osteopathic honor society

[PACtoDOC]

Do any of you have an honor society at your osteopathic medical school? Does it carry the same clout that the AOA has in allopathic schools? What are the criteria for admission at your school?

I simply ask because I have seen very little resemblance of a respectable honor society at our school. To get in it is more about how much butt you can kiss of the upperclassmen who vote you in. There seems to be no real standard. The minimum grade average to apply is an 80, and many top academic students were excluded. Some of these top students were also our most active students in the community as well.

What are your experiences at your school? How can we expect our allopathic residency coordinators to respect such an honor society that excludes top students? I think the AOA in the allopathic world does things differently. Anyone know?

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[bustinbooty]

Sigma Sigma Phi is the Osteopathic Honor and Service Society that could be considered the counterpart to the allopathic AOA. I am currently serving as President of the SSP chapter at KCOM. After attending the national SSP convention in Vegas last year, I can say that there is a wide variety of ways that SSP chapters are run around the country. To some degree, some chapters have seemed somewhat sophomoric in their selection of members, provided that the academic standards are met. This obviously is not an ideal way to run a chapter that is respected by the school body. KCOM elects to membership those candidates with an 85% average (I think some schools use 80%) and who meet the other requirements for leadership, community involvement, and service to the school. Applications are anonymous, we only know the identity of the members after we elect them based on their application. We "grade" the applications on a point system, giving a set amount of points for activities, positions held, etc. and overall it is a very respected system because everyone has a fair chance for selection for admission. We still have people who get very upset when they are not selected for membership, but it helps to give them a logical and objective explanation as to the reasons why. I am sorry that certain schools use Sigma Sigma Phi as an opportunity to hold a popularity contest. Certainly, the developers of SSP did not intend to create an "elitist" organization, but one that promoted the development of Osteopathic medicine through some of its most proactive students.

As far as its comparison to the AOA, SSP is similar. While there is currently not a "checkbox" for DO students to mark honor society membership when filling out ACGME residency applications, efforts are being made to make this so. On AOA applications, there is a checkbox for SSP members, which matters to some programs, and to others not at all.
Hopefully by the time we are ready to fill out ACGME applications, if we wish to do so, we will have the opportunity to have our honor society membership status known.

 

[PACtoDOC]

I certainly hope you are wrong. I hope there is not a place on the ACGME application to show that one was a member of such an honor society that seemingly has no nationwide standard of entry. I know the allopaths don't have this problem. There is no way you can say this honor society commpares to the AOA in the allopathic world. You might hope it would, and I commend you for running a tight ship at your program, but until it is required that all DO schools adhere to the same standard for entry into this society, then it is only a potential way to unlevel the playing field in residency applications. I will be forwarding this thread and a letter to the ACGME explaining why I hope they never allow the DO version of this honor society to be a check box on their application (at least not until the flaws are removed). I also plan to propose a resolution stating the same at our state conference this summer. I am surprised that the DO residency applications would allow it to be on there if there is no standard. If your society does not police its own organizations, you can expect there will be others that will.

 

[BamaAlum]

At UHS the top 30% is invited to apply. Selection is then based on community service and "service that contributes to the profession." I was invited to apply, but I chose not to since I didn't have a lot of service and I am planning on doing an allopathic residency. Most allopathic residencies don't know what it is and they will know your class rank anyway.

 

[bustinbooty]

I can appreciate PACtoDOC's skepticism of an organization that may appear to not have a national standard for membership acceptance. Like the AOA, SSP has a national ACADEMIC standard set for admission. The selection of members is left up to the local chapters. Each chapter, AOA or SSP, devises their own standards to judge qualities like leadership, service, etc. in order to determine who gains membership. This process becomes especially important in those schools whose grading system is P/F. Much like SSP, AOA members have expressed frustration at the ambiguity of the membership selection process. It would seem logical to place a national standard on membership selection based on grades, school involvement, etc., but neither organization has chosen to do so as far as I can tell. I visited alphaomegaalpha.org to find that their process of membership selection is the same as SSP in that local chapters are allowed to set their own extracurricular selection standards. I whole-heartedly agree that if AOA and SSP both had national standards for membership selection that each chapter followed strictly, then the "playing field" would indeed be more level.

 

[FutrFPDO]

I think you missed the point bustin. Its not a matter of what criteria the particular chapter uses to select its students for admission, but moreover about the fact that there should be anonymity in such a process (as your school has). Otherwise it easily loses credibility, as it has at our school. At our school you may as well as call it the "Special Ed" honor society. Its all about who you know and who you......well, you catch my drift. Of the entire board that elected people at our school, none were Dean's List. And funny enough, very few Dean's List people were admitted to the club. Now I wonder what that means.......I am beginning to believe it is more about these less competitive people hijacking a club meant for the best and brightest so that they can say they did something well. And any honor society that wants a check upfront for 40 bucks is to me more like a pyramid scam

 

[ramsestiger]

PACtoDOC : I am surprised that the DO residency applications would allow it to be on there if there is no standard. If your society does not police its own organizations, you can expect there will be others that will.

Oh no, we have a tattle-tail among us - let's close down all of our shoddy operations ASAP!

Anyway, it seems like it would actually be a better idea to try and improve the currenty honor society instead of "fighting" the "advantage" that it gives to others. Adcoms are usually up-to-date on most of these things, and it's best to build and improve. Reform your school's hs, or create a chapter if you don't have one, but there's no reason to tell others that you are going to police their societies for them.

No offense, buddy, but I do not like your POV or the way you present it in this situation.

Of the entire board that elected people at our school, none were Dean's List. And funny enough, very few Dean's List people were admitted to the club. Now I wonder what that means.......I am beginning to believe it is more about these less competitive people hijacking a club meant for the best and brightest so that they can say they did something well. And any honor society that wants a check upfront for 40 bucks is to me more like a pyramid scam

Ok, if you can see that they're not in the top 10% of the class, won't the folks that have their records KNOW that they're not, also? Really, does membership in one little organization guarantee or even significantly improve chances over an equally qualified candidate without that little check mark? I would guess no.

Not to mock anyone too seriously, but come on, people! It seems like "gunners" moaning about unfair advantages instead of worrying about their own affairs and doing the best that THEY can do. In the end, the most qualified candidates generally get the spots in most cases, IMHO.

In any case, no offense is intended. I respect your opinion to a small extent, although I would definitely not worry about such things

 

[DrQuinn]

As a graduating 4th year from NSUCOM, I can comment on the SSP at NSUCOM... it is a relative joke. You have to have a relatively low average for the academic part (80, 85 maybe)... and I would say that 2/3s of our class meets that standard... and for the voting of members, it is not by any means anonymous, and is in fact how many friends you have on the voting committee. Also, a certain ethnic group passes the reins down every year to someone of the same group...

I was invited to join but decided not too...

Now those that worry, let me tell you this. When it comes to applying to residency, the DO honor society means absolutely nothing (muhahahah). For an MD student, the AOA means a lot, but for a DO student, MD residencies could care less about the honor societies for DOs, as there are actually more than 1...
Q

 

[Doc Oc]

There is a national osteopathic honor society - it is called Psi Sigma Alpha and has been around for a long time, but there aren't chapters at every osteopathic school for reasons that I can't explain. You can look up resumes of D.O.s on the internet and quite a few even list it, and according to some 4th years at my school, it has been recognized at some of their residency interviews.

I don't know how SSP or PSA are run at other schools, but here is my understanding of how they are run at UNECOM:

SSP: it is an "honor and service organization". You apply and interview, and current 2nd year members choose the new members. I don't know what criteria they use, but I'm sure they use something, perhaps like that point system someone else was talking about, but I'm guessing. Only a certain % of the class is allowed to become members. The academic requirement is to just pass all of your classes. (UNECOM is HP/P/F) SSP has alot of activities that they help organize and charity events that they run.

PSA: it is a "national osteopathic honor society". Provisional membership is given to the top 15% at the end of the 1st year, based on a point-based ranking system that pretty much equals how many credits of HPs you have divided by number of credits attempted. Permanent membership is given to the top 20% at the end of the 2nd year. You don't apply - you are either in it or not based on rank. PSA doesn't have any activities, just an award ceremony during senior week.

If your school doesn't have a chapter, you can probably start one up if you wanted to, just look it up on the web and get contact info.

At UNECOM, there is no class rank (although it may be instituted for future classes in the next couple of years), so PSA is the only way to show your class rank at interviews. I find it interesting that other schools have specific academic criteria for SSP membership, as my school does not, and I wonder if it will be assumed that the students from my school were in the top of their class because they are in SSP?