They are charging $275 for onsite registration for students! If you were to have registered by July 31st, the rate would have been $225. This is a terribly egregious amount. I emailed Lynne Bynder, a coordinator for the evnt, and shared my thoughts on the price - especially in comparison to the national conference I had previously attended in Philadelphia. Her lame response was that the event is catered, whereas the national was not. There seems to be a great disconnect in the logic here. The chief motivations of a typical college student is to learn a thing or two and meet some people who can help get them a job. Not for mediocre hotel food. And why is at the Fairmont? To me, it would seem that since planning isn’t the highest paid profession, that having the conference there seems a bit indulgent.

I find it highly hypocritical that the APA which touts itself as an educational institution would setup such a huge financial obstacle to those who are at institutes of higher education. There also has been absolutely no outreach to UC Davis, a registered APA Planning Student Organization (PSO)

Out of my own personal interests I want to go desperately. Out of spite, I’ll be sure not to pay and crash the event. My original intent was to go Sunday, but I’ve been feeling under the weather, we’ll see how things turn out today.