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—membership in the 2020 AOA+ Leadership Society!
Optometry's Meeting
Optometry’s Meeting®—the annual meeting of the AOA and AOSA—is where optometry joins together for engaging discussions, peerless education and valuable networking. Doctors, optometric professionals, students and industry come together to further optometry and the business of the association at the House of Delegates; to provide quality and engaging education for doctors and optometry professionals; to showcase exhibits of the latest ophthalmic goods and services; and bring together colleagues to build and continue relationships.
Local Meetings
Connect with doctors of optometry, optometric students and optometric 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.
Doctors of optometry obtain $2.1 billion in federal relief to blunt COVID-19 economic crisis
Even as doctors of optometry receive the much-needed funds, the AOA remains committed to advocating for optometry’s inclusion in federal crisis measures. Reminder: the deadline to apply for relief has been extended to May 31.
Optometry’s reflection
Given the doors that were once closed and are now open to women and people of color in society, it might be expected that the faces of optometry would reflect the changing demographics of the nation. And with the nation’s reckoning over social injustice in 2020 stirring anew concerns over diversity and inclusiveness, the profession is asking whether optometry reflects the nation’s changing demographics—and why should that matter?
AOA pushes Amazon to sufficiently address inappropriate contact lens sales
The global e-commerce retailer again came to the AOA’s attention over posts from contact lens sellers that didn’t appear to meet FCLCA patient protection provisions requiring valid prescriptions.