what is an AOA award?

[siLverDragon007]

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What is an AOA award?

I think it is based on some sort of ranking system, but how is this possible? I was always told that med school is pass/no pass.

How are classes graded?

 

[braluk]

AOA is a national honor society for medical students- typically the top students get nominated (somewhere around the top 5-10%) with only a fraction of them actually being accepted into AOA. Many schools do it differently. Some schools are pure P/F systems, some "fake" P/Fs, some regular H/HP/P/F. I would assume that third year grades, and board scores play a bigger role for AOA in schools with true P/F systems, while there is emphasis in regular H/HP/P/F schools, # of honors (which include third year grades), rank, board scores, have a role.

 

[Ashers]

At my school to get inducted your 3rd year, it's your 1st and 2nd year grades + board score. Then as an M4, I think you have to apply, then somehow, people can vote for people. It's a really weird system. The top 1/3 of the class are eligible (I believe based on grades from years 1-3, boards, etc like Braluk said), and only 1/6 of the class can be inducted. So it's a semi-popularity contest here.

 

[JonnyG]

AOA is a national honor society for medical students- typically the top students get nominated (somewhere around the top 5-10%) with only a fraction of them actually being accepted into AOA. Many schools do it differently. Some schools are pure P/F systems, some "fake" P/Fs, some regular H/HP/P/F. I would assume that third year grades, and board scores play a bigger role for AOA in schools with true P/F systems, while there is emphasis in regular H/HP/P/F schools, # of honors (which include third year grades), rank, board scores, have a role.

Even if a school is pass fail, they usually have your actual grades hidden somewhere. They just dont use them for your transcript

 

[Husky85]

Yea, at UConn they're P/F, but in some "secret database" they still have the score that you got on each exam and the top X percent of the class are eligible (you're gonna have to rely on previous posts for the exact percent). Their only reason for keeping the exam scores is for AOA. They don't go to residency programs on transcripts.

 

[NYyanx28]

Does anyone have the list of med schools that have AOA chapters?

 

[deleted77919]

Does anyone have the list of med schools that have AOA chapters?

http://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/chapters/

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Several of us discussed how our schools elect people to AOA in this thread. Happy reading.