Conference Considerations

I am a first year DPT student and find myself in a similar situation.  Although I am very interested in attending conferences, if they fall in a busy or difficult time during the school year or the financial burden is just a bit too much to bear, I'm sure I'd have to excuse myself from going as well. I believe attending these conferences is such an integral part of our learning experiences in PT school; if only it were easier to just go! Additionally, I also worry if the information presented will be over my head.

Our PT club is working very hard to procure additional funds that could be spent to help reimburse some (more) of the students' cost of attendance at conferences.  This would make it possible for more students to travel to conferences of their choosing.  Until then, our student leaders have come up with a plan that I've been quite impressed with so far.  One of our 2nd year students attended a great conference last semester and gave a presentation for the rest of our department at a recent PT club meeting.  He outlined the basics of cost, travel and networking, and shared with us what he felt was the most notable information that he learned.  It was great because only one or two students from our whole department were able to attend that conference, but we all learned something from it!  This will now be somewhat of a "required," presentation for students who are fortunate enough to attend conferences.  I doubt there will ever be a time where an entire class of PT students will be in attendance at the same conference, so bringing back and introducing the important topics to the rest of the department is crucial.

Like you mentioned, he also worried about the possibility of some of the the material being "over his head." He has since discovered that although some of it might have been at the time of the conference, as he's advanced in the curriculum, he's already been introduced to topics that may have been new material otherwise- he's already a step ahead!