AGU 2014

[ssynny]

Hi All,

 

I didn't see a topic on AGU for this year and was wondering if anyone knows if they're going and/or presenting. I really want to go and my POI wants me to, but it's a little pricy out of pocket. I don't know if it's worth the dip into savings . Anyway, a few of the grad students I work with are going and it seems like it'll be a fun conference! 

[GeoDUDE!]

I went out of pocket the year I applied and I thought it was worth it; Its probably going to cost you ~1000 dollars. I ended up going to a school whom i couldnt meet the POI, but I made a lot of contacts. It also helped that I knew what to expect since I presented there twice when I was an ugrad. I didn't present last year, but found it fun anyway!

 

If shared a room last year and had about 1 mile walk to moscone every day and it cost ~ 30 dollars a night.

 

The real kicker is food: SF is super expensive, but luckly there are ways of getting past it. Its somewhat unhealthy, but I would get the subway breakfast sandwich every day which was 2 dollars. it was generally sausage or egg or bacon and eggs, cheese and all the veggies you want.  I felt ok about it because i had a really healthy lunch: food from Whole foods. You can get a really hearty meal from whole foods for less than or about 10 dollars as long as you avoid a lot of heavy items, their food is sold by weight.  There is free beer at the end of the day at AGU, and there are "parties" that departments host that often give away free drinks. Its usually the bigger programs that do it, and if you can find a friend that has once been affiliated with them then you can go. If you want drinks at dinner, and if you are going with people who aren't paying out of hand, its going to be expensive. Its pretty hard to get dinner under 20-25 dollars in the city. If you go with more frugal people, then again its going to be more like 10 dollars. Since I go to SF a lot (I have family there) and am from california, I often convince people going to dinner with me to go to the mission district on the bart and get a 5 dollar mission burrito that blows their mind. Mission burritos are literally the best thing ever invented. So thats another way to eat cheaply, eat a ton of mexican food that isn't chipotle, though there is one near there.

 

so if you are doing a tally, thats about 70 dollars a day i spent on room and board, which makes 350 dollars for the week. Registration for the week ~250 dollars, and tickets were ~300 (flying from St. Louis) because I bought the tickets ahead of time. So I did it for probably a little under 1k. Thats a lot of money, but its also pretty cheap for 5 days in SF and AGU is a lot of fun, you can think of it as sort of a vacation. Of course, its probably during your finals week (as it is mine). 

 

 

 

I'll be presenting there this year, should be a lot of fun. 

Edited August 13, 2014 by GeoDUDE!

[geographyrocks]

I REALLY want to go, but I don't have anything prepared and I can't really afford it.

Ssynny: does your school have conference funds? I think mine offers up to $500, but you have to present. I need to look into it more.

[ssynny]

GeoDUDE: It sounds like you had quite the adventure last year! And thanks for the tips on how to save money!! My POI has mentioned a few times how much he wishes I could attend, so I'll look into it a bit more. Are you doing a poster or a talk this year? Both the grads in my lab decided on a poster since they're too shy for a talk at this point.

 

geographyrocks: My school does have conference funds, but very little. The PIs end up paying for pretty much everything and it's a little tough to convince them to pay for me to go when I'm not presenting haha. The flights to Cali are just so expensive!

 

In general, if you decide to attend AGU, should it be for just a day, a couple, or the whole week??

[GeoDUDE!]

GeoDUDE: It sounds like you had quite the adventure last year! And thanks for the tips on how to save money!! My POI has mentioned a few times how much he wishes I could attend, so I'll look into it a bit more. Are you doing a poster or a talk this year? Both the grads in my lab decided on a poster since they're too shy for a talk at this point.

 

 

 

If you are flying in, definitely go for the full week. Its great, especially since its your first time. SF is one of the great cities of the world; even if you attend for a few days stay the week in SF. 

 

I might only go for a few days since my school is very close to SF. 

 

I'm not sure what I'm doing; I definitely have 1 poster, but the other abstract I submitted might be a talk depending on what the session conveners decide. the subject matter of my maybe talk i've presented in a thesis defense so I am pretty comfortable with it. Besides, posters are so much more work because you have to talk to so many people (i've lost my voice a few times doing so).  

 

Getting contacts and listening to people talk in your subfield can help you with ideas for your dissertation/proposals. AGU is what converted me from pure physics to Earth Sciences, the community is awesome!

[geographyrocks]

Have you looked into this? http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2014/general-student-travel-grant/

D'oh! Just realized today is the 15th and the applications were due the 13th. Orientation this week has my brain frazzled!

Edited August 15, 2014 by geographyrocks

[ssynny]

If you are flying in, definitely go for the full week. Its great, especially since its your first time. SF is one of the great cities of the world; even if you attend for a few days stay the week in SF. 

 

I might only go for a few days since my school is very close to SF. 

 

I'm not sure what I'm doing; I definitely have 1 poster, but the other abstract I submitted might be a talk depending on what the session conveners decide. the subject matter of my maybe talk i've presented in a thesis defense so I am pretty comfortable with it. Besides, posters are so much more work because you have to talk to so many people (i've lost my voice a few times doing so).  

 

Getting contacts and listening to people talk in your subfield can help you with ideas for your dissertation/proposals. AGU is what converted me from pure physics to Earth Sciences, the community is awesome!

 

Yeah San Francisco seems like a really cool place! I'll try and see if I can go . I always thought talks were much more work, but yeah with a talk you just present your findings once to a bunch of people, with a poster it's multiple times. How much time would they give you for a talk??

 

 

Have you looked into this? http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2014/general-student-travel-grant/

D'oh! Just realized today is the 15th and the applications were due the 13th. Orientation this week has my brain frazzled!

 

Well thanks for trying to help!! It's tough to find funding since I'm in between schooling :\

[GeoDUDE!]

The talks are around 15 minutes total (including questions)

[ssynny]

I'm a little late to the thread (since abstracts were due 2 weeks ago) but I'll be at AGU this year.  It's a pretty fun, albeit overwhelming, conference to attend.  I went once in undergrad and then again in my second year of grad school.  Definitely get someone else to pay for it though.  Also, look for people to split a hotel with (or just crash on someone's floor).  I'd let someone crash in my hotel if they needed to.

 

 

 

My advisors have told me to always apply for a talk because it'll look better on a CV.  That said, talks can be very hit or miss...if you get an 8am talk on Friday you might have 5 people in the room but if you get a good slot then you could get a very big crowd (e.g., last year I got a really good slot and they actually had to kick a few people out of the room because it was over capacity).  You'll get a lot more feedback on your work if you present a poster (or so I've heard, I've never had a poster at AGU).  People will cycle through all day and give you a ton of advice/critiques/feedback.  My old advisor said that the best presentation slot you could get was a poster at 5pm near the Beer tables.

 

Definitely try and stay for most of the week.  It'll be a lot less stressful if you do.

 

Sorry for the late reply! Work got busy :\. Thanks for the info! I feel like if I did a talk at AGU, I would want a smaller crowd my first time haha. It's not looking likely that I'll be able to attend this year, but I'll definitely look into reading the abstracts