Conferences Unrelated to your Application Program: Worth it?

[psycstudent2018]

Hi all,

I plan to apply to Clinical Ph.D. programs this winter and am debating if applying to ISDP is worth it (International Society for Developmental Psychobiology). So far I have two second author papers, a poster at APA, poster at APS, second author poster at APS, second author poster at FLUX and I think probably a second author poster at ISDP.

ISDP isn't a clinical conference, but focuses on early life environment and stress impacting children. Now I want to study how early life trauma and adversity affects people, so it is somewhat related.

I guess what I'm wondering is if it's worth it to spend the money for registration and travel to ISDP to get another poster and conference on my resume or if I should save that money for applications?

Thoughts?

[higaisha]

I think you answered your own question--if its "somewhat related", its worth the investment. What you described has relevance on a lot of clinical topics, seems like a no-brainer--but only if you have the means. Money spent on a conference is basically never wasted (extra apps though...thats questionable  )