research experience... is it worth it??

[uki323]

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Hello 🙂

I am currently a Junior at UC Berkeley, and I am taking 16 units this semester.
I have no clinical experience and I was thinking that I should start volunteering at a clinic near by the campus. But the professor that I work under discourages any EC besides the lab experience...
To be honest, he is a very demanding professor. But working in his lab is a good experience because he promises every undergraduate researcher that he/she will publish a paper sometime before graduation lol. He also expects everyone to work atleast 20 hours per week... (ave. 20-30hrs/wk)

So my question is:
Should I keep working at the lab until I publish a paper? (would probably take another year) or should I quit the lab and focus on getting more clinical experience at a local dental clinic??

Any advise/recommendation will be greatly appreciated 🙂

Thanks!! 😀

 

[Pat Kelly]

what kind of clinical experience will you actually get? Unless you get some work/volunteer as dental assistants, it's not worth your time to shadow for an extended amount of time.

 

[allstardentist]

you gotta do both but focus on research more. Getting your name published will get you interviews at harvard, ucla, columbia, and other well known research schools

 

[Neuro178]

you gotta do both but focus on research more. Getting your name published will get you interviews at harvard, ucla, columbia, and other well known research schools

Wow! I hope that's the case with me.. I'm in the process of publishing my paper with my professor.

20-30 hours a week of research sounds EXTREME for an undergrad student to do on top of normal courses. I worked 40 hours a week during the summer without any other classes! (Granted I was studying for the DAT during the summer too, but it's a little different compared to having 4-5 classes.) I'd say that since you got the research experience, I'd move onto clinical work. I think it's on the rare side to get published in undergrad, so just having research under your belt will probably make you an appealing candidate.

I'm actually doing both - I'm researching for 2 credits a week (something like 6 hours??) and volunteering at a rural clinic once a week for 4 hours. It's all a juggling act sometimes in my opinion. If you want clinical experience, I'd say GO FOR IT! 😎

 

[somethinpositiv]

20-30 hours a week of research sounds EXTREME for an undergrad student to do on top of normal courses.

I don't think so. Most of my friends have jobs and work 20-30 hours a week, and do well in school. Also, a majority of bio majors I know work in a research lab in addition to classes. Other people I know put this much time into sports and extracurriculars, and still do well with a full load of classes.

I don't think this is extreme, I think this is normal. It is good preparation for dental school to be this busy. When I visited UoP, I was told to take a full load of classes while working 40 hours a week, to prepare for and simulate the 8:00am to 9:00pm schedule at Pacific in case I get in (fingers crossed).

I think you should do it. Research as a pre-dental student definitely makes you stand out as an applicant (as opposed to research as a pre-med, which is typical and expected).

 

[klutzy1987]

I don't think so. Most of my friends have jobs and work 20-30 hours a week, and do well in school. Also, a majority of bio majors I know work in a research lab in addition to classes. Other people I know put this much time into sports and extracurriculars, and still do well with a full load of classes.

I don't think this is extreme, I think this is normal. It is good preparation for dental school to be this busy. When I visited UoP, I was told to take a full load of classes while working 40 hours a week, to prepare for and simulate the 8:00am to 9:00pm schedule at Pacific in case I get in (fingers crossed).

I think you should do it. Research as a pre-dental student definitely makes you stand out as an applicant (as opposed to research as a pre-med, which is typical and expected).

I shadowed and volunteered at a clinic, did research, presented my research at a conference, and was published, and still found time for school and sports and all the fun stuff.

 

[dabramo]

I am currently doing research with genetics an am putting in about 20 hours a week. I think it is def. a good experience and worth it. I t will prepare you more for a busyy dental school schedule. On the other hand, you need to think if you can handle it because you might overwhelm yourself and do badly on your classes which will only put you at a dissadvantage.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I shadowed and volunteered at a clinic, did research, presented my research at a conference, and was published, and still found time for school and sports and all the fun stuff.

How do you have time to do all this?

 

[klutzy1987]

How do you have time to do all this?

Well I had no College on tuesdays and Thursdays nights, so on those nights i played ball. On sunday nights I was off so i played ball then too. I had no classes monday mornings and tuesday afternoons so I did research then. On fridays mornings I shadowed at the clinic. In all, I put about 10 hours of research, 6 hiours of shadowing, sometimes more, and the rest were class. After 10 there were no classes so I always had late nights off so i always had time to go out then and have a good time. If i needed to study i would rearrange my schedule.

 

[Neuro178]

How do you have time to do all this?

Yeah really... I feel inadequate! I take about 20 credits a semester, mostly science, and end up spending soo much time in the lab thanks to physics, microbiology, physio psych, and my independent study research. There's no way I could do 20 hours of research a week. 10 maybe, but not 20. I'm also in a bunch of clubs.. I have classes every morning 8am-noon, then labs from 1-4:30pm every day, except for Monday afternoons when I volunteer at the clinic.

Almost no one at my school works outside jobs. I didn't realize this was the norm??

Moral of the story: you gotta do what's right for you. As you can see, it varies what a person can handle.

 

[alanan84]

And if you have a job and actually support yourself, you're screwed because you literally have no time for research. Unfortunately I fall into this category.

 

[somethinpositiv]

And if you have a job and actually support yourself, you're screwed because you literally have no time for research. Unfortunately I fall into this category.

Well, the solution to this is paid research 😉

Do a summer paid research internship. There are tons of opportunities, most associated with universities, some with hospitals, and some with pharmaceutical companies. They generally pay between $2000-$5000 for the summer, and many provide housing.

 

[supraman]

take the research before someone else does

 

[alanan84]

Well, the solution to this is paid research 😉

Do a summer paid research internship. There are tons of opportunities, most associated with universities, some with hospitals, and some with pharmaceutical companies. They generally pay between $2000-$5000 for the summer, and many provide housing.

That's a great idea but not really a solution to all. As a predent, you know that if you're lucky enough to have the luxury of taking a summer off of school, which I haven't yet, you pretty much have plenty of other areas to dedicate your time. Shadowing, studying for the DAT, doing a summer predental program, along with your job that you just can't quit for the summer. If you've got a family, again, that's me, you can't just pick up and move to some random city for the summer.

I'm not trying to be devil's advocate here but I would really love to do research, there's just a limit on the time that I have and hopefully dental schools will see that. It can be frustrating to see people doing all this cool research but just literally not having the time to do it yourself.

 

[excusezmoi]

Hello 🙂

I am currently a Junior at UC Berkeley, and I am taking 16 units this semester.
I have no clinical experience and I was thinking that I should start volunteering at a clinic near by the campus. But the professor that I work under discourages any EC besides the lab experience...
To be honest, he is a very demanding professor. But working in his lab is a good experience because he promises every undergraduate researcher that he/she will publish a paper sometime before graduation lol. He also expects everyone to work atleast 20 hours per week... (ave. 20-30hrs/wk)

So my question is:
Should I keep working at the lab until I publish a paper? (would probably take another year) or should I quit the lab and focus on getting more clinical experience at a local dental clinic??

Any advise/recommendation will be greatly appreciated 🙂

Thanks!! 😀

IMO you should do both. Research is a great especially if you have a published paper. I personally think it's a plus. While you also need dental clinical experience which can be done at least 4-8 hours a week or every other week. That's kinda how I did mine, during weekdays I do research+school stuff, weekends dental xp. hope this helps