Hi everyone,

I’m currently a final-year undergrad from a Tier-3 engineering college in India, currently working as a Project Associate at IIT Hyderabad.

This research cycle has been completely surreal for me. After presenting 3 papers (2 Orals) at EACL last month, I just received my notifications for ACL 2026 in San Diego. I miraculously had 2-4 submissions accepted:

1x ACL Industry Track Accepted

1x ACL Student Research Workshop (SRW) - Thesis Proposal Accepted

2x C3NLP Workshop Papers (Reviews are not out yet)

Here is my dilemma:

One of my co-authors (a postdoc from Stanford) is graciously registering and presenting our Industry Track paper. However, to keep my SRW Thesis Proposal and the workshop papers in the proceedings, the ACL rules state I must register as a "Virtual Student Presenter" for the Full Conference.

The Early Bird cost for this is $300 USD (approx.…