Research Opportunities as a non student?

[sonlc1]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm 22 years old and I don't have a car and I work at an accounting firm for 30-40 hours a week to pay my rent, living costs, and tuition. I can't afford a car and both my parents can't support me financially. The more I read about it, the more I'm falling in love with dentistry and dental research. What worries me the most at the moment is all my pre-dental associates are always talking about their research and how much time they are putting into it. My schedule is gruesomely tight because I have to be punctual at work and I don't have a car. I am so pressed for time at school I don't even get to chit chat with students for a few minutes after class because I have to rush to the bus stop. I never have the time to go to on-campus meetings or stay on campus for anything other than my lectures. It's been like this for the past 3 years and I'm just discouraged that I don't have the time to invest in research like most predents/meds.

So my only option now is to wait till I finish my undergrade and earn my degree so I can free up that class time to do some research and along with my main job. The big question is...do research opportunities exist(or at least as abundant) for people who are no longer students or if anything, would researchers prefer giving the opportunities to current students over a person like me? Sorry this may be a very naive question but I gotta start somewhere. I'm already grown comfortable with the fact that I would probably have to spend a couple years out of undergrad to build up my dental school application to be competitive. Anybody have any experience with this? I would really appreciate some advice. Thanks

*edit* I hope this also helps: I do volunteer during the weekends as much as I can and have job shadowed some dentists for around 20 hours. GPA around 3.1-3.2(I know it's low) but I'm confident I can get at least 3.5 or better.

 

[sonlc1]

bump

 

[sonlc1]

bump!!!!

 

[a1pha]

Well are you looking into research because that's what interests you or because you think you need it to be competitive for admissions? By no means is research required for a pre-dental resume and it's definitely not worth taking an extra year or two off to achieve. If that's what you're doing this for, you'd be much better off investing that time building up your resume with volunteering, shadowing, or even DAT studying.