<p>An interesting article for those in med school.</p>
<p>By the way, what's AOA?</p>
<p>BDM, BRM, NCG, Is membership to AOA exclusive based on your 1st year grades? Is it an exclusive membership?</p>
<p>AOA is the medical school honor society (kinda like Phi Beta Kappa for undergrad). Different med schools do AOA in different ways but in all med schools only up to 16% of the students can be elected to AOA. Hence, it is very prestigous and is a sizable factor in residency apps. </p>
<p>My med school nominates the top 25% of the class based on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year grades and USMLE scores for AOA. Of those 25%, only up to 2/3's can be selected. The final cut is based on leadership, awards, community service, and research.</p>
<p>If you look at the most competitive residencies like plastics or derm, around 50% of the students who were successful in the match were AOA. So, that tells me that it is a sizable factor but not a crucial factor in the selection process (since the other half didn't get elected to AOA).</p>
<p>Other important factors in resident selection, not captured by grades/AOA:</p>
<p>letters of recommendation
Applying to hospitals affiliated with your medical school
Doing a good job as a student on a rotation at the hospital(s) to which you are applying
Prior research accomplishments (only counts for certain programs, and in research oriented fields)</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.
So, essentially, you need grades from year 1st through 3rd year to get nominated to AOA.
1) Therefore, you become a member just around the time of applications for residency, right? </p>
<p>2)What sort of activities do you have to be involved in once you become a member?</p>
<p>At some schools, you are elected too late for residency apps (sucks).</p>
<p>At my school, you can be elected at two different times but in plenty of time for residency apps. The Dean's Letter will include both nomination and selection for AOA.</p>
<p>It's an honor society. It's basically an award. You don't need to do anything.</p>
<p>AOA is a big deal...but it's not a make or break sort of thing.</p>
<p>AOA chapters also extend offers of membership to residents, fellows, and practicing physicians. How this is performed is a chapter by chapter decision, but again includes a nomination process.</p>
<p>I hope the nomination depends only on Step 1, step 2 scores and grades.
Hope ECs are not a requirement...I can not imagine where 1st and 2nd year med students would find the time for ECs.</p>
<p>You'd be surprised. There are a great many student run clinics throughout the country, there are various medical fraternities for social outlets, and student sections of professional organizations like AMA and AMWA, as well as AMSA. Usually there are a number of specialty interest groups too so that students can get exposure to and experiences in fields of interest (or at least free lunch to sit through a speaker!). Also, there are student government positions.</p>
<p>I was never in contention for AOA, so I never paid much attention to the selection criteria, but I'd be more interested in giving it to someone who was doing more than just sitting in the library.</p>
<p>PG, you might be surprised. I have extremely poor time management skills, and even I managed to run a course, organize a conference, take ten elective courses (they're short), and conduct research projects in widely divergent fields (economics and neurobiology).</p>
<p>On the other hand, my grades were terrible.</p>
<p>It's actually not hard to tell who, in the med school class, is shooting for AOA. Every med school has a ton of student organizations (for everything from mentoring to specialty interest to beer appreciation) and it's often the same group of people who are on the leadership boards of each student organization. I would say that most of the extracurriculars med students are engaged in are organized around these clubs, the reason being med students don't have enough time to set up 5 EC's by themselves. Frankly, most of these EC's are superficial. Whether you're the president of your med school class or the president of a mentoring organization, you won't be spending much time on those EC's. Then again, spending 3 hours/week on your organization is still 3 hours more than someone who've just been sitting in the library all day. </p>
<p>You'll find time to do the things that interest you. I'm doing intramural ultimate frisbee and basketball, founding a mentoring organization, on the committee for my school's chapter of AMSA, in one of those social med school fraternity-type things, fighting w/ classmates over spots in the student-run clinics, and also doing a youth program. Life doesn't stop just because you're in med school.</p>
<p>I have found time to be a a paid tutor for 1st year physiology students, I am on the welcome comittee for prospective medical students(I go to the weekly mixer after they interview to answer questions about the school) and I am a mentor to a first year student. I am interested in AOA and was 1st in my class after the first year(albeit tied with 20 others). As with many large state medical schools that are not on the high end of the 'prestige scale', there is a strict grading scale in our classes-in order to allow the top students a shot at the best residencies in the country. Whereas, there may be some IVY league schools that are pass-fail and have more collegial grading for the students, at schools where it is necessary to be able to differentiate among the top students(there are over 200 people in my class), grades and USMLE scores are important, objective determinants of relative standing. Harvard medical school students do not have to go as far to prove that they are a top candidate for a residency-not as true farther down the food chain.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who posted their experiences. This is excellent information.</p>