Junior AOA?

[chef]

I just found out that such thing as "junior aoa" exists.. it's based on MSII grades and board I score only, and given to 6-7 students/yr. Now, is this more prestigious than senior aoa? or is it aoa no matter when you get it? or is senior aoa more prestigious b/c 3rd yr grades are the most important and senior aoa takes into acct your performance during M3 yr.

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[southerndoc]

There's only one AOA. I think it will look great on a residency app no matter when you got it... with one exception. It would certainly suck if you got AOA based on your MSI-II grades and Step I score, but really bombed your third-year clerkships.

 

[Jalby]

In my school the Junior AOA is responsible for picking the senior AOA. 5% of the people get Junior AOA solely based on their first 3 year grades. Those people pick another 10% of people out of the top 25%, and those are the rest of the people who are AOA. I'm sure Junior AOA is more prest, but I'm not sure if it is reported.

 

[lipoyl]

Junior AOA DOES exist, and YES it is more prestigious. At my school it's based solely on grades (ie no board scores). Normally clinical grades are given slightly more weight, but overall the people who get in are the one's who rocked the preclinical courses (2 years of grades vs. 1 clinical). The jr AOA members are also the people who help select their classmates for senior AOA.

For early match specialties like neurosurg, ent, urology, etc, jr. aoa makes a huge difference as you find out about it early enough to put it on your app (and your aoa status is one of the first questions on the cas application)....sr. aoa by contrast is elected in september, after many programs have started inviting people for interviews.

 

[Bikini Princess]

my understanding is that u have to be pretty phenomenal to get aoa as an ms3 - more than just grades, u need to be involved in other research or humanitarian projects too...

 

[lipoyl]

By AOA charter Jr. AOA is based solely on academic merit. This is why it is more prestigious. Senior AOA is more subjective, and extracurriculars, popularity etc comes into play.