Question about BCPM

[87138]

I'm a Kinesiology major, and besides the prereqs for med school, I've taken Functional Anatomy, Exercise Physiology, Biomechanics, and Neurophysiology. All four of these courses are Kinesiology classes (in other words, part of the Kinesiology department, not Biology or Physics).

Since these classes have course numbers like "KINES 400" instead of "BIO 400", do they still count towards BCPM? How does one make that exact distinction?

Thanks.

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[SuzieQ3417]

You should download their instruction book: http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2005instructionbook.pdf

On page 28 it lists the different classifications...kinesiology is listed under Health Sciences and does not count in your BCMP (at least for 2005).

 

[87138]

You should download their instruction book: http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2005instructionbook.pdf

On page 28 it lists the different classifications...kinesiology is listed under Health Sciences and does not count in your BCMP (at least for 2005).

Damn, that sucks, I aced them all!

But thank you very much for the link, VERY helpful!

 

[doublepeak]

It is totally on you to put the courses in the respective catagory. I was an exercise physiology major so I took a lot of those type of classes. Even though they were all ESS (Exercise and Sports Sciences) I put them in different spots depending on the course content.

For example nutrition, sports injuries, anatomy with kinesiology (it was heavy on the kinesiology), exercise prescription I put in the health science catagory. But the classes that were very heavily based in physiology or pure anatomy like systemic exercise physiology, human physiology, gross anatomy, etc I put in biology since anatomy and physiology AMCAS says are biology.

I didn't have any problem processing and no one asked me about it (and I've gotten in). You should have some justification for your reasoning if anyone asks though (ie be picky about it) but it will raise your GPA to reflect the rigor of your classes. I swear the biochem portion in my exercise phys class was way more in detail than the 400 level class premeds take in the biochem department (I took both).

BTW: I was told that I would be looked down upon by majoring in exercise phys and it would look like I major in simply a revaped physical education department (especially since I went to a school well known for it's sports teams) which is simply not true, and my UCSF acceptance proves that. All my interviewers really seemed to be interested in the exercise phys major and my clinical research in the area. So it won't hurt you as long as you do good in your other science classes too.
Sorry for the rant, but I was really down when these people (director of premed advising at my school) were telling me that.

 

[87138]

It is totally on you to put the courses in the respective catagory. I was an exercise physiology major so I took a lot of those type of classes. Even though they were all ESS (Exercise and Sports Sciences) I put them in different spots depending on the course content.

For example nutrition, sports injuries, anatomy with kinesiology (it was heavy on the kinesiology), exercise prescription I put in the health science catagory. But the classes that were very heavily based in physiology or pure anatomy like systemic exercise physiology, human physiology, gross anatomy, etc I put in biology since anatomy and physiology AMCAS says are biology.

I didn't have any problem processing and no one asked me about it (and I've gotten in). You should have some justification for your reasoning if anyone asks though (ie be picky about it) but it will raise your GPA to reflect the rigor of your classes. I swear the biochem portion in my exercise phys class was way more in detail than the 400 level class premeds take in the biochem department (I took both).

BTW: I was told that I would be looked down upon by majoring in exercise phys and it would look like I major in simply a revaped physical education department (especially since I went to a school well known for it's sports teams) which is simply not true, and my UCSF acceptance proves that. All my interviewers really seemed to be interested in the exercise phys major and my clinical research in the area. So it won't hurt you as long as you do good in your other science classes too.
Sorry for the rant, but I was really down when these people (director of premed advising at my school) were telling me that.

Thanks man, definitely appreciate the input coming from another similar-field-of-study major.

 

[chandelantern]

The CONTENT of the class matters more than the department it is in. The guide for the amcas is good to use, but you can definitely cound anatomy as biology, regardless if your school puts it in another department. My advisor said if the class is 50% or more biology, you can choose to classify it as such. Thus, a food science microbiology class can be classified as biology even though amcas says "food science is health sciences" or whatever. However, when amcas verifies your application, they can change classifications they feel are unappropriate (however, no one will object to anatomy being considered biology!!!)

I also put my exercise physiology class under biology, and by the title, neurophys sounds like it could go there too. I don't know about biomechanics?