how many of you have been successful...

[jon stewart]

how many of you have been successful in getting some classes classified as sceince? like engr courses and psy classes. How will they verify that its more science based, will they just take your word?

for example i have some psy classes that were really science based, it was basically another science class, the class titles were:

BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

i wont be applying until next cycle but i am just curious as if these classes will count for the science gpa?

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[Gospe1]

Basically, if your course code isn't something like BIOL, CHEM, PHYS, or MATH, its not going to be counted towards your BCPM GPA. The AMCAS people are pretty strict about this particular part of the application so just beware.

 

[sportstownusa]

how many of you have been successful in getting some classes classified as sceince? like engr courses and psy classes. How will they verify that its more science based, will they just take your word?

for example i have some psy classes that were really science based, it was basically another science class, the class titles were:

BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

i wont be applying until next cycle but i am just curious as if these classes will count for the science gpa?

I read somewhere that you can count any science based course as science, as long as you identify it as one of the four following categories: Bio, Chem, Phys, Math. Mostly you can classify any Psy, bioengineering classes as Bio, and amcas wont have a problem with it. Just know that you have the choice of classifying a psy course as either BCPM or non-science.

 

[sportstownusa]

Q - Are engineering courses included in the BCPM (biology, chemistry, physics, math) GPA that is calculated by AMCAS?

A- Your engineering courses will not be included in the BCPM GPA unless you classify your engineering course as a biology, chemistry, physics, or math course. The MIT Careers Office can not determine whether your engineering course should be listed as a BCPM. If you are considering listing an engineering course as a BCPM speak with the appropriate academic department or registrars for guidance. In the end it is up to your judgment. AMCAS will accept what you list to be included in the BCPM GPA as long as the transcript doesn't conflict with your classification.

taken from http://web.mit.edu/career/www/preprof/amcasfaq.html

 

[silverlining1]

Basically, if your course code isn't something like BIOL, CHEM, PHYS, or MATH, its not going to be counted towards your BCPM GPA. The AMCAS people are pretty strict about this particular part of the application so just beware.

Hmm, I have not heard this. I was successful in getting classes from the Surgery and Neurosurgery departments classified as Biology (my AMCAS has already been verified). When I called AAMC, they said that you should classify the course by its primary content. Thus, a psychology course could go under Biology if it is called Cellular Neuroscience and was treated like a biology class (i.e. talked in detail about action potentials, ion channel opening, etc.). They also said that they would generally give you the benefit of the doubt, unless you try to classify a foreign language class as physics or something like that. I am reasonably confident that the classes you listed would be fine under Biology.

 

[armybound]

how many of you have been successful in getting some classes classified as sceince? like engr courses and psy classes. How will they verify that its more science based, will they just take your word?

for example i have some psy classes that were really science based, it was basically another science class, the class titles were:

BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

i wont be applying until next cycle but i am just curious as if these classes will count for the science gpa?

I have taken courses with similar titles (neuroscience courses) .. behavioral neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, drugs & behavior..

I listed them as BIOL on the AMCAS like it says to, and they all counted towards my BCPM.

 

[Gospe1]

I'm sorry. Neuro at my school is counted as BCPM but psych is definitely not. Which is sad cuz my psych classes were all cake.

 

[BigRedPremed]

AAMC verifiers have two clues as to what to classify your course as: the department heading and the course title. Look at those two things and you can probably guess what the course will be classified as.

 

[scowdeva]

How do you go about getting a class changed to count towards your BCPM?? My AMCAS has been verified for quite a while, and I didnt realize that I could petition to have classes changed. They wouldnt count quite a few of my classes towards my GPA (if they counted them it would go up by .05). Do I have any options here to check out? Also, if I could get them changed, would schools get an updated version of my AMCAS or not??

I guess I should add before people ask: the classes that I would consider BCPM were all heavily bio based- three nutrition courses (titled such as Nutrition and Development) as well as epidemiology...and they also didnt count a physiology course, at least they edited it and I dont know why, the grade wasnt changed.

 

[Julietcf14]

The only psych courses i was able to put into my science GPA were Statistics courses. I had Into to Psych Stats and two quarters of Advanced Statistics and Research Methods coded as MATH and AMCAS didn't change them.

 

[mvenus929]

How do you go about getting a class changed to count towards your BCPM?? My AMCAS has been verified for quite a while, and I didnt realize that I could petition to have classes changed. They wouldnt count quite a few of my classes towards my GPA (if they counted them it would go up by .05). Do I have any options here to check out? Also, if I could get them changed, would schools get an updated version of my AMCAS or not??

You have to do it within like 10 days of verification. You fill out an academic change request, available on the AMCAS page, I believe.

 

[scowdeva]

Well, its been more than a month- like I said, I didnt realize you could request that they change the designations. Does this mean I'm SOL, at least for this cycle??

 

[shantster]

Basically, if your course code isn't something like BIOL, CHEM, PHYS, or MATH, its not going to be counted towards your BCPM GPA. The AMCAS people are pretty strict about this particular part of the application so just beware.

No, I had some of my psych classes counted last year in my BCPM.

Psych Stats was counted as Math
Physiological Psych and Sensation and Perception were both counted as biology.

I think the ones the OP lists would be able to be counted as BCPM. Just try and the worst that can happen is they change it.

 

[deleted103730]

glad i saw this so i can remember to petition them to change my biopsych, sense & perception, and psych stat/methods to BCMP courses once i'm finally verified