Is national conference worth going to?

[yoyoyoyoyolee]

I was accepted to NCUR(National Conference on Undergraduate Research) which will be held in central oklahoma. Is it worth going for poster presentation? ( I go to an ivy league/did undergraduate conference at my school 3 times already). Seems like NCUR is not that "prestigious" - based on what I am seeing, feels like at least 75% get accepted

I am asking this because I have to pay around ~$800 to travel/hotel(which I can get funding for from school anyway, but the application process takes time) and skip school for 4 days(And exam/homework/lecture are complicated)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[yoyoyoyoyolee]

I don't think it is about prestige? NCUR gives an opportunity to undergraduates to present their work nationally, there is no point for it to be competitive if there is space. Presenting your work at a national level is a great thing to have in your application.
It's usually at the end of the week no? You don't need to be in there for the whole conference, just for when you're going to present.

Also, I did the oral presentation, why didn't you apply for that?

Because I wanted to do poster?

 

[Disciple of Sattar]

You should probably stop choosing what you do based on whether it is "prestigious" or not. If you would enjoy presenting and discussing your research with others, then go. If you don't, then don't go.

 

[yoyoyoyoyolee]

You should probably stop choosing what you do based on whether it is "prestigious" or not. If you would enjoy presenting and discussing your research with others, then go. If you don't, then don't go.

I think it's a valid question to ask given the money involved and time commitment

 

[efle]

I wouldn't worry about skipping this, it's an undergrad-only symposium and you've already done a bunch of undergrad-level posters. If you're looking to build the research resume next step could be posters/abstracts for the conference hosted by national organization for the field, for example for neuroscience would be Society For Neuroscience. Or a pub.

 

[Anti-PD1]

Submit your research to a society national conference, like SfN, or whatever it's related to. Spending $800 on that is more worth your money.

 

[Welshman]

It'll be a lot a standing around a poster talking to the person opposite you and you get to pay $800 to do it, lucky you!

 

[yoyoyoyoyolee]

It'll be a lot a standing around a poster talking to the person opposite you and you get to pay $800 to do it, lucky you!

exactly. Given my background and previous experiences, I don't see this being an experience that I necessarily need/waste my time on

 

[Welshman]

See if you can put it on your CV even if you don’t go

But yeah, you will gain little to nothing from physically attending

 

[Dagrimsta1]

If you wanna go to have and fun and enjoy yourself, then go chill out. If you think its gonna help you for med school, maybe a bit but not that much.

 

[Robin-jay]

I'd go.

 

[plshelpvanxious]

I went, I enjoyed it

 

[Microbug]

A national conference is not the same as school undergrad conference. I think its worth the $800 if you can spare. If you don't want to pay, apply to ABRCMS and SACNAS (more well known undergrad conference) and their travel awards (plus every single school and NIH/NSF/HHMI has a booth there). If you work in micro, look up ASM-URF so you can go to ASM-microbe. Whatever field of research you are in, the big name organization in your field should have travel awards available, look into those. These are more prestigious than undergrad conferences.

 

[Professional Student]

I got accepted as well, but for a talk and not a poster. You should have done a talk as well, because that would have been more worth the trip than for a poster. Also, cut the snooty attitude out because if you really wanted to do a poster then you wouldn’t have made this thread.

I think NCUR is much more competitive than 75% being accepted. The acceptance email said there were over 4000 submissions. I doubt 3000 abstracts were accepted, but I could be wrong.

 

[Carmiche]

I'll be on a panel there!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I did a poster for the AAAS meeting some years back. I’m glad I went. But that was a large meeting with tons of people in many fields. Plus it was in Boston. I brought my girlfriend at the time, and we had a good weekend. If it’s just an undergrad thing that you’d be going only to hit the meeting, then no. Not worth it.

 

[yoyoyoyoyolee]

I got accepted as well, but for a talk and not a poster. You should have done a talk as well, because that would have been more worth the trip than for a poster. Also, cut the snooty attitude out because if you really wanted to do a poster then you wouldn’t have made this thread.

I think NCUR is much more competitive than 75% being accepted. The acceptance email said there were over 4000 submissions. I doubt 3000 abstracts were accepted, but I could be wrong.

"Attendance is anticipated to range from 3000 to 3500 individuals representing 35 to 45 states"
Every year, there is "over 4000 submissions" with 3000~3500 students speaking or doing a poster presentation.
^Considering people who chose not to go, that is a very very high acceptance rate. Most people probably choose to go there because of the word "national"
And I'm not really giving a snooty attitude. $800 dollars is a lot. And the lecture classes/exams I will be missing technically is also money and time I will have to make up. Wouldn't you want to make an informed decision ?

 

[Microbug]

"Attendance is anticipated to range from 3000 to 3500 individuals representing 35 to 45 states"
Every year, there is "over 4000 submissions" with 3000~3500 students speaking or doing a poster presentation.
^Considering people who chose not to go, that is a very very high acceptance rate. Most people probably choose to go there because of the word "national"
And I'm not really giving a snooty attitude. $800 dollars is a lot. And the lecture classes/exams I will be missing technically is also money and time I will have to make up. Wouldn't you want to make an informed decision ?

Then don’t go, go to the ones I listed in my post

 

[Lawpy]

I was accepted to NCUR(National Conference on Undergraduate Research) which will be held in central oklahoma. Is it worth going for poster presentation? ( I go to an ivy league/did undergraduate conference at my school 3 times already). Seems like NCUR is not that "prestigious" - based on what I am seeing, feels like at least 75% get accepted

I am asking this because I have to pay around ~$800 to travel/hotel(which I can get funding for from school anyway, but the application process takes time) and skip school for 4 days(And exam/homework/lecture are complicated)

I wouldn’t go, as it’s not worth the time and money. Instead, try to submit your research to a professional society national meeting and present there.

 

[aldol16]

The point of going to a research conference is to share your ideas to get fast feedback and to see what hot topics others in the field are working on. So graduate students and post-docs usually go to these meetings to get a sense for that and to generate some ideas on what they're working on or what to work on. Undergraduates can go to these meetings as well to network and, if they see themselves working in such a field in the future, to take in the research as well.

You'll quickly realize that these goals are much attenuated in undergraduate research symposia. Undergraduates are full-time students and part-time researchers. Most of the time, the ideas aren't their own and they're working on someone else's project. Moreover, even if they get some ideas at the conference, it's not likely that they'll have the time or expertise to pursue them at their home institution. Since they're undergraduate-focused, grad students, post-docs, and academics generally don't go to those. So you're not going to be able to network. So it sounds like there's not much benefit here.

But if you can get funding from the school, you could use it as a kind of vacation (which is mostly what happens at a lot of academic conferences anyway). I wouldn't pay anything to go but if it's free, why not?

 

[yoyoyoyoyolee]

Any other oooopinion appreciated @LizzyM @Goro !!!!
I'm just curious if it is worth missing classes at school(I find it very hard to miss class and do well at my school) and the money that goes into it(hotel fee). Clearly, it would be a nice experience to have though.
Thank you very much everyone for your time.

 

[LizzyM]

Not worth it in my opinion if you've already had the experience of presenting a poster at some other venue. You should we working on publishing a paper and/or completing a thesis. That's going to move you ahead, not a poster presentation in Oklahoma.