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Clerkship level honors grades determine AOA eligibility. LCOM clerkship grades are based on clinical evaluations which include six core competencies including professionalism, a final exam and a clinical skills exam.

Students are selected from the pool of applicants for nomination and induction using the following criteria:

• Academic performance during their medical education, specifically their academic performance in the clinical clerkship level.
• Successful research/scholarly activities as documented by formal presentations at national meetings or by publications or other scholarly work.
• Leadership in school activities and/or community service.
• Professionalism and humanism.

Points for each clerkship will be awarded by:

1. Top 50% of the Likert scale (ranking a student 1-5 based on clinical work in clerkship)*
2. Nomination from clerkship director for distinction in clerkship-nomination will identify medical students who demonstrate characteristics of excellent physicianship – trustworthiness, character, caring, knowledge, scholarship, proficiency in the doctor-patient relationship, leadership, compassion, empathy, altruism and service leadership.*

*Application eligibility determined based on grades available at the time of selection (usually in May)

We will use rolled up scores of total number of points in category 1 clerkship points and category 2 clerkship points in the student’s completed clerkships at the time of selection to generate a list of students in the top 25% and these students will be offered the opportunity to apply to AOA.

The AOA application asks AOA applicants to reflect on their medical school experiences in leadership, service and research. Applicants are asked to reflect on one experience in each category and write about how that experience serves to meet the tenants of AOA and what personal or professional development occurred as a result of the experience.

The selection committee did not support going back to using numerical grades, a cumulative GPA or USMLE scores to determine AOA eligibility. They deemed it in conflict with the goals and objectives of moving to a pass-fail basic science curriculum.

After a careful review of the applications, the LCOM AOA Selection Committee selects up to 20% of the class for AOA induction in late July/early August, and new members are informed early enough to include this information in their residency application.