How do you cope with not having abstracts accepted for conference?

Right now it seems as though other students in my department are endlessly successful.

I get really good feedback for my work and my supervisors are really happy with me.

I keep comparing myself to others, and it's making me a little insane :$

I think there's a lot of factors involved other than simply the quality of your abstract. I had an abstract rejected for a postgraduate conference, but then accepted for a much more prestigious event (and this was a presentation based on an article which had already been published).
So I believe that it also depends on how well your abstract fits with the other topics and how well the reviewer understands your field.

You need to make sure your abstract corresponds well to the requirements of the conference, both in terms of the subsections of the abstract you provide (if required), the length and the types of details offered in abstract, but also the academic spirit and requirements of papers for that conference/conference track. Look back at abstracts of conference papers from previous years for that conference if possible or similar conferences. Sometimes you can actually find out who will be assessing abstracts (e.g. the track organiser you are applying to), so you may be able to make sure that your abstract will interest them by looking at their interests and, importantly, that something you write won't cause any offence to them. I would obviously make sure you get feedback on your abstracts from students and your supervisors if possible.

Rowena Murray's book 'Writing for academic journals' provides a lot of detail on how to study abstracts of journal articles so you understand the requirements for that journal and also you understand the type of academic conversation you are joining in it. I found you could apply her lessons to understanding and writing journal abstracts and preparing journal articles for preparing conference abstracts and papers. It's definitely worth having a look at early sections in that book.

Hi Cammy, not to worry ! Most of us would have experience that rejection once in a while. I myself sent two papers to two conferences but only one wad accepted. I'm sure you won't be fazed by this problem. keep on sending those abstracts !

I think NearlyFinished hit the nail on the head. Just like we will read and 'reject' a conference because it isn't quite what we are after, the abstracts we send in may not quite fit either. Just keep going with it and you will hit the right ones.

It is just an abstract/paper/(written work), it is not you (I need to heed this right now as well).