AMCAS classification of Medical Botany?

[Satire5Texul]

Tried to search the forums, nothing specifically came up regarding if this class will be directly inserted in your science GPA

Medical Botany BOT 3850

A historical and contemporary survey of the impact of
plants on human health - teacher description

Official University description includes the words: "psychoactive" + "toxins" in regards to human health

College: Arts and Sciences
Department: Biology-Cell, Micro, Molecular

I love this type of stuff, will get an A in the course, just need to make sure it will aid my science GPA I am trying to improve.

Thank you ~

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[efle]

I suspect 1) yes it will go into sGPA since botany is listed as Bio and 2) be wary of taking a bunch of classes like botany, ecology, planetary science, etc because adcoms can spot when people try to fluff up (ahem, aid/improve, sorry) their sGPA 😉

 

[M12B]

I took a course titled "Medical Ethnobotany." This class was listed under the biology department at my school, thus I classified it as Biology in my AMCAS application and it was NOT edited by AMCAS when my application was verified, so I'm assuming it did count towards my science GPA.

 

[Satire5Texul]

Okay thank you @efle for the reminder, the rest of the course list I just went through looks very science-oriented and more stringent (analytical chem, biochem and cell biology classes). Need to stay away from ecology cause i like the topic but I can see how it might be viewed o.o

@M12B Thank you as well ! Thats exactly my concern

Medical Botany it is

 

[qkhb]

2) be wary of taking a bunch of classes like botany, ecology, planetary science, etc because adcoms can spot when people try to fluff up (ahem, aid/improve, sorry) their sGPA 😉

What is the basis of this? If the argument is that astronomy, ecology, etc. have minimal bearing on the knowledge required for medical practice, then why are math courses also not considered as fluff? Statistics is one matter, but linear algebra has as little to do with medicine as does astronomy.

 

[efle]

What is the basis of this? If the argument is that astronomy, ecology, etc. have minimal bearing on the knowledge required for medical practice, then why are math courses also not considered as fluff? Statistics is one matter, but linear algebra has as little to do with medicine as does astronomy.

Has nothing to do with relation to medicine, it's that some courses are traditionally less rigorous than others within the hard sciences - eg upper division science credits in things like Evolution, Ecology, Botany, Geology vs in Anatomy&Physiology, Quantum Mech, Biochemistry, Organometallics. Of course your mileage may vary, maybe your botany class was way harder than your biochem, but adcoms have said they put your sGPA into context of major and/or courses taken and can spot fluffers pretty quickly.

 

[qkhb]

Has nothing to do with relation to medicine, it's that some courses are traditionally less rigorous than others within the hard sciences - eg upper division science credits in things like Evolution, Ecology, Botany, Geology vs in Anatomy&Physiology, Quantum Mech, Biochemistry, Organometallics. Of course your mileage may vary, maybe your botany class was way harder than your biochem, but adcoms have said they put your sGPA into context of major and/or courses taken and can spot fluffers pretty quickly.

Full disclosure: my university doesn't even offer botany—is that a thing anymore? We have very few courses on the evo/eco side of biology. Anyway I figured the implication was indeed about difficulty. It's definitely true that certain types of courses are more rigorous than others but imo it varies a lot from school to school, professor to professor. One of the most famous GPA boosters in our department is a 5000 level analytical chemistry course, and you couldn't tell that by the name or course description. Generally, those assumptions are safe though.

 

[dr.0ne]

Sounds like a cool class. Was it like...about...cannabis...?

 

[Satire5Texul]

@qkhb I totally understand your point, but yeah math classes traditionally have more analytical umph.
The analytic chem at my university I haven't taken but it is also known for being easy. Rate my professor has a 5.0 easiness rating for the professor that teaches it.

Sounds like a cool class. Was it like...about...cannabis...?

I think its fair to say 25% of the class will be cannabis by content and 100% by class discussion.