If you have any idea about applying this year…you must attend this years conference. Why? Because the contacts you can make by going may help you get in. The information you get…will be worth $1000’s. You simply must attend this conference if you have any quibbles about your application.
Sign up now…it may cost you later if you don’t. 
Who are these contacts and what can they do for me? 
Theresa
I have attached a downloadable version of the agenda for this year's conference. As you will note, there are several presenters that would be of great benefit to any applicant.
If you have additional questions, feel free to post them here.
Hi Folks,
To have Judy Coldwell and David Graham at the same conference is worth their weight (combined)in gold, platinum and diamonds. Nowhere in the country will you find information resources that you can meet and question face to face, that will provide you with professional information that you can use to make your application competitive. To get this kind of consulting, you will pay far more than the nominal cost of the convention. Along with the convention and information, you are going to get Washington, DC and all that it has to offer for a song. Try to get to DC and see how much you would have to pay for the same hotel room without the OPM discount. You are going to be well above the $200 per night range and you wouldn’t have the benefit of Ms Coldwell and Dr. Graham. You can potentially pick up the one thing that will put you in the Class of 2008 versus staying home and not getting in.
Application to medical school is an investment in time and money. You can’t get more bang for your buck than attending this year’s OPM convention in Washington, DC.
Natalie 
I'll add that the encouragement, comradery, humor and information is priceless!
OPMs are a terrific group of people…individually and collectively knowledgable bunch of people too! Please join us in DC…IMHO you can't go wrong by attending OPM's annual conferences.
Come out and play!
| QUOTE (njbmd @ Feb 23 2003, 02:32 PM) |
| Hi Folks, To have Judy Coldwell and David Graham at the same conference is worth their weight (combined)in gold, platinum and diamonds. Nowhere in the country will you find information resources that you can meet and question face to face, that will provide you with professional information that you can use to make your application competitive. |
Hey Natalie...thanks for this wonderful endorsement! I'm blushing at your enthusiasm and hope I can continue to live up to your description. :-)
Cheers,
Judy
Here is what they can do for you:
1. Help you see chinks in your armor: Cost approx. $1000 in mispent AAMC fees
2. Show you how to play up your strengths. Cost $2500 in consulting fees because you failed to mention you had done X while in post bacc or undergrad and some school would have loved to have known it.
3. Speak personally with medical students and others who are in, or are going in. Cost $3895 in airfares to 4 different cities, food, hotel and cab fare.
4. Hear the latest on what is happening at some schools and get a grand opportunity to meet some adcom’s face to face. Cost: $1000 in airfare, blah blah blah, you get the picture.
ALl in all you save roughly $9,000 by going to DC as opposed to winging it on your own and getting dissed because some 22 yr old have a .1 GPA difference than you and you failed to metion you took care of Aunt Minnie who had Ebola and you saved her.
Its your choice…buit I would go. BTW, I’ll be there. 
Hope I don’t frighten you away.
Okay, okay, I’ll be there!!!
Actually very happy to report that the conference has made it into our budget for the Spring. I convinced my husband that the saved $$$ in good advice and not needing to reapply to med school next year make it worthwhile!
Theresa
ok, that makes 6. We need 24 more people to break even…any takers? Come on down. Last year we had 50 people at the conference and we had a blast. Unfortunately this year we will not be at Dicks Last Resort so you won’t get to see Greg Shimma wear his “It burns when I pee” hat. 
I am certainly going to be there. I found Judy Colwell’s website about 1 year ago and planned to contact her for a consultation. What a blessing it is to know she’ll be there to provide a wealth of information. I hope there is a good turnout for this conference since this will be my first. I am eager to meet so many of you. I too have asked my husband to budget for this conference and this will now be part of my summer vacation. I am looking forward to absorbing as much information as I can to continue this journey.
Having attended last year’s conference in my city of residence, Dallas, I can tell you that I learned a tremendous amount that I didn’t know about the med school process, and have been successfully using it this year. I have made major changes in my budgeting and finances to prepare for med school financial aid (thanks to Now$Loan rep Carmen), I have 5 great LORs that I worked at getting, thanks to advice given by OldManDave, and I had a blast meeting everyone last year. Not only does information help you in the financial sense (as Joe practically pointed out), it helps you to define your goals, take care of problems in your personal progress, and gives you contact with people already in the field, which is PRICELESS! If you are an OldPreMed, esp if you are at a school who is not supportive of OPMers (like I am), then I would doubly suggest attending the conference and meeting all of the successful OPMer’s that my own pre-med advisor brushed off as “anecdotal”.
Kathy