Behavioral science classes?

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virtuoso735

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I have been reading the Osteopathic Medical College Information Book and noticed that a lot of the schools require or recommend 'Behavioral Sciences' classes. What kinds of qualify as behavioral science classes? Do courses in the psychology and sociology departments count?

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I absolutely loved my anthropology and psychology courses in college. I would recommend them for behavioral sciences. Obviously your interests may be different than mine, but I found those courses to be very interesting.
 
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I have a psychology, sociology, and philosophy class on my transcript, so I hope that's taken care of.
 
I have a psychology, sociology, and philosophy class on my transcript, so I hope that's taken care of.

Oh you are more than set.

Honestly, I doubt that they look at it much when making admissions decisions. Asking for more of those courses is more about the politics of medicine/medical admissions.
 
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Would a general health science class be considered as behavioral psych? I am taking psych now and I absolutely hate it so if I can fulfill the requirement with health sci that'd be awesome
 
Oh you are more than set.

Honestly, I doubt that they look at it much when making admissions decisions. Asking for more of those courses is more about the politics of medicine/medical admissions.

No, they don't look at it for admissions. But if it's a requirement you'd better have it showing on your final transcript or you won't be matriculating with your class.
 
Would a general health science class be considered as behavioral psych? I am taking psych now and I absolutely hate it so if I can fulfill the requirement with health sci that'd be awesome

Behavioral Science
Anthropology
Community Health
Criminal Justice
Educational Psychology
Ethnic Studies
Human Sexuality
Marriage/Family
Personal Health
Physiological Ethics
Psychology
Social Science
Social Work/Sociology


So no. You can take other stuff other than psychology but apparently not that.
 
Does a 3 credit course on Japanese arts and culture count as ethnic studies?
 
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I have a psychology, sociology, and philosophy class on my transcript, so I hope that's taken care of.

MSU does not accept philosophy for their behavioral science requirement.
 
Behavioral Science
Anthropology
Community Health
Criminal Justice
Educational Psychology
Ethnic Studies
Human Sexuality
Marriage/Family
Personal Health
Physiological Ethics
Psychology
Social Science
Social Work/Sociology


Would women's studies, specifically womens sexuality count as a behavioral science?
 
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I didn't want to flood the archives.

I am interested in applying to Western University in Pomona and they require the behavioral sciences.

I took Ethnic Studies, Third World Studies, and Public Health/Policy. Would those three (quarter) classes be okay?
 
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I didn't want to flood the archives.

I am interested in applying to Western University in Pomona and they require the behavioral sciences.

I took Ethnic Studies, Third World Studies, and Public Health/Policy. Would those three (quarter) classes be okay?

https://aacomas.aacom.org/survey/views/client/aacomas/collegesInstructions4.html

Ethnic studies = behavioral science
Third World Studies sounds like history to me. History = other non-science.
Public Health = other non-science.
 
The admissions committee said Ethnic/TWS are acceptable. I forgot to mention the Public health to her, but would it fall under the Community Health of the Behavioral Science category?

Considering there is a "Public Health" category on that AACOMAS link I posted, I'm guessing Public Health counts as Public Health.
 
There are two different issues here that people are overlapping

The AACOMAS course classifications are primarily for designating course type when calculating GPA breakdown on the primary application submitted to AACOMAS and then the schools. While AACOMAS and individual schools should mostly overlap in these areas, it does not mean that individual schools may accept a wider (or smaller) array of course types in a category. If you have a course that does not clearly fit a category, you need to confirm with the individual school if it will fulfill the requirement.

Additionally, as previous posters have stated, as long as the general requirement is fulfilled it is unlikely that these courses will have a great impact on your admissions chances. Personally, I think all candidates should have at least a general psychology class.

What if a statistics class is in the department of Psychology? Would that end up falling under the category of a psychology class if the class has PSYC in front of the course title, but the general title is Introduction to Statistics?
 
There are two different issues here that people are overlapping

The AACOMAS course classifications are primarily for designating course type when calculating GPA breakdown on the primary application submitted to AACOMAS and then the schools. While AACOMAS and individual schools should mostly overlap in these areas, it does not mean that individual schools may accept a wider (or smaller) array of course types in a category. If you have a course that does not clearly fit a category, you need to confirm with the individual school if it will fulfill the requirement.

Additionally, as previous posters have stated, as long as the general requirement is fulfilled it is unlikely that these courses will have a great impact on your admissions chances. Personally, I think all candidates should have at least a general psychology class.


How sure are you about this? I contacted several schools last June regarding course classification/pre-req questions and they all told me that whatever my AACOMAS showed when they reviewed my file is what they would accept the course as.
 
As I noted in my original reply (see above) AACOMAS and schools will mostly overlap. the question is on courses that dont easily fit into a category and/or have a different focus than the course title would imply. If I recall the AACOMAS process includes a review by the applicant after they have verified transcript. you can call/email and discuss a change if you have course description/catalog as documentation you may get that change.

Additionally you can always make note of a variation or discrepancy on your secondary application. At that point schools may be more lenient on where the course should be classified. Generally as long as you have basically fulfilled the requirement, be it math or behavioral science, the course itself will have little direct impact on your application except how it impacts GPA

Right. I should've been more clear, though I thought it would be understood that I would not call schools about classes/credits that obviously fit into certain categories. I called about things that don't easily fit and was told that the school would follow AACOMAS categorization.

In the past year on SDN I have not heard of a single person having a problem with discrepancies between medical school and AACOMAS.
 
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