How important is being named first on a poster board?

[nbdyspcl]

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How important is being named first on a poster board?

My research team and I are presenting our work at a conference soon. They were going to write my name first, but I forfeited it due to a sudden moment of weakness. The minute I went down, they jumped at the chance, and now I'm probably going to be last despite the work and hours i pulled in.

I don't really care about name placement. I plan to go onto graduate school and am aware that I will have many opportunities to be first on a poster board. What mattered more to me was the experience and the relationship I got to build with my mentor. On the other hand, how important would it have been to the eyes of a PHD or MD admissions committee to have been named first on a posterboard? Not comparable to a first author publication, right?

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm wondering how badly it might have affected my chances of getting into graduate or professional school. I'm hoping it's not a dealbreaker sort of thing...

 

[pfaction]

I haven't gotten accepted into any program yet so maybe I'm not the best person to say this, but I had a second authorship on a paper and 4th authorship on a poster (3rd author on that paper, submitted). Didn't seem to affect my interview #s at all. They want to see if you can describe what you did and how you did on the project overall. If you're aiming for MD school I highly doubt it'll matter. If MD/PhD, maybe being last author on the poster will hurt, but if it's not a national poster and just a campus presentation it probably didn't have much weight to begin with.

 

[Neuronix]

This isn't a big deal. I doubt it will affect your application at all.

 

[nbdyspcl]

This isn't a big deal. I doubt it will affect your application at all.

Could you further explain that?

 

[Neuronix]

Could you further explain that?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=539268

3) Do I need to publish to get into a program or into a top program?

NO. For the one millionth time. NO. It may help, but it is certainly not required. We know that a lot of factors go into publishing and many times these factors are completely out of an undergrad's control. I had nothing published when I applied and that is true for at least half of the people in my year (including the international student).

That goes for posters as well.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Could you further explain that?

1. Nothing to sweat about this particular poster.

2. Learn your lesson from this: don't let someone take away your appropriate authorship. Sometimes these things lie outside of your control, but when it's up to you, don't needlessly refuse to take credit.

3. Professional judgment tip: on-campus local institutional poster days are irrelevant and shouldn't even be included in an application. I only list peer review publications and posters at (inter)national conferences.

 

[StIGMA]

3. Professional judgment tip: on-campus local institutional poster days are irrelevant and shouldn't even be included in an application. I only list peer review publications and posters at (inter)national conferences.

I completely agree with you once you are in graduate school or beyond. However, for undergraduates with limited research experience (few or no publications, few or no regional/national conferences) it is acceptable to include institutional poster days/institutional oral presentations on applications to graduate school/med school. This is especially true if you are proud of what you accomplished.

To the OP, this does not affect your application to an appreciable extent. Your PI should be able to speak to your contributions in any letter of recommendation that s/he writes, and this letter is what is really important (not the poster).

 

[pfaction]

Agreed with Stigma: For my international presentation I listed it as a full-out activity in AMCAS, for the on-campus poster I put that I was an author of it in my lab description. I found this was a great balance.