Ask HN: Would it beneficial for a student to go to Pycon?

6 points by chunky1994 12y ago ↗ HN

I've never been to Pycon, but since it's in Montreal (and I'm currently in Toronto) I was wondering if going to Pycon was actually worth it (registration fee + travel + hotel is quite a lumpsum for a student paying international fees). Could Pyconistas shed some light on whether I should go or not?

4 comments

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glimcat 12y ago ↗

Check whether your school or department has grants for conference travel. They often do, and it's definitely worth it if someone else is footing the bill.

If it's out of pocket - it really depends on what else you'd need the money for. They do post videos.

gobengo 12y ago ↗

I went in 2008 while in school when I was getting kind of bored with our CS program and thinking of dropping out. I found PyCon really enlightening. It was the first time I was ever near that many other programmers, and I was completely energized. It also was really nice to realize how big the python community is. I came in through Django and webdev, but I got to learn a bit about how CPython and its community work, packaging and distribution, robotics, numpy, etc.

Definitely go if you have the opportunity.

funktor 12y ago ↗

Hi, I'm a fellow student who just had their whole trip to PyCon paid for. You should really look into their financial aid options if they are still available.

bgar 12y ago ↗

I went last year, and it was a really awesome experience to meet with so many other people who are excited about programming. Definitely go if you can.