I think you are right.
Most people will have very strong opinions about GPR vs associating. I think neither experience is uniform. You can have an associate year where your skills atrophy and you can have a GPR year where you learn a lot but it really doesn't apply to private practice dentistry. On the other hand you can have an amazing GPR year and you could really get a select associate job and get fast and good in the "real world".
You hear the debate raging on this site, dental town and other web sites. People have really chewed up this topic. One thing that drops out of the threads is that so far I have yet to hear someone regret their GPR year looking back on it from a few years out (many regret it during the last 6 months). I have heard of associates looking back, feeling insecure and wishing they'd done a GPR/AEDG.
The second that drops out of these debate threads is that there are those few in d school with vision of exactly what they want. They are goal setters and they create opportunities to learn CE courses, make plans, contact everyone and learn everthing they can. These people seem very content with their choice not to GPR when looking back. They are generally outgoing personalities with drive to learn and good patient relationships.
Although this may sound like a cop out, I really think there are good arguments pro and con and ultimately its a personal decision.
From people I talked to (who did GPR), I would say they mainly fall into 3 categories:
1. People who are not confident about their clinical skills, and find themselves emotionally edgy towards seeing patients in the real world. Typically, these are the people who will always recommend others to do GPR, because GPR (to them) is all about boosting their general dentistry skills.
2. People who wish to further build their credentials to get into specialties (i.e. a lot of people who shoot for pedo and endo but don't meet the cut-offs usually fall into this category). These people will be more selective about what programs they apply to, as they want GPRs that provide more emphasis in areas they wish to specialize in. You will not see this group of people recommending GPRs to others, unless you are in a similar situation as they are.
3. People who are ready to practice in the real world, but wish to focus their dentistry to certain procedures without the goal of specializing (i.e. implants, oral sedation, etc). These are the people who wish to accept cases in their practices where others refer out to a specialist. Just like people in category #2, they will also be very specific about what GPR programs they apply to, since they wish to invest more education/training to gain more experience in areas of their choice. These guys usually don't recommend GPR unless you share similar philosophy.
Then there is a category where people from any of the above groups regret doing GPR all together, due to bad experience, or simply over-estimated what they would get out of their programs.
Again, this is just a perosnal observation. Unfortunately, it ultimately comes down to what a person really wants to do after they finish school.
