I presented my poster about some of the research that I conducted at a major research conference. The conference is pretty important, as many presenters flew in from around the world, most presenters were from prestigious universities (Stanford, UCSF, MIT, Harvard, etc.), and I was the only high schooler (or even undergrad for that matter) presenting. How significant of an accomplishment do you all believe this is? How prestigious is it compared to, say, a State science fair first place category / Siemens semifinalist / STS semifinalist? Thanks for your input in advance!
First off, congrats on presenting at a prestigious conference. Similarly, I also presented at one of these conferences, where I got to meet many professors from universities such as Harvard. However, I would say that it is not as prestigious as wining an award as say Intel. When you compete in these competitions, you must beat out hundreds if not thousands of qualified applicants by presenting your project well. Thus, you gain a more quantifiable award than simply “presenting at a conference”.
Hey, thanks for your reply! I agree with your opinion wholly. While a research conference is rewarding and does expose you to top scientists, it isn’t as quantifiable as winning the prestigious competitions like Intel and Siemens. Luckily, I recently was named a Siemens Semifinalist for my project as well…So I’m hoping that that award can show that my project was legit and strengthen the significance of presenting!