Become a student member of the AOA.
When you’re a member of the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA), you’re automatically a member of the AOA. Learn more about why you should join today, and get access to scholarship information, discounts and national board exam support.
Financial Aid
The AOA offers students and doctors of optometry tools for obtaining financial aid and also paying back loans, managing finances, finding scholarship opportunities and creating a budget so you can focus on what matters.
Residency Programs
The AOA provides members with a list of accredited optometric residency programs from the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE). Openings also include technician programs and optometric degree programs at schools and colleges of optometry.
Academic Checklist
Your education calendar must be firm but flexible when it comes to your optometry education requirements. Through it all—applying to a program, meeting optometry school prerequisites, going to grad school, taking the board exams and graduating—members of the AOA and its affiliate the AOSA are supported as students, recent graduates, optometric residents and, finally, as new doctors of optometry.
Leadership Society
The AOA+ Leadership Society is a program for students who want to build leadership skills, advance their careers through networking, personal and professional development and gain specialized education outside of the classroom. Enhance your resume by adding this academic achievement!
Local Meetings
Connect with doctors of optometry, optometric students and paraoptometric staff and expand your knowledge and gain new certifications at these upcoming events.
EyeLearn
AOA’s member-exclusive centralized education portal, EyeLearn, offers an expanding online catalog of educational modules, webinars and resources to help advance clinical proficiencies, the practice of contemporary optometry, and practice management for doctors of optometry, future doctors of optometry, and paraoptometric staff. In an effort to support professional development for the field of optometry, select courses may be available to all individuals in the profession.
AZOA 2025 Bronstein Contact Lens & Cornea Seminar
Scottsdale, AZ
Presidents Council 2025
San Antonio, TX
Event CalendarOptometry's Meeting 2025
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The annual meeting of both the AOA and AOSA, Optometry’s Meeting unites the profession’s leaders to advance optometry and engage the associations’ official business while also delivering an impactful conference experience that promotes continued practice success and job-readiness skills for every stage of attendees’ career.
Over the course of four days, doctors of optometry, paraoptometrics / practice staff and optometry students can tap into an expansive, progressive CE and professional development program, suitable for the entire optometric practice; engage in impactful networking and leadership opportunities alongside colleagues and the profession's leaders from across the country; access the latest ophthalmic goods and services, business solutions and industry connections in the expansive Eye Care Square exhibit hall; enjoy a slate of local entertainment and reception opportunities; and see, firsthand, what it takes to become involved and effect lasting change in our profession by making the AOA a stronger, more effective advocate for the quality care that optometry provides patients.
Optometry's Meeting 2025 hosts the 5th World Congress of Optometry, in partnership with the World Council of Optometry, in Minneapolis, where our globally minded event will focus on advancing universal access to high-quality eye health and vision care, as well as an industry-leading conversation on technological advancements across the eye health care industry.
Sign up to receive an email notification alert for when early registration opens in January.
Mobilizing against myopia
The AOA is on the march to close the gap in access to children’s eye care and improve outcomes for families across the country.
Keeping your practice (and finances) safe
Long-term disability insurance provides protection from the financial fallout of illness or injury.
Seeding change
The AOA Foundation advances eye health and vision care through its key programs, including InfantSEE®, Optometry’s Fund for Disaster Relief, student scholarships and the AOA/AOSA Opportunities in Optometry Grant.