How important are conference presentations to Ph.D apps?

[cooperstreet]

So here is my story.

I flubbed my first couple years of undergrad, lost my scholarship, and almost flunked out. I switched majors (twice), would up graduating with a 3.1 cumulative. Then I applied for a MA program in a different field, got accepted, graduated with a 3.85. I wrote an MA thesis, which I worked hard on and feel is a pretty good piece of work that challenges the current historiography (of course I do).

I presented my thesis at a couple of grad student conferences (which I hear are not that big a deal), then got accepted to present it at a regional conference in a broad field. I, surprisingly, got another acceptance to present my thesis at the annual conference for one of the top organizations in my field (they also publish one of the top journals).

So, in preparation for applying to Ph.D. programs, how big a deal is it to present your original work at these conferences? On the one hand, I'm sharing the stage with established people, but on the other hand, my acceptance to these conferences was dependent only upon a brief abstract, which summarizes, but does not represtent, my work.

Will presenting at these conferences set me apart from others applying to top 25 Ph.D programs? Or will only publication in a top journal do that? Thanks.

[Snasser]

I think that conference presentations are important enough. While you only need to submit a short abstract to present a paper, this is still a vetting process. I also think that your performance as a graduate student will carry more weight in an application to a PhD program than your undergrad performance. If you are still concerned about the value of conference papers, I would suggest submitting one or all of them for publication and/or mention a desire to do this in your application. There is a professional expectation that at some point you will publish what you present at conferences - but in due time - the point of a conference is to get feedback and to take part in academic discourse.

Good luck on the application process!