Do the following courses count as BCPM?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

So in high school, I took 2 dual-enrollment classes, MTH105 (Algebra & Trigonometry) and MAS201 (Intro to Business Statistics)

I am a Neuroscience major. For my major, I have taken an Intro to Statistics course and a Psychobiology course which are under the psych department but my advisor says are considered to be math and science courses. I’m worried that AMCAS won’t agree with this.

Also, I’m curious if Introduction to Research Methods and Intermediate Research Methods & Biobehavioral Statistics would count as BCPM? These courses are also under the psych department though. Thanks!

2

AMCAS is gonna do what AMCAS is gonna do.

Generally speaking, you can argue for classifying a course as a BCPM if >50% of the content is BCPM material. Use your best judgement. Also check to see how the official course description of the class describes the material. If there is a preponderance of science descriptors, you’re good.
[AMCAS Course Classification Guide](AMCAS® Course Classification Guide | Students & Residents)

AMCAS subscribes to a national database of college catalogs which they use to check course titles/course numbers/course descriptions when verifying transcripts. If AMCAS has questions about how you’ve classified a course, you may be asked to supply a copy of the class syllabus. (Be sure to keep copies!)

Note–if AMCAS has to reclassify 5 or more of classes, your application will be red flagged during the verification process. It will be pulled out of the processing queue for an in-depth review. This may delay the verification of your transcript/application for several days to several weeks.

Algebra & Trig is definitely a BCPM class, though AMCAS may not consider it a college level class for inclusion in your sGPA calculations. I have no idea how business stats will be looked at. To be on the safe side I would list it as an AO (all other), not a BCPM class.

Intro to stats is a BCPM class, even if it was taken in through psych dept. Psychobio will depend on the topics covered by the course & the amount of time devotes to them. (Read your syllabus, Count it as bio if the bio topics outnumber the psych or if the time spent on bio topics is greater than time spent on psych topics.)

Lastly, if in doubt, you can contact AMCAS at amcas@aamc.org or 202-828-0600 and ask their opinion on course classification. (But do this sooner, rather than later. They get awfully busy May through August.)

3

Thanks for all of the information! It is super helpful!

4

And I would have said any stats class is math and is BCPM.

When talking about courses taken at your school, your school’s adviser should have a pretty good sense as to whether AMCAS considers it BCPM or not so do whatever they say.

Ultimately AMCAS decides based on whatever it uses to decide and it’s not like the schools will know you guessed wrong on AMCAS classification or care.