Is research really neccessary?

[dollarbincommon]

Hi guys,

At the moment, I'm planning for the courses for my fourth year. For all the fourth years here, we have the option to do a thesis (research work under a professor). It's one of those research that you have to make a poster and write a report and present to a panel of professors.

But I know ALREADY, that I HATE HATE HATE research work. I HATE lab work with all my guts. I don't think research is "interesting" or mentally challanging. I think it's mentally frustrating.

I know that doing a thesis will look good on my application. But for my fourth year, I just want to take classes that I enjoy instead of something that I hate.

Honestly, do you think research is really important? I guess I am going to be an average applicant.

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[(nicedream)]

It's not necessary in the least. No DO school will look down on you for not having research.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Hi guys,

At the moment, I'm planning for the courses for my fourth year. For all the fourth years here, we have the option to do a thesis (research work under a professor). It's one of those research that you have to make a poster and write a report and present to a panel of professors.

But I know ALREADY, that I HATE HATE HATE research work. I HATE lab work with all my guts. I don't think research is "interesting" or mentally challanging. I think it's mentally frustrating.

I know that doing a thesis will look good on my application. But for my fourth year, I just want to take classes that I enjoy instead of something that I hate.

Honestly, do you think research is really important? I guess I am going to be an average applicant.

I don't know if its necessary for DO schools or not, I would suspect not since research in the DO world does not *seem* to occur at anywhere near the magnitude that it does on the MD world.

However, why not do everything you can do make your application that much stronger. I think its better to do something and say, "Damn this sucks," while you are doing it rather than not doing it and saying, "Damn, I wish I would have done that."


Take with grain of salt.
Adrian

 

[Adapt]

I didn't do research and I did fine even at MD schools. I would say especially at DO schools, you do not need it. Hospital experience is more important. DO schools emphasize primary care so if an applicant does not have research, it is ok.

 

[DocRadak]

As others have said, lack of research for DO schools is not horrible. Having it will only make your application that much stronger. I hate research as much as you do, but I did it for 2 years (year 1=volunteer, year 2=paid employee) and the letter of recommendation from my research professor/boss only made my application stronger. Plus I got an honest amount of ass-pocket money out of it. If you are an average applicant, as you said, maybe you should consider it. But it just depends on your confidence level for your application.

But if you simply cant bare it, dont do it. You'll hate every mintue of it. I only stayed as a research employee because the professor and the grad students I worked with made it an awesome experience.

It all depends on you and what you want to do with your senior year.

 

[raDiOnut]

dollarbincommon,

I found mysefl in about the same position last year. I hate working in labs, but I was required to do a thesis for my degree. So, I designed my own project which is more oriented toward field research. I'm studying SARS and safety in the Emergency Medical Services. For the first part of my project, I spent a week in Toronto interviewing paramedics and staff from Toronto EMS. Next, I'm hoping to spend some time at the CDC in Atlanta. All research in the sciences does not have to be in a lab!

raDiOnut

 

[Amy B]

If you don't have any research, rest assured that is ok. Unless you apply to a heavily research oriented school, you won't have to worry about it. During one of my meetings with a dean of admissions when I was an undergrad, I told her I had no desire to do any research and how should I handle the topic if it ever came up in an interview.

Here's what she told me. "No research is just fine, but you have to know how to handle the topic if it comes up during an interview. Never tell them you aren't interested in it because they may love research. Simply tell them, you wanted to do some research, but unfortunetly have not been able to fit it into your busy schedule and leave it at that."

This was from the dean of an MD school. It never came up in my DO interview. Well actually I brought it up because one of my interviewers was doing cancer research which I am actually interested in now. We talked about it but she said they don't allow MSIs to do research because they want all the focus on the first year classes.

Bottom line- you are fine without it. Don't worry about it. Good luck with your 4th year classes.

 

[PublicHealth]

Contrary to the above posts, I think my research is what got me into DO school. My interviewers seemed thrilled that I had several years of research experience and that I had published a few papers. One of them even went so far as to say: "Osteopathic medicine needs people with strong research backgrounds. People like yourself will be pioneers in osteopathic research."

Take it for what it's worth. Osteopathic research is gaining momentum. Research experience may set you apart from the rest of the applicant pack.

 

[DireWolf]

If the question is... is research necessary? The answer is a resounding No.

If the question is... will research help my application? The answer is a resounding Yes.

Just for some anecdotal evidence... my research was brought up in about half of my interviews. I got accepted to all the schools regardless. So it probably helped but definitely was not the deciding factor in gaining admissions.

 

[Amy B]

I need to add to my post. I agree (GULP) with direwolf, it can add to your overall application. But if you don't want to do it, then don't feel like you have to. If your application is great now, don't worry about taking it when you truely don't want to.