Would you consider economics classes to be "science" or "non-science"?

[zpdoc]

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For anyone who took any economics courses - did they factor into your science gpa or your non-science gpa?
Thanks in advance.

 

[filmdoc26]

i haven't taken any econ courses, but i know that med schools don't consider econ as science course. thus, they factor into your non-science GPA. The only courses that factor into your science GPA are biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. hope this helps!

 

[DarkChild]

econ classes are non science by any measure.
under AMCAS specifically though, science classes are BCPM - biology, chemistry, physics or mathematics...

 

[zpdoc]

Thanks for the very helpful replies. That brings my science gpa up just enough to round up a tenth of a point instead of down..🙂

by the way, amcas gpa's are usually just reported to one decimal place, right? it's been so long since I had to worry about this stuff...

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Originally posted by DarkChild
econ classes are non science by any measure.

I don't know if I would agree with this one, especially given that most undergraduate programs are moving towards using the B.S. degree for the econ major. At the graduate level, it's mostly math. But, as others said, as far as AMCAS cares, BCPM are the only ones that count in your science GPA. And I would not attempt to use an econ professor as one of your "science" recommenders--med schools have the same definition as AMCAS.

 

[UCLAstudent]

Non-science, for sure.

 

[Jeffy]

This is ridiculous. Econ could never be considered a science. Any class that you can get an A in for not attending and studying for two hours before an exam is definitely not a science.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Originally posted by Quagmire, M.D.
This is ridiculous. Econ could never be considered a science. Any class that you can get an A in for not attending and studying for two hours before an exam is definitely not a science.

If that's the case, my second-semester physics class wasn't a science, nor is my current embryology course, nor was my discrete math course. Hey--maybe it's possible that a substandard intro-level course doesn't accurately represent an entire discipline. Crazy, I know, but it's an idea ...

So, what defines a "science"? I'm not trying to pick a fight here--I think this is a genuinely interesting topic. What criteria must be met for a discipline to be considered a science? I'm gonna venture that Quagmire's criterion correlating undergraduate grade to study time/class attendance will not hold water.

 

[Pre-Dent-David]

The following are science: psychology, business, baseball and dixie cups. All these stake a claim in science because they are needed by people like Dan and Michael and Lucas and that is what is really important. These three men determine all of what science encompasses and science encompasses whatever they study. It is intriguing how it works this way and is inexplicable.

 

[lola]

Originally posted by Quagmire, M.D.
Econ could never be considered a science.

econ can be considered a science for amcas purposes if it's a stats class. however, you'd have to designate it. i doubt amcas would designate it as a science for you if you classified it as econ.

 

[kenmc3]

Not to sound redundant or anything, but according to the 2003 AMCAS Instruction book, Economics courses fall under the category of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BESS) NOT BCMP ? The BESS category of classes is counted in your (AO) All other GPA and not the science GPA. Sorry for restating what everyone else has said but this is from the book. 😉

 

[carrigallen]

btw, I remember some of the people who tried to fool around with designating their science classes as non-science (and vice versa) got smacked down by AMCAS last year. They do analyze your transcripts, and they take ~ 3 weeks to do it. I think econ is a "soft science" along with psych, anthro, health sciences etc.. AMCAS is only interested in hard sciences - BCPM.

BTW - amcas computes to the hundredth decimal ie 3.49, not 3.5. Also, be sure to include all institutions attended...I don't know if high school AP classes count per se (depends whether your college includes a grade for them on your transript), but step-ahead type classes do. I think you can start sending your transcripts to AMCAS already, be sure to get on the stick with recommendations and transcripts. Best wishes!

 

[DarkChild]

my parents (both econ PhDs) call economics a "social science" - but they are old 😳

 

[sd77]

OK, so now I think we have beaten the AMCAS topic to death. They don't count it as a "science".

But I'd like to talk more about what VianneseWaltz was saying...I agree with her, but then again, I am probably biased because I have studied a considerable amount of economics. I think what many people refer to as "science", at least on these boards, are the "hard" sciences. I don't really know, but I am guessing that the reason these are called "hard" sciences is not because they are more difficult, but because they are tangible (actually physical in nature), rather than social sciences, more designed to explain behavior, etc.

So, what is science? There are scientific analyses of football games out there that are much, much more difficult to comprehend then a lot of the chemistry out there. So in my opinion, yes, there is a science of football, basketball, chemistry, and yes, ECONOMICS.

Finally, for those of you that think economics is not a science, such as "Quagmire, MD", I would ask you to go read even a basic book on econometrics and then decide. Having taken macro or micro 101 does not give anyone the broad knowledge of economics to say that it is not science, just like taking only general chemistry would not allow one to make generalizations about how easy chemistry is.

And finally again, in my opinion, science is defined by the scientific theory. in all of these cases, hypotheses are developed, tested, analyzed, interpreted, generalized, etc. THAT IS SCIENCE, and it can be about ANYTHING you want it to be.

 

[Jeffy]

dude, CALM down and quit being so damn upTIGHT. i swear everyone's lookin' to get into SOME sort of a debate on this damn site, "sd77."

 

[geldrop]

Math is science? Man I wish i knew that my science gpa would have been boosted like .2. Where did it say that?

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by geldrop
Math is science? Man I wish i knew that my science gpa would have been boosted like .2. Where did it say that?

"Science" for AMCAS = BCPM. The M is for math.

I included biostats under the math category and AMCAS seemed to agree, btw.

 

[JumboFool]

I just have to throw my opinion out there as an undergrad econ major, but this is echoing some of what's been said already. Most undergrad Economics curricula include a statistics course. This course can and should be be viewed as a mathematics course. In fact, it was double-counted as an econ+math course at my school.

Hence, Econ Stats most definitely went under my amcas BCMP gpa (thank goodness). And the partially-trained juvenile monkies thumbing through transcripts in cubicles over at amcas (you didn't think they'd waste $$ paying humans when they could just buy bananas, did you?) didn't seem to mind at all.

So to the OP, you should definitely include any stats/econometrics courses in BCPM.


But Biostats, Adcadet, that's pushing it

 

[VienneseWaltz]

OK, we've established what AMCAS wants. This post is about the general definition of "science."

I would have to agree with sd77--using the scientific method defines a science, be it a physical science, natural science, or social/behavioral science. I would also argue that science is math-based.

Economics is so math-based that graduate students who majored in math/minored in econ tend to be better prepared than those who majored in econ/minored in math. Practicing economists have two main options: be a theorist, which means you had better be good at multivariate calculus and matrix algebra, or be an empiricist, which means you had better be good at statistics. A lot of statisticians are drawn to economics because of the challenge of the empirical work. And again, one of you who believe that econ is not a science, please explain how one earns a B.S. in a non-science.

I can't speak for the other social sciences. Econ is the most quantitative of the social sciences, but the others also proceed via forming hypotheses from existing theory, testing them, and interpreting the statistical analysis.

I listed econometrics as a statistics course (which it was), and AMCAS had no problem with it.

And those who think economics is easy because they managed to take a sloppy intro course designed to protect their pre-med GPAs, I urge you to pick up a scholarly journal in the subject and see how much you understand.

 

[DW]

Originally posted by VienneseWaltz
And those who think economics is easy because they managed to take a sloppy intro course designed to protect their pre-med GPAs, I urge you to pick up a scholarly journal in the subject and see how much you understand.

word 😀

 

[kito]

economics = speculation
mathematics = foreign language

and that's the bottom line...

 

[DW]

Originally posted by ankitovich
mathematics = foreign language

you miswrote

mathematics=universal language

and THATS the bottom line....cause stone cold said so 😛

 

[Adcadet]

I find it ironic that epidemiology, the discripline which has perhaps contributed the most to the philosophical underpinnings of the conduct and analysis of scientific experiments is often not regarded as a "hard core" science. It seems people often confuse public health (a "soft science" in that it has a strong focus on implimentation/practice - things which are less quantifiable- just as medicine does), the science and practice of protecting the health of populations with epidemiology (a "hard science," IMO), the discripline that provides the scientific basis of public health.

On a related note: I often say that I'd rather be stuck doing data analysis with a psychologist well trained in biostats than a biologist well trained in biostats.

 

[1viking]

econ classes are non science by any measure.
under AMCAS specifically though, science classes are BCPM - biology, chemistry, physics or mathematics...

This thread is dang old, but I had to put my 2 cents worth into it anyway. This statement is full of crap. I had two classes of my 15 econ classes that I wouldn't consider math classes. That is right, 13 math classes that had the econ label. I have gobs and gobs of notes that are nothing but proofs. Every single one of those 13 classes had finals that were over 10 pages of calculus. The last couple were differential equations. The problem is that many schools throughout the country have cake econ majors; however, there are some out there that are strictly graduation preparation. That was mine. I was offended that my Math classes were science classes and econ wasn't (science=scientific method--do you ever use the scientific method in math, or isn't it a language? Math ISN'T a science) for the AMCAS.

 

[Gleevec]

Economics: Science :: Poker: Pro Sport

 

[ASDIC]

i am an economics major....

Economics is a social science...but in AMCAS language its a non-science

 

[flighterdoc]

For anyone who took any economics courses - did they factor into your science gpa or your non-science gpa?
Thanks in advance.

Non science - it's a behavioral "science", not bio/chem/natural science

 

[flighterdoc]

econ can be considered a science for amcas purposes if it's a stats class. however, you'd have to designate it. i doubt amcas would designate it as a science for you if you classified it as econ.

I think it can be considered a math class if it's taught by the math department. If it's taught by the econ department, it'd be a "social" science. Right along with voodoo101.