It's about character, and how things like community service and research experience help to define it.
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This is true. But is research experience the make or break of a successful dental applicant?? Research is definitely the make or break of a successful dental career.... but it seems like adcoms/aadsas turn a blind eye to research.
I hear from med school applicants that there is actually a section devoted to research where you can summarize your work and is actually significantly weighted. It seems dental adcoms focus purely on numbers. In this regard, it's quite unfortunate. I hope this isn't the case though.
Very Ture.
I personally think that Dental schools just look at ones DAT score and over all GPA.
I don't think they look at the course load, the trend in one's GPA, the real life experiences or research or ... I know they say that they do and... But I just don't belive it especially when they say, they look at each year GPA and look at the trend that student shows and...
As long as you have the Over all GPA and DAT score, you are good to go.
i did research for 3 semesters and it was ****ing miserable.
everyone is different, some ppl like doing research and contributing to the experimental design and blah blah blah. and then there are ppl like me who go nuts out of boredom from sitting under a microscope and doing pcr all day. it just wasnt fun for me, i need to be doing something active.
research takes a lot of patience, especially when dealing working with other researchers because often they want you doing things their way even if it makes no sense at all.
So what did i get out of doing periodontal research??
i learned some good skills like pcr, histology, histometry, and growing bacteria.
More importantly, i learned that i dont like research. After doing it i was even more motivated and reassured to go into practical dentistry.
everyone is different, some ppl like doing research and contributing to the experimental design and blah blah blah. and then there are ppl like me who go nuts out of boredom from sitting under a microscope and doing pcr all day. it just wasnt fun for me, i need to be doing something active.
research takes a lot of patience, especially when dealing working with other researchers because often they want you doing things their way even if it makes no sense at all.
So what did i get out of doing periodontal research??
i learned some good skills like pcr, histology, histometry, and growing bacteria.
More importantly, i learned that i dont like research. After doing it i was even more motivated and reassured to go into practical dentistry.
Then it sounds like it was a valuable (at least you know now), if not frustrating experience for you. Glad you are confident in your decision.👍
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I can't say for sure what dental adcoms exclusively focus on, but I sincerely doubt it's a purely numerical metric. Once you enter dental school and meet your classmates, you will see it for yourself -- there is a pretty wide range of GPA's and DAT scores. There are of course, "intangibles" like maturity and leadership and extracurriculars like volunteering and research. Research is just one avenue to show your love for learning. It's the recommendation letter that you get from your researcher that really tells the story.
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Order of importance when it comes to getting into a Texas school:
Being Texan > Being Texan > Being Texan > GPA/DAT > Research/EC's
🤣
I keed! How do i end up in all these Texas threads? In all seriousness: I was only part of a limited amount of research and not having any will not keep you out of any but the highest tier Dental Schools (UCLA, UCSF, Columbia, Harvard)
Being Texan > Being Texan > Being Texan > GPA/DAT > Research/EC's
🤣
I keed! How do i end up in all these Texas threads? In all seriousness: I was only part of a limited amount of research and not having any will not keep you out of any but the highest tier Dental Schools (UCLA, UCSF, Columbia, Harvard)
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for those of you who said you dont enjoy research, have you tried clinical research? i have 2 years of clinical research experience (albeit in medicine, not dentistry) and love it. i can imagine how basic science research can get dry at times though, as many lab positions are nothing short of glorified dish-washing. but then again, clinical research is mostly just chart review and statistical analysis...
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I like you. I hope you review my application LOL
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Once you bag around 100 hours of shadowing, get into research. If definitely helps. It gives you something to talk about during your interview, just know all the fine points of the research you're doing cause they will definitely ask you to explain what you've done. Of course, you could just be a smooth talker like me. 😎 Then no research required
