Calculating Science GPA?

I was wondering about this also. I know that pre-med students calculate the BCPM (bio, chem, physics, math) GPA. So would A & P, repro, nutrition, etc. all be lumped under "biology"? (I hope!) Or does the course actually have to be called Biology or Chemistry to count toward the science GPA?

 

of course, it's not really clear-cut. I think it depends on the school...for instance, some say it must have biol, chem, phys, or whatever prefix to be science (thus excluding ansc courses). I know that I lost a lot of physics credit bc it "technically" wasn't a phys-prefix course. I'm sure some though will include ANSC courses...so yea, another thing to confuse you during your application! Not completely sure on that, so if someone else disagrees, they're probably right!

 

Yeah... You're going to have to calculate these things over again for almost every school. In fact, some schools differ in whether they want any grad work in your "cumulative" GPA, and one school specifically wanted all undergrad and grad work *minus* any credits you got strictly for research (because you always get an A in research, unless your advisor is an ass). Oh, and some wanted last 45 hours, I think some wanted last 60 hours, and god forbid all your courses are semester credits and you're applying to a quarter-system school...

Wisconsin, I think, gave very specific instructions for GPA calculations in their supplemental app, which was nice. Probably other schools with supplemental apps have similar instructions if they ask you to calculate something different from what's on VMCAS.

I think the way I did it was basically if the school asked for a pre-req GPA then I calculated the GPA based on all and only prereqs for that school (science and otherwise). If they ask for a "science" GPA and don't provide further clarification, then I'd think you're free to count whatever courses you think should count as science...

 

your science GPA is going to vary by school, depending on how they calculate it. if you want to be realistic to yourself, take all your worst grades and average them. i'm kidding. somewhat. in my experience, the science GPA includes maths, chems, hard bios (not bio of cancer, not biol anthro), stats, biochems, micros, and basic nutrition (not wildlife nut, or comp anim nut). Again, each school will be fussy in their own way. Animal science courses are not counted. Management courses are not counted. The "Science" term is meant to mean "a course that expands the overall scientific and analytical ability of the applicant"- i think that's what one school told me. it also changes from year to year what they count because your science GPA is recalculated year to year by different, or the same forgetful, people. I got into trouble by calling out that they counted one class one year and not this year, and they said i was a bad applicant with bad problem solving skills by pointing out their own mistake. I'm very bitter.
Best idea is to consult the schools you are interested in and ask about specific courses like borderline nutritions, ornithologies, etc.