How important is Research for specializing?

[zthang]

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So I've been admitted to a dental school, and I think I might want to specialize once I graduate. I want to give myself the best chance of having that option open for the future. I know it's all about GPA, board score, and rec letters, but my question is how important would having research experience be? Will it even help at all? and if so, how much would it help?

 

[dentstd]

So I've been admitted to a dental school, and I think I might want to specialize once I graduate. I want to give myself the best chance of having that option open for the future. I know it's all about GPA, board score, and rec letters, but my question is how important would having research experience be? Will it even help at all? and if so, how much would it help?

Depends on the student. Are you a Researcher or a Pipetter? Too many people think research is about cleaning beakers and pipetting one solution from one array to another. Publications is the hallmark of the true Researcher.

 

[H2OPOLODENT]

So I've been admitted to a dental school, and I think I might want to specialize once I graduate. I want to give myself the best chance of having that option open for the future. I know it's all about GPA, board score, and rec letters, but my question is how important would having research experience be? Will it even help at all? and if so, how much would it help?

Its practically required for certain specialties (ortho), very important for others (OMS, endo) and not so important--although still a bonus--for others (pedo). I'm not in dental school yet, but this is all coming from stuff I've read on this website.

Not a huge fan of research myself, but I'll do it if it gets me into the specialty of my choice.