What is AOA?

[CTIL]

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What does AOA stand for? People were talking about it in the pass/fail thread. thanks.

 

[Habari]

aoa=alpha omega alpha - its the medschool honor society, roughly equivelant to phi beta kappa for ugrad (though obviously the former is more specialized). there is aoa at all but a couple schools - harvard, maybe yale? (ucsf?). it is mostly based on clinical (3rd and 4th year) performance, though some schools take the first two years into consideration. there are a couple hot shots that get in 3rd year, but most in 4th year. it is open to something like the top 15% of the class (depends how schools grade etc...). something to work for if you're interested in a tough specialty, or just 'cause you're like that.

this is what i know about it - someone more knowledgeable may have more to say ...

 

[MSTP boy]

AOA = Alpha Omega Alpha (Med school honor society)
In addition, AOA = American Osteopathy Association (equivalent of AMA)

Admission into Alpha Omega Alpha is by invitation only. The policies for admittance vary with each school. Generally, those students who perform in the top 15% of their class are considered eligible for AOA. Generally, additional factors, such as community service do have some importance. Admission is awarded in the third and fourth years of medical school. In some schools, the third year members elect the fourth year members.

Alpha Phi Omega is mainly considered a merit of academic achievement. There is a AOA student journal published monthly by the AMA.

 

[md_student10021]

>AOA = Alpha Phi Omega (Med school honor society)

actually, it's Alpha Omega Alpha. I'm not sure why you've confused your Greek letters.

check out
http://www.alphaomegaalpha.org
for more information

 

[kreno]

Anyone know if Yale has this? I'm curious, seeing how they don't rank in any way shape or form from my understanding...

kreno 🙂

 

[Vader]

Yes, UCSF has AOA. Students are accepted based largely on the number of honors earned during 3rd year clerkships and must be voted in by a faculty committee.

 

[Dr. Lawyer]

I don't know how prevalent this is, but I know of one specialty residency program that will not interview anyone who is not AOA. Obviously, if you are coming from a top school that does not have a chapter of AOA, such as Yale or Cornell, I assume that the school's name is enough ground to stand on.

 

[AJM]

The only schools that do not have AOA chapters are Harvard, Stanford, and UCSD. Students from these schools tend to do well in the match. While there is a bias at many top residency programs against applicants who are not AOA, students from schools that don't have chapters check a box on their ERAS residency application that says "my school doesn't have AOA". What many program directors do for students from these schools is to look for "AOA equivalents", such as if they have outstanding clinical evaluations, research experience, other extracurricular activities, good board scores, etc.

There are several other schools, such as Yale, who wait to announce AOA until after the match, so it can't be used for residency selection.

 

[MSTP boy]

Originally posted by Dr. Lawyer
I don't know how prevalent this is, but I know of one specialty residency program that will not interview anyone who is not AOA.

No offense, but I would guess your source is exagerrating.

AOA isn't THAT well-respected by most residency directors. Many of them are more directly concerned with your clerkships evals. Even filling a single rad-onc or derm slot, I cannot conceive of a PD who wouldn't consider an individual based on their clerkship evals & recs than academics. And of course, step exam scores, LORs/dean letters, etc. do have some role as well.

Bottom line: if you want to push your academic proficiency, then you better have AOA to back it up. But if you are strong in other areas, then AOA is in no way required for even the most competitive residencies.