PhD/PsyD How important are conferences during PhD?

[sl0822]

Is it very important to go to conferences during a clinical phd program? Should students aim for 1 per year? What if one has a few first author presentations from before grad school? (e.g. 5 first author, 9 co-author). I ask because conferences can be pricey if not totally covered by program.

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[WisNeuro]

They are important, maybe a bit more later on, especially once you have a "specialty" area. It definitely helps if you know people in your field, and they are familiar with you and your work. Gives you a leg up on the internship and postdoc process.

 

[sl0822]

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[WisNeuro]

Yeah, I went to conferences a lot, but I was doing a lot of research early on and we had decent travel funding. In my later years I only went to my neuropsych conference.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

+1 to what WisNeuro said. You want to try for a handful of posters/presentations (in addition to publications) to help your C.V. The networking aspect is much more important later on in your training, particularly in regard to speciality conferences and internship. Attend/Present at [specialty conference] in your 3rd/4th year if you are planning to apply for internship later that year and are interested in [speciality] work.

 

[PositivelySkewed]

Meh the most useful thing about conferences is seeing eminent people in the field getting black-out drunk. IMO, this comes in pretty handy down the road.

 

[sl0822]

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[PsychBiker]

I have always wondered how one would "verify" your CV if you had noted presenting a poster at a conference but actually did not.

 

[sl0822]

I have always wondered how one would "verify" your CV if you had noted presenting a poster at a conference but actually did not.

Unless they are published abstracts (which you can find online) I think it would be difficult to verify. That being said, it makes zero sense to lie about attending/presenting at a conference.