What are some good reasons for starting an Alpha Omega Alpha chapter at a med school?

[IzzyMD09]

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I need to convince our student council who is very affraid to adopt any organization that may inculcate competition. What are some good arguments against the fear of competition, or for the establishment of this honor society?

Need help soon, thanks.

Izzy 😎

 

[Dunce]

AOA is always a coveted status symbol, but I'm not sure that it is the critical factor in fueling competitiveness among classmates. At many places AOA selection becomes a numbers game with a small input based on outside activity such as leadership and activities. My impression is that it really commes down to grades though.

No matter what medical school you go to, the top group of students in the class will have a degree of inherent competitiveness. They get to that top position by being smart and working hard. If a school has class rankings (and what school doesn't provide some sort of class rank to residency program directors) I don't see how adding AOA is much different.
AOA basically means that a student is at the top of their class, and a high class rank should mean nearly the same thing under most situations.

Benefit: AOA is instantly recognizable as a "gold star." Just a simple statement that Student X is ranked 14th in his class of 100 just doesn't seem to carry the same flair that AOA can bring to an application.


I always wondered how the situation would be for students whose school has no AOA. (and the opinions of others on this question might just be the support you need to convince your school to start a chapter)
Are students at a disadvantage if they have to say "no I'm not AOA, but that's because my school doesn't have an AOA chapter." ???

 

[IzzyMD09]

wow great argument, I pretty much just cut, copied and pasted it into my ppt for my presentation tomorrow, thank you so much


izzy

AOA is always a coveted status symbol, but I'm not sure that it is the critical factor in fueling competitiveness among classmates. At many places AOA selection becomes a numbers game with a small input based on outside activity such as leadership and activities. My impression is that it really commes down to grades though.

No matter what medical school you go to, the top group of students in the class will have a degree of inherent competitiveness. They get to that top position by being smart and working hard. If a school has class rankings (and what school doesn't provide some sort of class rank to residency program directors) I don't see how adding AOA is much different.
AOA basically means that a student is at the top of their class, and a high class rank should mean nearly the same thing under most situations.

Benefit: AOA is instantly recognizable as a "gold star." Just a simple statement that Student X is ranked 14th in his class of 100 just doesn't seem to carry the same flair that AOA can bring to an application.


I always wondered how the situation would be for students whose school has no AOA. (and the opinions of others on this question might just be the support you need to convince your school to start a chapter)
Are students at a disadvantage if they have to say "no I'm not AOA, but that's because my school doesn't have an AOA chapter." ???

 

[Dunce]

wow great argument, I pretty much just cut, copied and pasted it into my ppt for my presentation tomorrow, thank you so much


izzy

wow, thanks and good luck on getting the school to agree.
I think having an AOA chapter would be a good thing. I don't know if I'll get into AOA or not, and I really don't care. If it happens it happens. Plus, my school does not give us our class rank. We just see the average score on each test and can compare to that to guess how we stand. I guess the point is that I'll just keep trying to do well for myself, and if that gets me some kind of award then I'll take it.

If anyone who reads this thread has experience with not having an AOA chapter at their school and the effects that could have on residency applications I would be interested to hear what you think (and I think others would as well). Unless I'm missing something I can't see it as being anything but negative for the students.

 

[gostudy]

 

[Uncle Izzy]

Hey Izzy... I totally agree.
At my school though, there are 100 people and AOA is given to like 8 a year. I basically recognized during my first year that there was no chance in hell I would be chosen for it, but that is fine. I find that the people who were inducted to AOA are really the cream of the crop and they deserve to be in it. They really go the extra mile.

To be honest, I really dont think that having the AOA on their CV will make a difference in residency apps though because they are so on top of their game that the prestige wont matter. I'm pretty sure they all rocked their boards and they extracurriculars are amaing as well (and this is a major reason they got AOA to begin with).

But to their credit, they deserve the recognition and I applaud their effort. Why not recognize those students who are above and beyond?

BTW, great name.

Izzy