Search the Community

I'm currently an ugrad at a top 30 Econ uni (top 10 US public uni). Currently entering my 3rd year and I've been doing RA in a social science lab (non-Econ however). The work I've been doing is rather rewarding for an undergraduate. I'm creating datasets, cleaning data, generating figures in STATA/R, and doing other explanatory/descriptive data analysis in R/STATA. My question is, how will this be looked upon in PhD admissions? The faculty I'm working under do quantitative social science work (think field of public policy, education, psychology, etc...) that relates heavily to economics and have connections to the field of economics (some have Econ PhDs others have published with Economist and in Econ Journals). I'm hoping to get LORs from some of these faculty but was ultimately wondering how strict adcom committees are (especially at t-15 schools) about getting RA work strictly under economist. For reference I'm also majoring in Math so I have taken linear algebra, prob theory, and will be taking classes like real analysis in the future.

Issue question: Science and technology will one day be able to solve all of society’s problems. Science and technology have solved many social issues in the past decade. I agree that science and technology can solve some issues but not all. First, several social issues are related to institutions, culture and social norms, which cannot be altered by only science and technology. For example, many women face multiple layers of gender inequality at the workplace. Women are still under-represented in managerial or leadership positions even in high-income countries while many women in developing countries suffer from heavy burden on household responsibility. Moreover, discrimination against the black-skinned race still exists, resulting in inequality of economic opportunities in today's society. Changing social norms and institutions requires a huge amount of time to change an individual's perception, which science and technology solely cannot change. Second, social issues such as poverty and unemployment arise from systemic or market failures. For instance, countries need strong private sector companies to create employment opportunities. Private companies need an enabling environment for their growth, such as access to finance, market, and better regulatory environments. The improvement of market system and business environments cannot be achieved only using science and technology but require context-specific solutions developed by local people. It is important to note that science and technology have solved many social problems in the past. For instance, it has improved the quality of and the accessibility to education for marginalized people or areas using the internet, online courses and digital devices. Many diseases have been treated or eliminated by advanced medical sciences such as vaccinations to yellow fever. However, solely science and technology cannot solve all the social issues inherited to social institutions, cultures as well as systemic issues. In summary, I disagree that science and technology will be able to solved all of society's issues while it has still helped to improve our society.