Research is certainly not required for pediatrics (or any specialty for that matter). What it does is enhance your application package. It's nice to have more "enhancements", especially for more competitive residencies. Publications are good, but it can be hard to get something done while in med school and there's a fair amount of luck involved. It's good that you're thinking about it though. You never know if you will change your specialty choice -- I was hard core ortho until I switched in 4th year (because I wanted to, not because I had to). People asked me about my research when I interviewed, even though it was in ortho and we didn't publish anything.
One last thing, if you do stick to peds, you should consider Rochester's program, it's only 50 miles away and, in my opinion, much better.
Ed
My advisor in medical school told me to try and get as many "feathers in your cap" as possible.
What he meant by that is that there are a ton of things that residencies like...grades, aoa, extra-curricular activities, leadership activities, research, letters of recommendation, dean's letter, volunteer work, board scores, interview. the more of these you have or are good at, the better you will do.
so, if your grades and board scores suck, you werent involved in any activities, and you have average letters of rec, then research becomes much more impressive. on the other hand, great board scores and grades with great letters of rec, lots of volunteer work, and aoa status, then research is no longer as impressive since you already have so many great things on your cv.
so to remain competitive, without doing any research, just make up with it by pursuing other interests. one caveat, if you end up wanting to do residency at a top highly research-driven peds program (i.e, boston or chop) then research becomes very important regardless of how good you are. but for most residency programs, research is just one more thing in a long list of things they look for in candidates.
and keep in mind, research is a requirement for almost every fellowship program and many peds residencies incorporate a residency research project into the curriculum. so early exposure in medical school may be beneficial. and research in pediatrics (or any field) isn't only basic science research on a bench in a lab. there is public health research, ethics, clinical research, and other things that are more tangible and you may enjoy. so keep an open mind, as you may come across an interesting question that you want answered, opening your eyes to an interesting research project that may not be as tedious and time consuming as you imagine. if you change your mind, always talk to the peds attendings at your school, as they are always looking for eager med students to help out with their projects.
