5.10) What is AOA?
Description
This article is from the Medical Education FAQ, by eric@wilkinson.com (Eric P. Wilkinson, M.D.)with numerous contributions by others.
5.10) What is AOA?
Alpha Omega Alpha, or "AOA," is a national medical honor society that
was founded in 1902 to promote and recognize excellence in the medical
profession. Most, although not all medical schools have a chapter of
AOA. Each school's chapter selects a small group of students to join
the society, generally in their junior or senior years. "Junior AOA
status," or being selected as a junior, is considered superior to
"senior AOA status."
In order to meet the minimum requirements of the national society,
students must be in the top 15% of their class academically, and
possess leadership and community service attributes. Academic
activities such as research, performance in clerkships and electives
and extracurricular program participation are generally included in
the selection criteria.
Individual chapters may also elect to induct outstanding alumni,
faculty and house staff to AOA. Induction ceremonies are generally
held just before graduation and are highly specific to the
individual chapters.
Having AOA on your curriculum vitae is considered an asset when applying
in the very competitive post-graduate programs such as dermatology and
surgical subspecialties.
[Maintainer's note: Stanford, the University of Connecticut, and
Harvard are the schools that do not have AOA. If you are aware of
other schools that do not have a chapter, please let me know.]
Continue to:
My Books
