I want to mention that I’ve been to 3 of these premedical conferences, once in Colorado and twice in Crystal City Virginia and every trip has been well worth the time and expense.
It’s no exaggeration to say that these conferences helped me to get into medical school. The contacts I made, which yielded much valuable advice and information not to mention multiple letters of recommendation, the face time with advisors and admissions officials from schools I was interested in, and the networking with dozens of others in my age cohort and life situation–people changing careers, people with families, people harboring fears and doubts about their ability to hack the curriculum–this was simply invaluable to me at that stage.
Just being able to meet and talk to others in my situation made my plans seem more realistic and achievable, and there was the extra bonus of my wife becoming convinced as well. The wealth of information and perspective that this experience will confer upon you is extraordinary. I went from being surrounded by a bunch of gunner premeds in my post-bacc program (with a premedical advisor who specialized in “realistic” advice) to realizing that many others have successfully executed this career change and it is eminently achievable.
Anyone who is on the fence, who is reluctant to go waste time at a conference, who doesn’t want to travel–take a look at the schedule for this conference and think about how the information these presenters have to offer might affect your application plans. It’s a bargain at $75–heck your textbooks cost more than that–and will be money well spent.
One thing I have found extraordinarily useful from the conference is how they go from early premed all the way thu residency. When I first started this I really had no idea what lay ahead after acceptance from medical school. Even though I am still working on getting in, I have at least some framework to think about what I need to due after with medical school, STEP exams, strategy for clerkships, residency, etc. This gave me a complete picture of what I was getting into.
It was also fascinating to hear each of the speakers at my first conference in 2003 respond a question I posed to all of them: “when did you know you wanted to be a doctor.” Everyone of them had an “epiphany” moment, like I think we all do. For example, one had been a nurse/nurse practioner and went thru the premed process not really sure until at the interview realizing he really to be a doctor. Another, now a chief at a transplant section in NIH, was professional classical musician, never even thinking or mentioning it to anyone and just hit hime one day that he wanted to me a doctor.
From both a informational standpoint as well as a motivational pers[ective, I find these conferences simply worth the money, and more important, the time.