I was wondering if your science gpa only consisted of the basic classes for med school or is it all of the science classes you've taken? Also how do they measure transfer credit and AP credit? Thanks for your help.
science gpa
- Thread starter jessica07
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It's all science and math classes, regardless of whether or not they're prereqs for med school.
AP credit varies from school to school. Some accept all credit outright, others only accept only credit for non-lab courses (they don't trust the level of lab skills learned in a high school AP class as a sufficient supplement for college labs), still others don't accept AP at all. Some actually have a weird system in which they'll accept AP's but still "strongly encourage" (read: expect) you to take additional higher level courses in that subject (i.e, genetics over general bio, biochem over gen. chem) to prove that you can still excel in that field in a college setting.
Depending on where you want to apply, you may want to play it safe and either take your prereqs in college or at least take higher level courses in those subjects you tested out of.
AP credit varies from school to school. Some accept all credit outright, others only accept only credit for non-lab courses (they don't trust the level of lab skills learned in a high school AP class as a sufficient supplement for college labs), still others don't accept AP at all. Some actually have a weird system in which they'll accept AP's but still "strongly encourage" (read: expect) you to take additional higher level courses in that subject (i.e, genetics over general bio, biochem over gen. chem) to prove that you can still excel in that field in a college setting.
Depending on where you want to apply, you may want to play it safe and either take your prereqs in college or at least take higher level courses in those subjects you tested out of.
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Schools not accepting AP credit: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nss/nav/pages/school/Med%20School%20Course%20Reqs/MedSchAP08.pdf
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As far as your GPA is concerned, your AP courses will neither count for or against your GPA, so long as your school doesn't not put letter grades for your AP credits. Mine counted as 'transfer credit', so I didn't have any grades for them.
SciGPA (aka BCMP) reflects any classes self-classified (by the applicant - AMCAS doesn't typically change course subjects) as Biology, Chemistry, Math, or Physics. The effect of transfer credit on your GPA will be the same as courses you took at your home institution. AP credit's effect on the BCMP GPA depends on whether your school assigns you a letter grade corresponding to your AP course or just lists it as P/F for the credit(s) - if there is a letter grade involve, it plays into BCMP.