High school coursework for prerequisites (AP / PA) and Q for neuroscience majors

[evanschumann]

Hello everyone,

 

New to the forum. What an asset!

 

I'm reducing clutter and including two unrelated questions into one post.

 

Anyone have experience with counting high school coursework?

1) AP Credit - Where to put it? Count it?

My college granted me credit for AP coursework which opted me out of some general requirements. For example I took Accelerated General Chem in one semester because of an AP Chem 5, but many schools require 2 semesters of general chemistry. So I would include this AP course under my undergrad college? The transcript would be from where?

 

I took a Project Advance course in English senior year of high school which was credited through Syracuse University. I will include Syracuse University then, BUT the transcript would come from ... the high school I attended?

 

2)As a neuroscience major, many of my courses straddled the line between psychology and biology such as cognitive neuroscience, the biological basis of psychopathology, and the Human Brain. They included labwork. Either way they should be included in the science GPA but I would like to have the courses credited as biology. They were listed under the PSYC department through the registrar in the absence of an official NEURO department. Similar stories to share...

 

Thanks

[just_me]

You should really read through the FAQs they have a ton of info: https://secure.caspaonline.org/applicants2012/faq/FAQs_Directory.htm

 

First Question

ADVANCED PLACEMENT EXAM CREDIT:For AP EXAM credits, you will list them as courses under the institution which awarded you the credit. You should enter them under the first term of your freshman year as they appear on your transcript. For your grade, you should select “Credit” and for the course type, you should select “Advanced Placement.” If no course prefix or number is issued, you may put “N/A” for “Not Applicable.”

 

DUAL-ENROLLMENT CREDIT:For CLASSES given by a college to high school students or for which college credit was granted, these courses are considered “dual-enrollment,” and in this case, you need to report the courses under the community college they were taken through, NOT the college, if any, which the credit transferred to. You should list these courses under the community college during the term they were taken at your high school. They are considered a “Regular” courses and your status would be “freshman.” The course title, grade, and credits should be reported as it appears on your community college transcript. You will need to contact the community college and request a transcript of these courses to be sent to CASPA. Do not report these courses again as transfer credits at your undergraduate institution.

 

Second Question:

 

https://secure.caspaonline.org/applicants2012/faq/coursesubject.htm

 

Courses should be listed based on course prefix and how your institution categorizes them...not simply based on the class name, in other words if your neuroscience course has a PSY prefix then you should list it as a psych course under behavioral science and if it has a BIO or BSC then you should list it as a biology course. If you do otherwise you run the risk of having too many corrections needing to be made and your app being returned to you

[Allegro]

There's a LITTLE wiggle room with the second part of the question because CASPA goes by the course title first, THEN the subject prefix:

 

 

https://portal.caspaonline.org/applicants2012/instruction/Coursework.htm

 

 

"SUBJECT:Select the course subject for the class using the drop-down menu. Please refer to the COURSE SUBJECTS LIST at the bottom of this page for a list of common courses and which subject they fall under. Since not all possible course titles are listed, we ask that applicants take into consideration the department which the course was offered through and their personal knowledge of the course’s content to make their best judgment call as to the course subject. When categorizing courses, CASPA first looks at the title of a course, and if that is not clear, we then default to the department which the course was offered through. For example, if a course is labeled “Statistics” it would be considered a Math even if it is offered via the Psychology department. However, when the title is unclear – for example, Research and Design – then the subject would default to the department. Please note that during the verification process, CASPA will change any course subjects which it deems have been incorrectly listed. In addition, please note that these classifications only affect the way your GPA is calculated at CASPA; they do not indicate anything in regards to prerequisites at PA programs. If you have any concerns regarding whether or not your coursework will fulfill PA program entrance requirements, please contact the school(s) you are interested in applying to."

 

Also, if you look on their course subjects list, "neurology" is considered a bio class. Therefore I'm guessing some of those courses with "neuro" in the title you may get away with listing as bio, but probably not all.

[just_me]

this goes to show you that even CASPA doesnt agree with everything......what I posted above was sent to me in an email when I applied last cycle

[cinntsp]

You may want to check with schools to see if they will accept AP credit to satisfy pre-reqs. Some schools won't IIRC.

[just_me]

Thats true...didnt even think about it

 

You may want to check with schools to see if they will accept AP credit to satisfy pre-reqs. Some schools won't IIRC.

[Allegro]

this goes to show you that even CASPA doesnt agree with everything......what I posted above was sent to me in an email when I applied last cycle

 

Really? That's terrible. It's also not true that your app will be returned to you for incorrect course subjects, CASPA never undelivers for that and says so in the "Undelivering the application" FAQ.

 

Some people at CASPA are very, very good, but sometimes, especially when things get busy, you get new people in there or people who's expertise is in a different service helping out. In general, ALWAYS go by the FAQ first, as that has been vetted by management staff. Most answers are in there, and that way if you get conflicting information from customer service, you can bring that up to the service person and make sure they double-check.

[just_me]

Well I did read the FAQs when I asked and asked for clarification on this part:

 

SUBJECT:Select the course subject for the class using the drop-down menu. Please refer to the COURSE SUBJECTS LIST at the bottom of this page for a list of common courses and which subject they fall under. Since not all possible course titles are listed, we ask that applicants take into consideration the department which the course was offered through and their personal knowledge of the course’s content to make their best judgment call as to the course subject.

I think that why I received the answer I did. No big deal now anyway...Im in and I didnt have any changes made to my application following that reps advice :-)

 

 

Really? That's terrible. It's also not true that your app will be returned to you for incorrect course subjects, CASPA never undelivers for that and says so in the "Undelivering the application" FAQ.

 

Some people at CASPA are very, very good, but sometimes, especially when things get busy, you get new people in there or people who's expertise is in a different service helping out. In general, ALWAYS go by the FAQ first, as that has been vetted by management staff. Most answers are in there, and that way if you get conflicting information from customer service, you can bring that up to the service person and make sure they double-check.