<p>What's the typical course-load for first year pre-meds? I'm curious to know whether introductory bio and intro. chem are both taken at the same time.</p>
<p>For example, is something like this a typical pre-med courseload or something insane?
(on the semester system:)</p>
<p>Intro Chem I and II
Intro Bio I and II
Calc I and II
Writing Course, elective</p>
<p>I did honors gem chem, intro bio lecture and lab, calc III, and writing my first semester w/ no problems.</p>
<p>yea same here i did honors chem, intro bio, calc/biostats, writing/lit, and spanish with no problems</p>
<p>I did bio, calc, gen chem, eng, psych, and chem labs</p>
<p>Just to show you how much things can vary:</p>
<p>GenChem (1 semester), Chinese (2), Environment and Toxicology (1), Writing (1), Intro Bio (1), Policy Ethics (1), Chemistry Research (1), Education (1), Multivariable (1)</p>
<p>how did u only take one semester of gen chem and bio? and just out of curiosity y did u want to do that?</p>
<p>Genchem here runs only one semester if you had AP credit, but didn't want to take organic chemistry as a freshman. It moves twice as fast as normal genchem, but should be review.</p>
<p>And I only took one semester of bio as a freshman because there is no rush. Premeds have to take two semesters of biology over the course of their entire college careers; I ended up taking five.</p>
<p>my freshman year courses:
Physics I / II
G Chem I / II
Calc II / III
Writing / Engineering Design
Engineering in Medicine / G Chem Lab</p>
<p>with the slash seperating first and second semester</p>
<p>do engineering courses count into the science GPA? Also, since engineers generally take less humanities courses, their humanities GPA is high correct?(like 4's or 3.9's)</p>
<p>1.) Nope, your science GPA is more officially known as your "BCPM" GPA - Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math. They are quite strict about these distinctions (as, I suppose, is only fair).</p>
<p>2.) I don't know why you'd assume that fewer courses leads to a higher GPA.</p>
<p>
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They are quite strict about these distinctions (as, I suppose, is only fair).
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</p>
<p>I wish that were true, but its not. The criteria for BCPM is ANYTHING that is bio, chem, physics or math...so it is actually the least fair number on your whole application for two reasons. First of all u get to chose what to include and what to leave out. Second of all it screws over science majors and engineers to a greater extent since they take about 3 times as many science courses as premed humanities majors at higher levels, which, (trust me) kills your BCPM. </p>
<p>It depends on what kind of engineer you are. If you are something like mechanical or civil then your courses wont count...but if you are chemical or biomedical then they probably will. Humanities GPA is higher usually because humanities classes are just easier. I go to a college with a pretty healthy core curriculum so i had to take a few humanities and have gotten no less than an A- in any of the classes....also those classes are where the grade inflation really comes into play. But, yea, taking less of those classes has nothing to do with the high gpa...i wish i could take more of them cause they'r so easy!</p>
<p>haha, I think that humanities is easier for an engineer since they basically can take the intro classes and get by with it (so therefore, it could/should be eaiser). </p>
<p>So say I'm a chemical engineer. The upper level ChemE courses count into the BCPM? However, what if I'm a mechanical engineer? Will the statics and thermodynamics also count since those are related to physics, MATH, etc?</p>
<p>I'm still left in the dark.</p>
<p>Hi Shraf,</p>
<p>It's true you get to choose how you want to designate these courses, but AMCAS goes through it again and changes it to whatever they like, and that is the only thing that medical schools will ever see.</p>
<p>I am very willing to testify from personal experience that they are quite strict! They go off of department name. Biomedical Engineering is engineering, not biology. I have to simply disagree with you here - but I will yield if you've personally gone through the process and seen that AMCAS allowed a BME class through as a bio.</p>
<p>But you are right that this is NOT your premed GPA - this is your BCPM GPA, and I can imagine that science majors would be put at a disadvantage here.</p>
<p>ecner, I am disagreeing with Shraf on this one. None of your courses will count towards BCPM unless they are EXPLICITLY in the Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Math/Statistics departments.</p>
<p>Shraf may come through with personal testimony which will prove me wrong, but my personal experience is that AMCAS is VERY strict about your BCPM GPA.</p>
<p>I sure hope your right bluedevilmike....i asked the premed advisory committee here at columbia about this and they said that BME courses like thermo and quantitative physiology count. As for AMCAS, i'm sure they don't look it over with a fine toothed comb but just glance at it.....trust me i'd rather my BME courses didnt count!</p>
<p>Hi Shraf,</p>
<p>I can't speak to engineering courses specifically - except that I know AMCAS has a separate engineering category, and that my premed advisors told us they would not count.</p>
<p>I can tell you that AMCAS is VERY strict and does indeed go over these with a very fine toothed comb. I got nailed on several things which I thought were very disputable!</p>
<p>I just thought I would clear up the disagreements/uncertainties regarding the BCPM GPA. If you check on the AMCAS support section on AAMC's website (<a href="http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/support.htm)%5B/url%5D">http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/support.htm)</a>, the instruction book gives very explicit instructions regarding which classes fall into the BCPM section and which do not. </p>
<p>Shraf-- biomedical engineering is included under the engineering 'category', so it is not a part of BCPM; </p>
<p>Bluedevilmike-- even if classes are not in any of the four departments, such as if they are classes such as Anatomy, Physiology, etc., they DO count in the BCPM GPA calculation.</p>
<p>Hope that clears things up, and I would refer you to the instruction booklet (~ page 71) on AAMC's website.</p>
<p>Just chiming in with another freshman schedule (my son's)
inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, english/writing (2), spanish (2), health, zoology, environmental biology, chemistry research</p>
<p>Hi cobrien,</p>
<p>I think most of the disagreement was actually on how strictly the AAMC enforces those brackets, not on what the brackets themselves say - but you're right, I did misstate what I meant about department headings. (I don't think I realized that some schools have separate "Anatomy" departments.) Let me clarify.</p>
<p>For example, here, if you take "Anatomy" through our "Biological Anthropology and Anatomy" department, you will NOT receive BCPM points. If you take Anatomy through our "Biology" department, you will receive BCPM points. If there was a separate "Anatomy" department at a school, apparently AMCAS would count that.</p>
<p>My point is that AMCAS pays attention mostly to department name and not course name itself.</p>
<p>Good call, mike, I realized that after I posted. At my school the anatomy and human physiology courses are under the human physiology department, so they would be counted; but your right, I imagine the department head probably plays a bigger role.</p>