Osteopathic Honor society and competitive residencies.

[ussdfiant]

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I have been reading about how it is important to be AOA when applying to competitive residencies. I will be attending a DO school and obviously cannot strive for AOA status. Do PD for osteopathic residency programs look highly upon Psi Sigma Alpha status the way allopathic PD look upon AOA? Do allopathic PD recognize Psi Sigma Alpha staus at all? Would this make a DO applicant to an allopathic program more desirable? I am a long way away from this point, but I'm wondering if any DO MS4s applying to competitive allopathic residencies (ie Pags) feel as though being Psi Sigma Alpha would have helped them along the way.

 

[pags]

1) Do PDs for osteopathic residency programs look highly upon Psi Sigma Alpha status the way allopathic PDs look upon AOA?
Answer: I'm sure osteopathic programs regard PSA status as a valuable acheivement and will greatly help your application similarly to being AOA in the allopathic world.

2) Do allopathic PDs recognize Psi Sigma Alpha staus at all?
Answer: Not one of the 12 PD's I interviewed with mentioned my Psi Sigma Alpha status. Maybe other DO candidates on this forum have had different experiences with PSA recognition on the allopathic interview trail.

3) Would this make a DO applicant to an allopathic program more desirable?
Answer: If I was a PD, I would say most definitely. However, in reality, most allopathic PDs have no idea what Psi Sigma Alpha is.

"I am a long way away from this point, but I'm wondering if any DO MS4s applying to competitive allopathic residencies (ie Pags) feel as though being Psi Sigma Alpha would have helped them along the way."
Answer: If I match into radiology, I would have to say yes, it helped.

 

[wernicke]

DO honor society probably isn't worth a darn. At our school (KCOM), we have Sigma Sigma Phi honor society. It isn't anywhere close to the allopathic AOA. Considering your school has a different honor society, I'm already confused about how many different societies are out there. Don't count on the honor society to help you out. Just do well on boards (USMLE). Get good rec letters from PD's. That should help more in the long run.

 

[pags]

Psi Sigma Alpha is a National Osteopathic Honor Society. This isn't a local made up fling. I'm sure each osteopathic school has a chapter, if not, they should. However, I do agree that high USMLEs, great recs from important attendings, and research weigh a helluva lot more than any honor society.

 

[gasrx]

maybe I should get my PSA level checked

 

[pags]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by gasrx:
•maybe I should get my PSA level checked•••••My friend, I believe yours would be high as well.

 

[gasrx]

does that mean I have BPH or Postate CA. Help me out ATS.

 

[mmcnemar2004]

What's the cut-off for PSA? (and I'm not talking Prostate)

 

[ATS]

Gasrx, come to my office for a TRUS Bx.

 

[Voxel]

There is no question on the ERAS application (I believe) that asks if you are PSA or not. That should say something. There is a specific question that asks if your AOA status. However, this does not take away from the fact that you were elected to the DO honor society, just it seems the ERAS form was not designed properly.

 

[doughboy]

I believe it is Sigma Sigma Phi at my school as well. Is that the same as the Phi Sigma Alpha because I don't recall that organization at my school.

 

[UHS2002]

Sigma Sigma Phi and Psi Sigma Alpha are totally different. Sigma Sigma Phi is part academic achievement/part extra curriculars/big part a clique social club. They elect their own members, among the people in the class that have a class rank/GPA making them elegible to participate (which is actually a fair number of people). Curiously, the geek with a higher class ranking gets passed over by the "politician" type...

Psi Sigma Alpha is a national MERIT organization, which inducts the top 5% of the class, based solely on academic merit.

I have friends in both and, being too dumb, don't belong to either 😀

One of my friend in Psi Sigma Alpha would not have stood a chance to join Sigma Sigma Phi, just because she didn't hang out with the "in" crowd, although she is the second highest ranking student in the class. To me, being in Psi Sigma Alpha is impressive. To be in Sigma Sigma Phi means that you are popular. No offense to Sigma Sigma Phi members, I know some really terrific people who are members.

When it comes down to the Match, probably neither carries much weight because allopathic PDs don't know about either. As I said, I wasn't in either, but I am graduating with academic honors, which got mentioned in my Dean's Letter, and seemed to get noticed by PDs, just because it was a term they could relate to vs. organizations they never heard about.

 

[MDpride]

waking up the dead horse.

http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/usemyeras/account.htm

 

[gouda]

waking up the dead horse.

http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/usemyeras/account.htm

Wow - good observation. I wonder when Sigma Sigma Phi was added and why not the other one?

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Wow - good observation. I wonder when Sigma Sigma Phi was added and why not the other one?

who gives a ****? Its not like either matters.