Ok, so the admissions process is geared toward balancing time commitment and missing out on great applicants. "A high board score and AOA guarantees not a great dermatologist". However no matter how bitter you may get to hear it, places will use some sort of a filter. No filter is absolute.
No program follows anything to a T...know why?...because connections matter a lot more than anything else. If you have a connection then you can shove all that filtration mumbo-jumbo where the sun don't shine.
Some schools filter based on geography, some on AOA, some on board scores, some on how many pimples are visible on your photo, etc.
There is a lot of subjectivity but that's nothing special to derm...most of life in the real world is subjective and so that's the game. You're going to see reasonable people but you're also going to get instances with ridiculous criteria. Just do your best when you apply. The biggest filters that I've seen are pretty much the board score (Step 1) and pimples on your submitted photo. Just kidding about the pimples...
The number that automatically screen out non-AOA members are few and, again, it's not absolute because there are other factors like your research record, connections, whether you did an away rotation there, etc.
