<p>I was accepted and will be presenting at the upcoming 2014 HTCC conference (<a href="http://htcca.org/conference/">http://htcca.org/conference/</a>). I was able to squeeze it into my additional comments section with the academic update besides previously putting that I'd hopefully present in my essay section. I did not note the uniqueness of my research nor the amazing discovery I made due to the time frames and the limited space in the comments section. Though thinking about it, I really should have noted my research plans in the essay; <em>facepalm</em>. Thus, in regards to UCSD:</p>
<p>How much 'weight' does simply presenting at the conference give my application if any? Any scale you can think of is fine, I'll be able to determine a +/- % val.</p>
<p>As well, what are the ramifications if my discovery holds true in the future or the fact of performing research at a CC for later stuff like graduate schools and such? </p>
<p>~Danke schön</p>
<p>Notes: Keeping it as discovery to not spoil the surprise for anyone at the conference and such. Calculating my own percent acceptance chance, as a sigh of relief and because I'm quite a bit bored lol.</p>
<p>Currently UCSD doesn’t factor in the personal statement into their admission decisions so it likely wouldn’t hold any weight. Berkeley, UCLA, UCI, or UC Merced do however so if any of those are also target schools then it would have been worth mentioning. </p>
<p>In terms of graduate school, the more you’ve been involved in research and any other significant academic extracurriculars the better. Conferences in general are great experience just for the networking alone and a huge part of graduate school admissions can be as much “who you know” as it is what you’ve accomplished. Sometimes, just knowing a potential PI or post-doc in a lab that you’ve impressed at a conference can get you admitted into graduate school or at least get your foot in the door with the admission panel. I think if you compare someone that’s presented at a few conferences to someone that hasn’t even if the GPA is slightly in favor of the latter, the favor is definitely to the former. The fact that you’ve done significant research and presented it to an audience would hold a tremendous amount of weight because that’s essentially what you’ll be doing in grad school. You’re always going to presenting your progress to your lab members and your PI and justifying the significance of your research and your methods.</p>
<p>So in summary, while I think it won’t help you for admissions here at UCSD, it will help you in the long run when you apply to graduate school. It also looks good on scholarship applications while you’re still an undergraduate. One parting word of advice – when you’re at your conference bring business cards with your contact information so that you can hand them out to the important people you meet. This is fairly common at academic conferences and it will also make you look more professional and memorable than if you’re trying to give out your email address or phone number. Also, talk to as many people as possible because you never know who you’re going to meet and how they may be able to help you down the line. Good luck! </p>
<p>Awesome, thank you very much. I hadn’t thought about bringing business cards either, I’m going to make some right away :D.</p>