The main difference in science GPA vs overall GPA is the coursework included. Your science GPA covers courses that an application service classifies as science, while your overall GPA combines science and non-science coursework. The exact categories differ across AMCAS, AACOMAS and TMDSAS.
That distinction matters because the three application services do not place every course in the same category. Math belongs in the AMCAS and TMDSAS BCPM GPA but in the AACOMAS non-science GPA. Repeated courses, postbaccalaureate work and excluded grades also require service-specific treatment.
Science and Overall GPA at a Glance
- AMCAS divides coursework into BCPM and all other categories, then reports BCPM, AO and total GPAs by academic status.
- AACOMAS uses science, non-science and total categories, but it places mathematics in the non-science GPA.
- TMDSAS reports BCPM, non-BCPM, overall and last 45 hour GPAs, with engineering handled separately from BCPM in most cases.
- Published GPA means describe groups of applicants or entering students. They are not universal minimums or individual admission predictions.
What Is the Difference Between Science GPA and Overall GPA?
For AMCAS, BCPM stands for biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. AMCAS calculates one GPA for BCPM coursework and another for all other coursework, commonly called the AO GPA. The total GPA combines the coursework represented in both categories. AMCAS reports BCPM, AO and total GPA figures and hours for each academic status.
The AMCAS sample GPA report illustrates how these figures relate without suggesting what any applicant should earn. In its cumulative undergraduate row, the example shows a 3.44 BCPM GPA over 89 hours, a 3.33 AO GPA over 17 hours and a 3.42 total GPA over 106 hours. These are sample-report figures, not applicant averages or admission standards.
A science GPA therefore isolates a defined group of courses, while the total or overall GPA represents a broader academic record. You cannot assume that every application service uses the AMCAS definition. AACOMAS places math outside its science GPA, while TMDSAS uses department-based BCPM rules and reports additional GPA types.
How Does AMCAS Calculate Your BCPM and Total GPA?
AMCAS Uses the Course’s Primary Content
You select an AMCAS course classification according to the course’s primary content. Courses classified as Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Mathematics enter the BCPM GPA. Courses outside those classifications enter the AO GPA. The department offering a course is typically not a factor, so a course with primarily biology content can be classified as Biology even when another department offers it.
Some course names can be misleading. AMCAS places Biochemistry under Chemistry and Statistics and Biostatistics under Mathematics, so those classifications count toward BCPM. Psychology and Sociology are behavioral and social sciences, not BCPM. Natural and physical sciences outside the four BCPM classifications also stay out of BCPM. Review IMA’s AMCAS course classification guide for the fuller classification discussion rather than relying on whether a course merely sounds scientific.
AMCAS Recalculates the Grades on Your Record
AMCAS creates standardized GPAs during verification, and those calculations almost always differ from the GPAs issued by applicants’ schools. Any course carrying credit hours and a letter grade enters the AMCAS GPA calculation, even when the course did not count toward a degree or the school’s own GPA. AMCAS also counts plus and minus grades, every attempt of a repeated course and grades and hours from failed courses.
A school’s academic forgiveness policy does not remove the original attempt from AMCAS entry. If the school replaced an original grade, you must still enter that grade and its attempted credits. Pass/fail work, AP credit, CLEP credit and other test credit are generally excluded from AMCAS GPA calculations, although their hours are reported as Supplemental Hours.
AMCAS Separates Academic Levels
AMCAS reports high school, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, postbaccalaureate and graduate academic statuses. Undergraduate-level coursework completed after a first bachelor’s degree generally receives postbaccalaureate status. It contributes to a separate postbaccalaureate GPA and the Undergraduate Total GPA. Professional or graduate-level coursework not applied to an undergraduate degree receives graduate status and appears separately.
Your official AMCAS calculations appear after processing, but you can estimate how BCPM, AO and total coursework may combine with IMA’s AMCAS GPA calculator. Treat the result as an estimate because AMCAS determines the verified classifications and calculations shown on the processed application.
How Does AACOMAS Calculate Science GPA Differently?
According to the AACOMAS GPA calculation guidance, its science GPA includes Biochemistry, Biology/Zoology, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Other Sciences and Physics. Its non-science GPA includes Behavioral Sciences, English, Mathematics and Other Non-Science. Math therefore contributes to the AMCAS BCPM GPA but to the AACOMAS non-science GPA.
AACOMAS assigns subjects from the titles and department prefixes printed on official transcripts, not from a description of the course content. Its course-subject guidance says it will not accept course descriptions as proof that a class covered different material. This differs from the AMCAS primary-content rule.
For calculation, AACOMAS converts each grade into a numeric value, multiplies that value by attempted credits to determine quality points and divides total quality points by attempted credits. AP and pass/fail credits are excluded as non-graded credits, while a WF counts as an F. AACOMAS calculates all GPAs in semester hours and converts quarter hours at 0.667 semester hours for each quarter hour.
Each AACOMAS year level is divided into science, non-science and total sections. Freshman through senior work combines with postbaccalaureate coursework in the cumulative undergraduate GPA. Graduate coursework is then added to produce an overall GPA. Adding four yearly GPAs and dividing by four produces an average of those GPAs, not the credit-weighted overall GPA AACOMAS calculates.
AACOMAS guidance on finding your GPA calculations says it does not recognize a school’s forgiveness, academic renewal or grade replacement policy for repeated courses. Every grade earned for the repeated course enters the AACOMAS GPA. After verification, you can review the results in the Calculated GPA section of the application PDF. If you are weighing MD and DO programs, IMA’s MD vs DO guide compares the two paths.
How Does TMDSAS Calculate BCPM and Overall GPA?
The TMDSAS Application Guide identifies several GPA types, including overall BCPM, non-BCPM and overall GPAs, undergraduate and graduate versions of those figures and a last 45 hour GPA. Its overall GPA combines all undergraduate and graduate coursework.
TMDSAS takes a department-based approach to BCPM. Its application glossary says courses taken in biology, chemistry, physics or math departments, including statistics, are included in the BCPM GPA, and introductory courses or courses for non-science majors may count. Mathematics enters BCPM even though TMDSAS says math courses do not fulfill prerequisites.
Engineering receives separate treatment. TMDSAS generally excludes engineering courses from BCPM and reports them through a separate engineering GPA. An engineering course can receive different treatment when it is approved as a prerequisite.
TMDSAS includes courses from official transcripts that were assigned a grade and credit, even if the transcript-issuing school omitted them from its own GPA. You must enter every attempt of a repeated course. Under the Texas GPA rules followed by TMDSAS, no grade may be expunged, all grades assigned for academic coursework are used on a 4.0 scale and failing grades count as hours with no grade points. Credit by examination, withdrawals, incompletes and pass grades in a pass/fail system are excluded.
Academic Fresh Start is a specific exception controlled by the granting school. TMDSAS does not award that designation itself. It recognizes Academic Fresh Start only when it appears on the transcript of the school that granted it, after which the designated courses are excluded from TMDSAS GPAs.
Because the three services sort and count courses differently, calculate your science GPA separately for each service you will use rather than carrying one figure across every application.
How Do Science and Overall GPAs Compare for MD and DO Students?
The AAMC FACTS Table A-16 reports that applicants to U.S. MD-granting medical schools in 2025-2026 had mean GPAs of 3.57 in science, 3.8 in non-science and 3.67 in total. Matriculants had means of 3.75 in science, 3.88 in non-science and 3.81 in total. AAMC calculated these means from applicants with available GPA data.
The same table shows a rise in mean science GPA between 2020-2021 and 2025-2026. The applicant mean increased from 3.49 to 3.57, while the matriculant mean increased from 3.66 to 3.75. These are changes in group means across the reported years, not a rule for how an individual record will be assessed.
For students entering U.S. colleges of osteopathic medicine in 2025, AACOM reported mean GPAs of 3.53 in science, 3.73 in non-science and 3.62 overall. The science mean was below the total mean in both the AAMC MD data and AACOM DO data.
These published means provide context, but they are not cutoffs. Use IMA’s guide to whether your GPA is good enough for medical school to interpret group data carefully, then review average GPA and MCAT scores by medical school when you need school-specific comparisons.
Why Does Your Science GPA Get a Close Look?
Your science GPA is one part of the academic record medical schools review, and schools do not all use it the same way. The AAMC’s Mission-Aligned Selection framework considers academic metrics alongside experiences, attributes and applicant context through individualized review.
The AAMC also reports that MCAT scores and undergraduate GPA together predict medical school and licensure-exam performance better than either metric alone. That finding concerns performance prediction. It does not establish an admission guarantee or a universal formula for balancing one metric against another.
IMA’s MCAT and GPA guide explains this relationship in more detail. You can also place a practice score beside your academic record using the MCAT score calculator, while remembering that neither a calculator nor grouped data can decide an individual admission result.
How Can You Strengthen a Lower Science GPA?
Start by calculating the effect of future coursework under the correct application service rules. As covered above, repeating a course under AMCAS or AACOMAS adds another grade to the calculation rather than replacing the earlier attempt. A stronger repeat grade can add evidence of later performance, but the original grade remains part of the applicable GPA.
The AMCAS academic statuses described earlier show where additional coursework will appear: postbaccalaureate work in its own GPA and the undergraduate total, graduate work separately. The calculation rule alone cannot predict how a school will interpret the result.
If you are considering additional undergraduate coursework after earning a bachelor’s degree, review IMA’s guide to post-baccalaureate premedical programs. For broader application planning, the guide to applying with a lower GPA addresses that separate question without treating one new grade as a guaranteed solution.
Put Your GPA Figures Into the Right Context
Calculate your science and overall GPAs under the rules of each application service you expect to use. Check uncertain course classifications, account for every required attempt and keep undergraduate, postbaccalaureate and graduate work in their proper categories. Then compare your figures with relevant group data without turning a mean into a minimum.
If you want individual help connecting your academic record with the rest of your application plan, IMA’s medical school admissions consulting offers a focused next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Difference Between Science GPA and Overall GPA?
Your science GPA includes coursework that an application service places in its science categories, while your overall GPA covers a broader set of coursework. AMCAS calls its science calculation BCPM and combines BCPM with AO coursework in the total GPA. AACOMAS and TMDSAS use different category rules, so the figures may not match across services.
What Does BCPM GPA Stand For?
BCPM stands for biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. Under AMCAS, courses classified in those four areas contribute to the BCPM GPA, while coursework in other classifications contributes to the AO GPA.
Does Math Count in the Science GPA?
It depends on the application service. Mathematics counts in the AMCAS BCPM GPA and the TMDSAS BCPM GPA. AACOMAS places mathematics in its non-science GPA, so you should not use one treatment for all three services.
Is Psychology Part of the BCPM GPA?
No, AMCAS does not classify Psychology as BCPM. It lists Psychology under Behavioral and Social Sciences, which falls outside the biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics classifications used for the AMCAS BCPM GPA.
Do Repeated Courses Replace the Old Grade on AMCAS or AACOMAS?
No, repeated courses do not replace the earlier grade in AMCAS or AACOMAS GPA calculations. AMCAS counts grades from every attempt, including an original grade covered by a school forgiveness policy. AACOMAS also includes all repeated-course grades and does not apply institutional forgiveness, academic renewal or grade replacement.
What Is a Good Science GPA for Medical School?
There is no universal science GPA that guarantees admission. In 2025-2026, U.S. MD applicants with available GPA data had a mean science GPA of 3.57 and matriculants had a mean of 3.75. Students entering U.S. osteopathic medical schools in 2025 had a mean science GPA of 3.53. These means describe groups, not school cutoffs or individual outcomes.
Is Postbaccalaureate Coursework Included in Your BCPM GPA?
AMCAS includes postbaccalaureate coursework in a separate postbaccalaureate GPA and in the Undergraduate Total GPA. Whether a particular postbaccalaureate course contributes to BCPM depends on its AMCAS classification. Graduate coursework is reported separately rather than being added to the AMCAS Undergraduate Total GPA.
Why Is My AMCAS GPA Different From My Transcript GPA?
Your AMCAS GPA can differ because AMCAS applies standardized calculation rules rather than adopting your school’s GPA. It counts eligible letter-graded courses, plus and minus grades, failed courses and every repeated attempt even when your school treats some of those grades differently. AMCAS produces the official application figures during verification.
