AOA - concerns anyone?

[SLUsagar]

i thought about adding this to the worrywart thread b/c it's related in topic, but i figured it deserved it's own...

In regards to AOA, I am honestly not sure how much AOA matters in path. Obviously it can't hurt. But I think that board scores are probably a bit more important and are looked at first...

reading this somewhat alleviates my stresses, but i've still managed to convince myself that that blood i've been starting to spit up isn't from my newly developing gastric ulcer and instead is simply residual discolored saliva from the cherry FUN-DIP i recently consumed...

<i'm of course exagerating, for those concerned soon-to-be-physicians out there...>!!!

but yes, the acronym NAD does not apply to me currently (No acute distress - only remem this b/c i'm doing a subI now).
I recently got the official boot, the attempted game-winning dunk blocked, the court-judge notorized REJECTION from my school regarding AOA. So as you can tell, i'm upset. Even more b/c I was an applicant for junior AOA (only about 5 kids from the class taken out of 15 or so offered @ my school) and got rejected also...so this was my 2nd one from the commitee. I had topnotch grades [which are the only criteria used for AOA eligibility], but so-so activities/volunteer etc etc etc...which i guess is what brought my a*s down.

but i'm worried b/c i was totally counting on AOA...esp since i'd been a candidate in my junior year. DIrector said "high percentage" of rejected juniors will end up getting AOA in senior year......... so I must be in the LOW percentage that don't.

oh well. I'm happy about my strong pre-clinical/clinical grades, (hopefully) good LOR's...which i think is why i'm getting at least invited from some good name places, but was really counting on AOA to secure me a high ranking from good programs. I know yaah has alluded to this above, but with a step 1 score is only @ 232, which i guess is above avg but still far from the 240+/250's i'm sure people that are getting interviews at bigname places like UCSF/Mayo, you think my chances of being ranked highly from good prgms are strongly diminished or simply somewhat diminished by NOT being AOA???

yaah, other PATH residents/vetrans....????

i mean when a school has 2 applicants left to choose from for the last spot avail, all similar on papers, except ONE isn't AOA, do you think they really would use it as a reason NOT to take them (use it as a tie-breaker??)

??

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SLUsagar]

reading this somewhat alleviates my stresses, but i've still managed to convince myself that that blood i've been starting to spit up isn't from my newly developing gastric ulcer and instead is simply residual discolored saliva from the cherry FUN-DIP i recently consumed...

i'm of course exagerating, for those concerned soon-to-be-physicians out there...!!!

 

[yaah]

In my impression (take it with a grain of salt), AOA equivalent grades and AOA are really not much different. That is, if your grades are high and consistently so, this is just as good of a selling point as if you were elected to AOA. Bear in mind many schools don't even have AOA.

AOA at my school was bizarrely (new word) calculated - grades were sort of important, but what was more important was that you spent lots of time volunteering or something. I don't know. I didn't get AOA, yet my grades were probably high enough to qualify. Whatever - the point is that on my interviews, most of the interviews said to me that my grades were impressive and that it was a strong academic record. Thus, they did not mention AOA or ask why I wasn't in it. Your situation sounds somewhat similar. And your board score is above 220 so that's an excellent score.

In regards to your "all things being equal" concern: I don't think that is very realistic. AOA status is more important for radiology and derm where they can screen based on status. Path, no. They will look to the interview impressions and personal statement before they would go to the lack of or presence of AOA status. Again, this is all my impression.

If Mayo doesn't interview you I would be surprised.

I, on the other hand, am getting an ulcer worrying over whether this girl I met is just being friendly or is actually interested.

 

[Logos']

...

 

[desmangt]

I was elected to Junior AOA and recently sat on the committee that voted for the rest of the senior class. We have five junior AOA members and three of us showed up to the meeting. I know very few of the members of this class, because of the MD/PhD route, and like to think that my ranking of them was based purely on merit. I was somewhat disgusted by the subjective attitude the other students and even the faculty demonstrated (? One said ?I worked with her and she was very polite ? I think she deserves AOA.?). In the end I felt like people who where not personally known by the voters where at a significant disadvantage. I argued for a bunch of them and in the end got 10 out of my top 14.

Don?t know if that is any comfort to you SLU but I certainly left feeling that my AOA status was less meaningful.

I agree with yaah, I think AOA grades are just as good as AOA status for pathology. Pathology isn't THAT competitive yet to implement strict exclusion criteria for who they will not interview or rank from the match. I think away rotations and interviews are EXTREMELY important in pathology, because they can provide you with an opportunity to display your qualitative characteristics. How creative, responsible, resourceful, and innovative are you? These are really important aspects of a successful pathologist. Also, many programs want a well balanced spectrum of residents so they can "rub off" on each other. The odds of all AOA, 260 Step I score applicants being able to demonstrate on their CVs the above characterists is unlikely. It takes a significant amount of sacrifice and hard work focused in one dimension to obtain these scores and status. I'm sure there are a few truely amazing people out there that have them all, but medical school works at an extremely fast pace. Allocating time toward activities that can truly highlight these qualities doesn't really mesh well with studying for 12 hours a day on end. Alot of medicine is pure memorization which means lots of reading. Have you written a book, displayed your artwork at a gallery, done research, performed as a musician, etc? These things also take time (time away from studying). If you can show that your time was spent being successful in other aspects of life that can complement pathology, I think it is just as good. In contrast to highly competitve fields like radiology, I think they will just make the interview cut off a Step I score of 240, and you will never have the opportunity to demonstrate these qualities. There are just too many applicants, but this is not so in pathology (at least not yet).