Science GPA vs. BCMP on AMCAS

[Eric1881]

Just a quick question, i am a junior desperately trying to boost my sub-par science GPA. I am taking a lot of Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Math but am curious about how other science courses in departments such as Entomology, Statistics, and Life sciences factor into your 'science' GPA portion on AMCAS?

When I do fill out my AMCAS will these courses count toward BCMP or just factor into my cumulative?

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[UofM527]

It really varies on a case by case basis, but from my experience lots of things can be counted towards your science GPA...things like stats and entomology would almost certainly qualify...the life sciences depends alot on what exactly the course was about...

 

[Twiigg]

Good question! I am majoring in Neuroscience and will consequently be taking a lot of Neuroscience classes. 🙂 Anyone have any idea if those count towards scienge GPA?

 

[SnoPearl]

Good question! I am majoring in Neuroscience and will consequently be taking a lot of Neuroscience classes. 🙂 Anyone have any idea if those count towards scienge GPA?

I heard that it can swing either way. You can usually put down neuroscience classes as "biology" on the AMCAS, but sometimes the transcript checker will change it to something else (BESS probably) that doesn't count towards the BCPM.

 

[Eric1881]

What does BESS stand for? What are other categories? I really need to know because my BCMP is REALLY hurting and i need class like Neurobiology and stuff to count toward it or im dead in the water

 

[Geekchick921]

Thankfully, my alma mater, where I'm returning for prerequisites, seems very general with their course listings. Statistics is listed under Math (as in MA141), all the life science courses are listed under Biology, etc.

Do you know exactly how your school counts those courses in the undergrad catalog/schedule? If there are comparable courses that are listed under the BCPM categories, I'd lean towards taking them. For example, Penn State has an overabundance of categories, two of which are Biology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Biology has BIOL 230: Biology: Molecules and Cells and BMB has BMB 251: Molecular and Cell Biology. How much you want to bet they're almost indistinguisable? And while I don't know the specifics, I wouldn't be surprised if the BMB class didn't count towards your BCPM.

 

[xLoveNYx]

I took the course Human Sexuality as a freshman, it was under the biology dept. Should I calculate this into my BCPM for the AMCAS?? What would happen if I were to omit this class??

 

[pride4jc727]

I believe that BCPM are all the pre-requisite classes needed for medical school. I do not know if that includes, in regards to physics, biology, chemistry, and math majors all their other requirements in order to complete the major. I would leave it to general biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and calculus. I would invoke LizzyM to confirm this.

 

[CubaLibre]

I took the course Human Sexuality as a freshman, it was under the biology dept. Should I calculate this into my BCPM for the AMCAS?? What would happen if I were to omit this class??

if you got a good grade try to label it bcmp. if you didn't, omit it. If amcas wants to make it bcmp, it will. That's about it. If there are too many errors though, this will delay the verification process. 1,2, or 3 errors they'll just fix themselves and figure you made a mistake.

 

[Pedsbro]

Here's your answer:

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2009instructionmanual.pdf

It's the how-to guide for AMCAS. Scroll down to the "Courses" section (page 50 in the PDF). They tell you exactly what subjects count for what category (i.e. physiology is considered BCPM).