My MS3 son recently returned from a trip to Florida. Next month he’s going to New Orleans. In Dec he’s going to Pennsylvania. All on his med school’s dime for flights, hotels, food. He’s presenting at conferences. Is this typical?
I’m happy that the SOM is paying…lol…but is this normal?
It’s very common, especially if he’s presenting.
About the only thing D1 had to pay was her bar tab on her boondoggles….er…make that her professional development trips.
@mom2collegekids for research presentations, the institution generally reimburses for the tab. Congrats! I know you are proud!
Yes. This is par for the course when presenting research.
D. went to one conference. She did only one research project. It was annual conference though, and she said there were only 3 other medical students there, all 3 were taking a gap year for research. So, she was unique in her own category. She had a poster presentation there, it had positive review in one of the magazines, but D’s manuscript is not published yet, still in reviews (second round). D. was the first author while other co-authors were MDs, nurse practitioner and a statistician.
You S. must have done so many research projects! My D. does not mind research but she enjoys her clinical experiences more and thank goodness her research was actually clinical.
The accommodations were royal, the medical facility affiliated with the SOM reimbursed D. as her research was done there on a grant from a very big company which was sponsoring this research. Not sure if the conference presentation was on this project dime out of grant or on the medical facility dime.
I do not know if it is common or not. D. had to apply and send her poster presentation to be selected for the conference. She did it on recommendation from one of her co-authors, MD.
I hadn’t heard of this, so I was surprised to text S the other day and found that he was in Florida. Then yesterday he told me of these upcoming other trips. I had never heard of these things, so when he first told me where he was, I told him I would transfer money into his acct to reimburse him…and then he told me the SOM paid. (yay! lol)
About the only thing D1 had to pay was her bar tab on her boondoggles….er…make that her professional development trips.
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lol
Well, now I know why SOMs say that they spend over $100k per student per year if they’re flying everyone around, in addition to everything else.
Yes some universities that value research. Others will give a part of it. Those that don’t value research don’t even give faculty more than a couple of hundred to use towards travel. LOL.
^Research is not always at the university at all. D’s was not and money came from the huge international company as a grant, not from SOM.
Well, I’m happy that all of this is more “stuff” to put on the resume! 
MS 4’s need to save their money for interviews! They rack up quite a tab skipping around the country for those interviews.
^Saving money has nothing to do with going to conferences though, as they are not spending their own $$ doing so. Going to conferences is a great thing. D. was very happy to attend one while still a med. student.
Going to interviews is expensive, even applying is very expensive, we paid about $2k for residency applications alone.
m2ck - congratulations to your son. Yes, it is quite important to make contacts while he is flying around since it gives him equal footing with some of the faculty who will also be presenting who will be the same people interviewing him for residency programs.
Has he figured out what he wants to be?
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Has he figured out what he wants to be?
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Well, altho he’s keeping an open mind, he has been strongly leaning towards surgery from the beginning. That said, He’s only in his 2nd rotation (1st rotation was Peds, 2nd is OB/Gyn) and while he “likes” these specialties, he knows that he would’t choose them. He likes children and he likes delivering babies…lol. But, he’s the type to become an orthopedic surgeon.
They rack up quite a tab skipping around the country for those interviews. <<<
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Yes, I’m saving for those trips. He informed me on Sunday that his car is “dying” so that expense is more immediate. 
An entire thread devoted to a Humble Brag; CC has it all.
You know, @jalfred , if this threads bothers you I can toss out a few insulting jokes about orthopedists (AKA “carpenters”)
I’d do surgeons, but there’s already been a thread full of surgeon jokes and I don’t want to repeat myself.
@jalfred I have been posting in this forum for at least 6 years. During that time, I was soaking up as much info as I could about the premed process and med school. Not once did I ever read a post about this sort of thing, so naturally I was curious if this was something that all med schools did or was it something unique to my son’s SOM.
I had just never heard of it, so I posted in the forum where I knew that many parents and med students would immediately know the answer. And, quickly I got the answer that this is what med schools do.
The med school process is foreign to those of us who don’t have family who are physicians. My friends and relatives are mostly all engineers, CS, lawyers, and teachers…so no one to really ask.
It was all new to me…but now I know!
I am figuring out that the schools don’t have to pay in full and can set whatever guidelines they choose. D is presenting a poster somewhere and the airfare alone is 600 but the school is footing 400 for the entire trip.