If AOA cost you 20 more hours of studying a week, would you go for it?

[Danbo1957]

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Members don't see this ad.

AOA matters; if it didn't, it wouldn't exist.

 

[CWWinning]

AOA matters; if it didn't, it wouldn't exist.

Oh yeah? Well I'm a member of AAA. WINNING!

 

[username456789]

I'm applying for derm, so AOA obviously helps. I know about half of successful applicants are non-AOA, but the stats (which only tell part of the story) are pretty encouraging if one does attain AOA status:

 

[Ortho Guy]

I'm applying for derm, so AOA obviously helps. I know about half of successful applicants are non-AOA, but the stats (which only tell part of the story) are pretty encouraging if one does attain AOA status:

Well, I guess that settles that.

 

[anonymous56]

What if you are coming from a top 20 school? I'm interested in derm, but there is no way I'm going to be able to out compete my classmates. Even if I killed myself I still might not get it.

 

[Ortho Guy]

What if you are coming from a top 20 school? I'm interested in derm, but there is no way I'm going to be able to out compete my classmates. Even if I killed myself I still might not get it.

There's always family medicine.

 

[Zuerst]

nuck fo

 

[ArcGurren]

I agree. AOA (w/o any red flags) makes you extremely likely to match in most specialties (Derm and Integrated Plastics would be the exceptions).

Not having AOA doesn't preclude you from any specialty. Even in Derm close to half of those matching weren't AOA.

AOA can help with how competitive a program you match into though. 2/3 people who matched optho at my school had AOA and 1 didn't. 2 matched into a top tier program, the other didn't. One of the AOA's also matched into one of the most competitive TY's in the country.

I would recommend basically killing yourself for it only if you're deadset on matching into a competitive program on the coasts (or Chicago) in a competitive specialty AND your med school isn't elite AND you're applying out of the region. Even then it's still shaky

Honestly for me matching the specialty of my choice is more important to me than matching in the topmost programs in that specialty. The only exception to this is medicine since I'd want to do a specific and very competitive fellowship which would require me to match well at a good medicine program.

 

[2012mdc]

Honestly for me matching the specialty of my choice is more important to me than matching in the topmost programs in that specialty. The only exception to this is medicine since I'd want to do a specific and very competitive fellowship which would require me to match well at a good medicine program.

Yeah whether or not it is worth it really depends on the student's needs and priorities.

 

[username456789]

Yeah whether or not it is worth it really depends on the student's needs and priorities.

This.

 

[pupster]

A lot of things in life are those for which you think it's so important that you would sacrifice anything you have now to get it, then 10 years later, looking in retrospect and you go"why?"

AOA is one of those things.

I beg to differ. It's not everything. I wasn't AOA and still got into the residency of choice. Had to spend an extra year doing research, but in retrospect, I wouldn't have done anything different. Just a different viewpoint.