what counts as a science/math course?

[youngrace]

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hi everyone,

does anyone know if behavioral neuroscience (it's listed under psychology...) can be counted toward one's math/science gpa? i know it's not listed under biology, physics, chemistry, or math, but it does include a fair amount of science in it (hence the "science" in the name!). it thus seems counterintuitive that it WOULDN'T be included, but maybe i'm wrong. hopefully somebody can give me a definitive answer! thanks so much 🙂

 

[Spudds]

No, only the specific departments listed.

 

[0Complications]

There was another thread with this same question about a day ago, so I would use the search to check it out (try for psychopharmacology, physiological psychology, etc.).

It seemed that the consensus was that you should list all of the classes you feel fit the definition of "Science" courses provided by AMCAS and then let AMCAS correct them if they don't feel that they fit.

I had the same question, and this is now what I plan on doing.

 

[Nataliemay24]

yup, i know from experience that Ocomplications is exactly right. everybody will tell you that it goes by department. your premed advisor, people who have applied in the past, etc. but i know from personal experience: it's simply not true! list whatever classes you want under the science categories, and amcas will fix it if they disagree with you. if you have too many things you need to fix, i heard they'll just send it back to you and that will delay your application significantly. so don't try to slip something past them like "abnormal psychology" as a biology class or something. but if you honestly believe the class was mostly biology, by all means, categorize it as that! that's what i did and as a result, my science gpa was much higher than it otherwise would have been.

 

[Dendrite]

I was surprised at what classes count as BCPM. AMCAS will fix it as long as you write down the correct prefix and department.

It's cool that astronomy counts for physics.

 

[youngrace]

thanks everyone! that was really helpful. sometimes i feel that the people on this board know a lot more than those so-called premedical "advisors"--thanks again! 🙂

 

[Nataliemay24]

thanks everyone! that was really helpful. sometimes i feel that the people on this board know a lot more than those so-called premedical "advisors"--thanks again! 🙂

be careful. 🙂 from what i've seen, premed advisors tend to be wrong about:
1) only classes in math, physics, biology, and chemistry count for science gpa
2) it's not important to apply early (my premed advisor did say it was important to apply early - in fact, she refused to write a committee letter for me in 2006 because i was gonna take the mcat in august and she said that it would give me such a disadvantage she wouldn't support my application. but i've seen many posts where advisors have acted like it doesn't matter...and actually, maybe it doesn't matter as much as we think it does...)
but for everything else, i'd listen to them over stuff i read on the internet.

 

[nlax30]

When I applied my "Physiological Psych" course (under our Psychology dept.) WAS counted as a science, so good luck.

 

[luv2sd]

it's the stuff that's covered in class that determines whether it's science or not

 

[ChubbyChaser]

What about Pharmacological Research? I definitely consider it science, but ya never know with AAMC.