Science GPA questions

[Admires]

thanks

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[Admires]

Somebody halp.

 

[greenturtle22]

I'm fairly certain astronomy counts toward your BCPM GPA under AMCAS course classification rules, even if it's offered as an ASTRO course (someone fact check me on this, but I'm pretty sure this is correct).

As for the psych department neuroscience courses, I doubt it - I had several of those (PSYC courses that dealt with neuroscience) on my transcript, and AMCAS didn't classify them as BCPM/science courses. I think they'd have to be in the biology department or some other hard-science-related department (again, someone please fact check me on this).

 

[libertyyne]

Astro yes.
Neuro no.

 

[libertyyne]

[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply. I did some of my own research and it appears neurosciences courses are classified as BCPM even if offered through psych department, such as Intro to Neuroscience and Neuroscience Independent Study.

Here's one of the threads I found with a lot of people stating they had their neuroscience psych classes count: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/psychology-departmentneuroscience.1190218/

Another thread: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/th...sychology-department-count-as-biology.640252/

I'm open to more opinions though.

Only one way to find out.

 

[ciestar]

Only one way to find out.

Yeah, I guess my main question is whether AMCAS classifies based on course content or department name. Because Neuroscience is under the biology category in the course classification guide and all neuroscience classes at my uni are under the psych department even though the content is biology related.

Needless to say, I'll be classifying all of them as biology (because they are) and if AMCAS creates a problem for some reason i'll just dispute it. Hope it goes well.

Content. That's the simple answer.
I had a nursing department course go towards BCPM. Same with a psych course, they base it on what the course is, not by what department your school puts it in.

 

[kamakazi5]

Agree with above. Astronomy definitely counts but the psych classes likely won't. At my school some of the neuroscience courses are offered as part of the psych and biology department even though it's the exact same class. Those I believe will count as part of the sGPA, but if it's designated psych then unlikely.

Edit: Go with above instead. I always thought most psych courses would not count.

 

[ciestar]

Agree with above. Astronomy definitely counts but the psych classes likely won't. At my school some of the neuroscience courses are offered as part of the psych and biology department even though it's the exact same class. Those I believe will count as part of the sGPA, but if it's designated psych then unlikely.

Edit: Go with above instead. I always thought most psych courses would not count.

That's a huge reason they ask for the course name as well. It could be listed in the psych deparment but if the title was "anatomy of the brain", you could easily argue that it's BCPM.

 

[aldol16]

Yeah, I guess my main question is whether AMCAS classifies based on course content or department name. Because Neuroscience is under the biology category in the course classification guide and all neuroscience classes at my uni are under the psych department even though the content is biology related.

First of all, the criterion used by the AAMC is that if the course contains >50% BCPM content, then it doesn't matter what the department is - the course counts as a BCPM class. End of story.

Now, the technical aspects of how verification is done is not entirely clear but there are theories. Here is mine. The AAMC takes the info from your primary and using an algorithm, verifies it against a database that has course listings from universities in it. Those listings will have departmental information on there. If your course was a psych department course but also cross-listed as neuroscience, the algorithm probably will let it pass. If your course was only a psych department course but you designate it BCPM, they might flag it for human review. Then the course description would come into play and it would need to show that >50% of content is BCPM. That's my theory of how it works, based on some firsthand experiences.

It also doesn't really hurt to classify it as BCPM if you feel that it is even though the departmental listing isn't there. It shouldn't delay the processing of your primary unless you have many mistakes on it.

 

[aldol16]

So if neuroscience is under biology in the AMCAS course guide, but my university has all neuroscience classes under the psych department, it shouldn't matter as long as the content is neuroscience? (ie independent neuroscience research class and intro to neuroscience both listed as psych courses)? content > department?

Yeah. That's the definition. From the AAMC: "Please select course classifications based on the primary content of the course."

 

[MiamiOfOhio]

So with that logic, would that mean my class titled, "psychology statistics" which was a statistics class that was simply specific to psych research and studies would count?

 

[Lost In Transcription]

hi, google is your friend
https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/course-classification-guide/

(I know you implied you had seen this )

Last cycle, Goro (or Catalystik?) suggested that you classify it based on what you felt the class covered more. Was it more a psych class or a science class? In the end it's really up to you (and you might have to defend it to the AAMC)

 

[protego]

All of my neuroscience courses were counted as BCPM. Some were in the psychology department, including cognitive neuroscience. I was a neuroscience major and took a wide range of neuro courses and didn't have trouble with any of them being counted.