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I'm weighing the costs/benefits of going to a conference in New York despite living in Seattle.

My main motivation is that I want the undergraduate thesis I finished earlier this year to be published. In the future I may decide to apply to graduate school and search out opportunities to do research in a different topic.

If I just showed Universities/future job prospects that I was accepted at a conference would it carry as much weight as being a published conference paper?

My reasons for not going basically boil down to: -Its a big hassle and investment time/money -The conference could be rather dry -I want to go but how do I know that I won't just change my mind about it later after already committing?

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  • Attendance does nothing for you. Have you submitted the paper and has it been accepted for presentation? Deadlines have passed, of course. – Buffy Sep 16 at 0:02
  • Yes my paper has been actually accepted for presentation, sorry for not clarifying that point – Claudiu Moise Sep 16 at 0:12
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    Generally in CS, conferences are the preferred venue for publication. If your paper would be withdrawn for non-attendance then it would be a mistake not to go and present it. This is especially true if IEEE publishes a proceedings, as I assume (I'm not a member). – Buffy Sep 16 at 0:15
  • @Buffy: I think "it would be a mistake not to go and present it" is too strong for the student apparently having to pay himself. – user114084 Sep 18 at 8:54
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If you see yourself in an academic setting in the future, this could help you. It's no guarantee, but it is very likely. This is a merit in the academic world. If you are coming from computer science and going into industry right away, and are done with academia, the published paper will not matter. CS people get jobs anyway without much trouble.

You'd need to try and see this as an investment into your future career IF you want to work in academia. Otherwise it's a cool item on ones resumé, but it won't nessecarily add much after you've gained some work experience which I'd like to guess will carry heavier weight than the paper.

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  • "It's a cool item" sounds like a better motivarion to me than "some person will put higher weight in this when evaluating you". – user114084 Sep 18 at 8:53
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    Even if he’s not going into academia, listing a published academic paper on his resume under the Outcomes section of his undergraduate degree wouldn’t exactly hurt. – nick012000 Sep 19 at 12:24
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    @nick012000 In my opinion it might help with the first job, but after a short while, his experience in the industry would outweight this. This is my opinion. Of course I canät picture a scenario where it'd hurt, but is the cost/profit ok ? – DakkVader Sep 19 at 20:19

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