<p>Is it? I'm thinking of doing that with my pre-med courses. My school is strong in the sciences, but weak other area so economics probably won't be competitive as in the sciences...</p>
<p>Oh, and is it interesting?</p>
<p>Ughh, why don’t take a couple of econ classes and decide for yourself whether or not Econ is interesting/hard. Those things are subjective.</p>
<p>And let me just point that if you can’t compete with the science majors, medical school will probably eat you alive, assuming you get in (which doesn’t seem likely in the case of you being unable to compete).</p>
<p>It’s a good choice for a pre-med. I’ve talked with a few people that are majoring in econ for that, and they’re mostly really happy with their choices.</p>
<p>It all depends on the school. I like being an econ major and do see pre-meds majoring in econ, but it seems that they are going for more of a career in health management.</p>
<p>All of theses questions you are asking are very subjective. For example, I am majoring in Art Studio with a concentration in graphic design. Therefore, any classes dealing with math and science are not interesting to me at all. One of my classmates is a business major and she thinks our English class is tough while I sailed right through it.</p>
<p>To make an informed decision, go to a professor that teaches the class and ask him/her what books they use in the class. Next, go to the bookstore and briefly scan through the books. Do they look interesting? Does the textbook look complicated? </p>
<p>This is a decision that only you can make.</p>
<p>I find econ more interesting than most other social sciences because I find that it’s more scientific than most other social sciences. Theories are backed by empirical proof (at least the way it’s taught at my UG) rather than the incoherent ramblings of a dead, white man from the 17th century—>(philosophy/polisci I’m looking at you.) The thing about econ also is applicability and relevance to the real world. You may find econ interesting or you may not. It depends on what you’re drawn to. I’m certainly not drawn to the ivory tower ramblings of philosophy/literature and the like, so econ interests me more. But I have some friends that wouldn’t touch econ with a 10 foot pole.</p>
<p>It’s certainly not an easy major especially when you get up to the upper levels.</p>
<p>That’s funny NYU student - most econ professors will tell you that economics is the most theory-based field based on philosophizing out of your bum.</p>
<p>A common joke:</p>
<p>"A physicist, a chemist and an economist are stranded on an island, with nothing to eat. A can of soup washes ashore. The physicist says, “Let’s smash the can open with a rock.” The chemist says, “Let’s build a fire and heat the can first.” The economist says, “Let’s assume that we have a can-opener…”</p>
<p>The reference comes from the stereotype that many economic models require unrealistic or absurd assumptions in order to obtain results.</p>
<p>Another:
Three econometricians went out hunting, and came across a large deer. The first econometrician fired, but missed, by a meter to the left. The second econometrician fired, but also missed, by a meter to the right. The third econometrician didn’t fire, but shouted in triumph, “We got it! We got it!”</p>
<p>Econ is like a lot of the other social sciences — it can help your critical thinking skills — but the knowledge is not going to help you make any money. Save for maybe fooling employers that you DO know something (but that’s based on the degree name, not actual knowledge). Econ is not a business degree - the field already assumes everyone is trying to maximize profit, hence it will not aid your ability to do so.</p>
<p>Also, philosophy is not a social science at all. Political science involves a lot of statistical analysis. Some courses will get big picture - but isn’t that the point. Why don’t you log onto JSTOR and look at any of the thousands of journals.</p>
<p>Psychology has about 1000x as much science involved as economics. It’s basically neuroscience and biology.</p>
<p>Economic models are useful for theorizing but they are horrible at being applicable to the real world because there are just too many, zounds, of essential variables to be accounted for.</p>
<p>Just look at how many/ how useful economists were in predicting our current recession/ the housing collapse a few years ago. Surely, something of that scale could have been predicted by at least a few top economists. Well, no ---- the science is just not that powerful and everyone’s assuming can-openers.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on what kind of econ you do. At NYU econ is divided into a theory and policy track. I’m a policy track econ major and there has been less ivory tower rambling, and policy track classes are taught more like business classes than econ theory classes.</p>