The Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society Fall ‘Senior’ election will be held in early September. AOA is a national medical honor society in which election is based on a commitment to scholarship, leadership, professionalism, and service. There are 123 chapters around the country and each year, around 3,000 students, alumni, house staff, and faculty are elected into the society. You can learn more about the organization on the national AOA website or on the UW Chapter of AOA website.
Election Action Items:
- Nominate your MS4 peers: https://forms.office.com/r/0BF7ip8kR8
- Submit your application: https://forms.office.com/r/iWypNxMnVa
- Deadline for both: Sunday, August 28 at 11:45 p.m. PT – NO late submissions will be accepted.
Who is eligible to be elected?
Students eligible for AOA election must be in the top 25% of their class*. In light of the research and data that showed there are racial/ethnic disparities in clinical grading in medical school, the chapter felt that it was important to acknowledge this disadvantage and adjust its’ eligibility parameters to help mitigate these biases. Therefore, in addition to the top 25% of the class, the UW Chapter has decided to also include the top 25% of all self-reported racial/ethnicity categories.
Students are considered once for junior AOA and once for senior AOA. Students who are expanding/taking a leave of absence will be considered for senior AOA during the fall of their final year in medical school. (If you are scheduled to graduate in 2024, you would be considered in next year’s fall election).
*At this stage in the process, it is not possible to confirm if a given student is in the top 25% of the class. That information will not be known until later August when it would be too late for students to be notified and have a reasonable amount of time to compile an application.
How do students get nominations? How can I nominate my peers?
We will reach out on your behalf to clerkship directors, College mentors, and MSTP advisors. Students may nominate their MS4 peers by Sunday, August 28 at 11:45 p.m. PT. Comments that were submitted in spring will be “carried forward” for the fall election, at this time you may nominate additional peers. Good candidates include students who display scholastic achievement, demonstrate utmost professionalism in medicine, are leaders who set an example worth emulating, and who have a record of service in the medical school and community at large.
How can I submit my application in order to be considered by AOA?
To be considered for AOA, students must complete the required AOA Application by Sunday, August 28 at 11:45 p.m. PT* – NO late submissions will be accepted. (For the Fall election, the UW chapter has created an all-in-one application to make the application process easier for students to complete). Contained within the application are the grade release authorization**, the lived experiences statement, service and activities, and research and publications. You DO NOT need to update/add information to a separate service tracker survey for AOA election purposes.
*If you submitted an application during the spring application process, please submit a new application for the fall application process. We recognize that it is a bit of an inconvenience, however some questions in the application have changed, so we want to ensure that everyone is being reviewed based on the same application materials.
**AOA considers student grades/Step score information through a blinded election process. When the group reviews grades, your name is not linked to your grades.
How many people will be elected?
The AOA national constitution allows up to 20% of the graduating class to be elected into the chapter per year. During the Fall election in September, approximately 35-40 MS4 students can be elected. The current junior AOA members will elect the students that will make up the rest of the UW Chapter come this fall. The AOA election is a BLIND process; no names are revealed while the group is deciding on its members. Only after all the votes are in are the names of the elected students revealed. Elected students will be contacted by September 15.
More information about the election on the UW AOA website.