Hardest Major?

[akademiks1989]

What, in your opinion, are among the hardest college majors?

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[OB/GYN Sim]

Biomedical Engineering. My major...wish me luck

 

[Russell7]

Pretty obvious that it's one of the engineering disciplines... regardless of who you are. The standards that engienering faculties set forth are unmatched by any other. They curve lower, the courses contain more material, and the work load is ridiculously high.

From what I've seen, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, and Mechanical Engineering seem to be amongst the most difficult.

From non-engineering majors, biochemistry, mathematics, and physics are the most difficult.

 

[Hurricane95]

Engineering of some sorts...exactly which one varies by school, usually electrical or mechanical

 

[shnjb]

I'd think pure physics and math.

 

[Vvandenn]

Business.

 

[Nasrudin]

Business.

Wow. Somebody's been hittin too much egg nog and rum. B school is lightweight stuff compared to math, chemistry, physics, or engineering type stuff. I mean I'm in Biology and its pretty easy so I'm not trying to one up you.

I vote for Electrical Engineering. I looked at a classmates EE books and was floored by the complexity.

 

[Russell7]

Wow. Somebody's been hittin too much egg nog and rum. B school is lightweight stuff compared to math, chemistry, physics, or engineering type stuff. I mean I'm in Biology and its pretty easy so I'm not trying to one up you.

I vote for Electrical Engineering. I looked at a classmates EE books and was floored by the complexity.

lol, the guy was kidding.

 

[Nasrudin]

lol, the guy was kidding.

Man I always miss sarcasm in print. I should have assumed he was joking.

 

[tdkneo]

Physics without a doubt........

 

[shnjb]

Personally though, it's non-science.

Whenever there is no clear answer and the graders are given freedom to grade without any guidelines, I seem to struggle in those classes.
Is it because I suck at the art of BS'ing or because these idiot non science TAs don't like premeds/science majors?

 

[Robizzle]

It depends who you are. If you told me to go memorize Art History facts all day I'd say I have the hardest major in the world.

As for physics and math, I disagree. I've met math & physics majors taking grad level courses and still having whopping amounts of free time. I found that the general rule of thumb is if their major is really their true passion and stuff just clicks for them, these majors are not "hard." However, if you're one of those premed kids who have to use flashcards to learn kinematics (this makes me cringe), then majoring in physics probably won't work.

IMO, Engineering is the hardest major. I'm not sayin' we're the smartest kids, but we definitely get the biggest work load and nuttiest topics. As if understanding concepts wasn't hard enough... even if you're a genius and can understand everything, you still have a boatload of work to come home to.

/gallops off on high horse.

 

[Karina 07]

At my school, it was Chemistry. Acknowledged even among engineers.

 

[ShyRem]

Pure math. the real analysis is the biggest weed-out course EVER - mainly because it IS a weed-out course for seniors in their major. There were 36 students in my real analysis I course - and 6 in real analysis II. 12 people failed RA I... and it was the last course required for their math major. PChem was cake in comparison.

 

[deuist]

Physics without a doubt........

As a physics major, I cast my vote for electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and maybe chemical engineering. Physics may have taught more concepts, but the shear amount of work involved in engineering kept me from ever considering the field as an undergraduate. Of course, in grad school I jumped ship and joined the college of engineering.

 

[jon stewart]

physics or some type of engineering.

 

[airshad8]

Not one of these threades again *yawns*.

Engineering majors: begin whining!

 

[szhao]

its whatever u want to make it out to be.

 

[CHawK]

Math and Physics

 

[Pose]

I wish I was smart enough to be an engineering major.

 

[univscience]

indeed some kind of engineering discipline. includes an array of tough subjects: physics, high level math, all sorts of mechanics.

 

[DrZeke]

What, in your opinion, are among the hardest college majors?

The one person I knew in my major - Microbiology & Immunology - of 120 people with a 4.0 at McGill University is now at an Ivy League. He was in the library every single day for several hours.

 

[junqu]

communications *or* retailing.

 

[Wrigleyville]

Electrical engineering has to be the hardest.

 

[Mubash'shirah]

I'd say engineering too. Or Physics.
But then again, my engineering buddy can't make it past General Chemistry without his gf's help and he's in his last year of undergrad so I guess for him, Chemistry?😕

 

[DrMT]

ee or physics.... hats off to those people

 

[GreyFox2002]

Engineering, Physics, Math, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Chemistry requires a ton of work too, and is a lot harder than most realize.

Look at the sheer amount of courses.

Organic I and II
Organic Lab
Inorganic I
Inorganic II
Quantitative Analysis
Instrumental Analysis
Physical Chemistry I
Physical Chemistry II
Physicochemical Measurements
Advanced Inorganic Synthesis
Advanced Organic Synthesis
Calculus III
Upper level physics course
Biochemistry
Generally, they also have to select elective courses in polymer chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, advanced organic or inorganic chemistry, chemical statistics, etc......

Now combine the 8 + hours of labs each week that go along with those courses, and you have a hellacious schedule. The advanced characterization/projects courses are usually only one credit, but require 20 + hours of dedication a week.

At my school (Michigan), it seemed like the chem majors hardly got out.

 

[sTriVe2sTitCh]

at my school its BMB (biochem/molec bio)

 

[MinnyGophers]

Engineering, Physics, Math, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Chemistry requires a ton of work too, and is a lot harder than most realize.

Look at the sheer amount of courses.

Organic I and II
Organic Lab
Inorganic I
Inorganic II
Quantitative Analysis
Instrumental Analysis
Physical Chemistry I
Physical Chemistry II
Physicochemical Measurements
Advanced Inorganic Synthesis
Advanced Organic Synthesis
Calculus III
Upper level physics course
Biochemistry
Generally, they also have to select elective courses in polymer chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, advanced organic or inorganic chemistry, chemical statistics, etc......

Now combine the 8 + hours of labs each week that go along with those courses, and you have a hellacious schedule. The advanced characterization/projects courses are usually only one credit, but require 20 + hours of dedication a week.

At my school (Michigan), it seemed like the chem majors hardly got out.

Yeah for chemistry majors!
They kind of fly under the radar in terms of difficulty compared to engineering but chemistry majors go through a crapload of difficult classes.
Ochem is already difficult for a lot of people, and that is just the beginning for chem majors and is nothing compared to pchem or advanced inorganic. And that is not including all the advanced electives that you have to take like polymers or materials.

 

[szhao]

Yeah for chemistry majors!
They kind of fly under the radar in terms of difficulty compared to engineering but chemistry majors go through a crapload of difficult classes.
Ochem is already difficult for a lot of people, and that is just the beginning for chem majors and is nothing compared to pchem or advanced inorganic. And that is not including all the advanced electives that you have to take like polymers or materials.

not to be negative but 90% of my friends taking pChem that are physics majors thought it was mad cake walk same with inorganic. at our school, they like don't even teach group theory anymore haha, o well

 

[EBI831]

i think biomedical engineering is harder than any other engineering hands down. at my school most engineers drop down from BME first year into the other engineering fields. plus, its the only major in our school that requires 48 hours just for the major (the rest require 30 hours) and all the other engineerings although somewhere b/w 30 and 48 are less than 48. i do however get tired of BMEs crying like little babies b/c i've been in bio classes with them (intro bio) and chemistry classes with them(intro chem) and even some upper level bios and seen them get some of the most awful grades ever compared to us lowly bio majors which leads me to believe that in the majority of the cases its not the major itself really but just the fact that a lot in the major don't even comprehend basic biology. sorry to rant but i get tired of engineers going on and on about how hard their lives are.

 

[MinnyGophers]

not to be negative but 90% of my friends taking pChem that are physics majors thought it was mad cake walk same with inorganic. at our school, they like don't even teach group theory anymore haha, o well

well obviously it is a lot easier for physics majors since that is actually the PHYSICS part of chemistry.

Just like the physics part of chemistry is easier for physicists, the chemistry part of chemistry is easier for chemists But that does not make the level of difficulty of the class in itself any less.

Take mathematicians for example: they most likely think your most difficult physics class is cake because it's all math. However, they might not be able to synthesize an 8 steps reaction to save their lives.
It's all relative.

This is the basic science ladder in order of importance/difficulty:

Mathematics - physics is based on mathematics
Physics - chemistry is based on physics.
Chemistry- everything we know is based on chemistry and physics, which is based on math


Then bio/biochemistry which is based on chemistry.
Psych which is based on biology

 

[MahlerROCKS]

What, in your opinion, are among the hardest college majors?

Classics

 

[szhao]

well obviously it is a lot easier for physics majors since that is actually the PHYSICS part of chemistry.

Just like the physics part of chemistry is easier for physicists, the chemistry part of chemistry is easier for chemists But that does not make the level of difficulty of the class in itself any less.

Take mathematicians for example: they most likely think your most difficult physics class is cake because it's all math. However, they might not be able to synthesize an 8 steps reaction to save their lives.
It's all relative.

This is the basic science ladder in order of importance/difficulty:

Mathematics - physics is based on mathematics
Physics - chemistry is based on physics.
Chemistry- everything we know is based on chemistry and physics, which is based on math


Then bio/biochemistry which is based on chemistry.
Psych which is based on biology

actually comparatively, our physics majors does better in graduate biochem than most graduate biochem students. hehe, should have picked a different subject, but i understand.

STOP getting offended lol i was just making a side point, i still stand behind what i said first
the major is what you make it.

 

[novawildcat]

well obviously it is a lot easier for physics majors since that is actually the PHYSICS part of chemistry.

Just like the physics part of chemistry is easier for physicists, the chemistry part of chemistry is easier for chemists But that does not make the level of difficulty of the class in itself any less.

Take mathematicians for example: they most likely think your most difficult physics class is cake because it's all math. However, they might not be able to synthesize an 8 steps reaction to save their lives.
It's all relative.

This is the basic science ladder in order of importance/difficulty:

Mathematics - physics is based on mathematics
Physics - chemistry is based on physics.
Chemistry- everything we know is based on chemistry and physics, which is based on math


Then bio/biochemistry which is based on chemistry.
Psych which is based on biology

i'll have to agree with this. i majored in math and took some physics classes on the side (mathematical physics, QM, and statistical mechanics). the physics classes were actually pretty much a cake walk in terms of the math. if you go to a university with a strong chemistry progam like caltech, scripps, or university of california it can be absolutely brutal. places like that seem to place much more importance on labwork and original thinking than lectures.

 

[MossPoh]

It depends on the person.....Everyone calls engineering the hardest but I know people who are great at engineering and complete crap at liberal arts stuff. Engineering is tough in that it is lots of work and what not, but there is usually a concrete answer....which is nice. Foreign languages can be very very difficult for certain people....but very easy for others. I am pretty gifted with the language stuff but after working on a 40 page german paper for a long long time, and having it proofread by native speakers 4+times, I still wound up with a C+....I honestly think it is bs to rank one major harder than the others. I invest more time in my studies than my friends (all engineering) and they always talk down on me how easy my stuff is....yet they come whining to me how they are getting a D in some "easy" literature course. Different strokes for different folks. If you are not naturally strong with math and what not then engineering can be hard. I changed out of it because I never had calc in high school and in one semester I was put in a course load that demolished me....and expected me to know calc before hand. I am sure there is some major out there at some school that is so ungodly hard it isn't fair to compare to others.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Physics without a doubt........

Math and Comp Sci are definitely harder...and they require more time spent working than physics does for sure.

LAC's don't have engineering so I can't judge the difficulty of those majors relative to pure science.

However, I think music might be one of the toughest majors. You really can't always "work hard" through the major (i.e. if your brain just can't 'hear' the notes then you're fcked) and it requires some inherent aptitude that can't be overcome unlike sciences where you can just study more. Regardless, the music major requires hard work in addition.

 

[MinnyGophers]

actually comparatively, our physics majors does better in graduate biochem than most graduate biochem students. hehe, should have picked a different subject, but i understand.

STOP getting offended lol i was just making a side point, i still stand behind what i said first
the major is what you make it.

That's funny, that's kind of the case here too.
Might have something to do with the way physics majors solve and learn rather than memorize like bio/biochem majors do.
Chemistry is more in between.

And I agree with novawildcat. Caltech and Stanford chemistry would blow anyone out of the water.

 

[shnjb]

This is turning out to be the most useless thread ever.

CLEARLY, my major is the hardest!
No, sir, I beg your pardon? Surely mine is harder.

Seriously, different people find different subjects hard.
Do you think Einstein found undergraduate physics and mathematics difficult in his 20s? Surely to him, literature was probably more difficult since it probably didn't come to him as naturally.
Do you think Shakespeare found literature to be difficult? How would he have felt reading the theory of relativity?
Can you imagine Freud having difficulties with psychology? But surely he would be less comfortable with physiology?

 

[szhao]

Math and Comp Sci are definitely harder...and they require more time spent working than physics does for sure.

lol i am tending to agree with this haha, to be a good physicists, you need to devote a lot of thinking to each problems and equation and claim, but to just get a physics major its really not that hard.

Math and CSC on the other hand requires massive amount of thinking, often 12 hours per homework assignment for a 50% (grr graph theory prof was asking too much), while CSC projects and theory can also take up to 12+ hours. on the contrary, only E&M took me longer than 6+ hours per homework set, quantum, classical, stat mech, and etc. took me more on the average of 2. but keep in mind, math and csc like fourier analysis and financial math (what a joke) also have plenty of easy courses so its not like your trapped.

 

[jash0624]

I think math because it is so abstract. With physics or engineering, at least you can apply the theory to some sort of "real life" scenario. I went from engineering to math to physics and I found math the hardest because it was difficult to think as abstractly as pure math requires.

 

[MinnyGophers]

STOP getting offended lol i was just making a side point, i still stand behind what i said first
the major is what you make it.

I did not see that part

I was not offended or anything, relax.

Like said earlier, it's all relative to the person.

 

[szhao]

I did not see that part

I was not offended or anything, relax.

Like said earlier, it's all relative to the person.

well i don't like minny golfing, its so small

 

[akademiks1989]

Engineering, Physics, Math, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Chemistry requires a ton of work too, and is a lot harder than most realize.

Look at the sheer amount of courses.

Organic I and II
Organic Lab
Inorganic I
Inorganic II
Quantitative Analysis
Instrumental Analysis
Physical Chemistry I
Physical Chemistry II
Physicochemical Measurements
Advanced Inorganic Synthesis
Advanced Organic Synthesis
Calculus III
Upper level physics course
Biochemistry
Generally, they also have to select elective courses in polymer chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, advanced organic or inorganic chemistry, chemical statistics, etc......

Now combine the 8 + hours of labs each week that go along with those courses, and you have a hellacious schedule. The advanced characterization/projects courses are usually only one credit, but require 20 + hours of dedication a week.

At my school (Michigan), it seemed like the chem majors hardly got out.

I go to Michigan too..I have to take all those courses as well (I am a Chemistry Major). 😍

I am particularly turned off by Calc 3.

 

[airshad8]

I go to Michigan too..I have to take all those courses as well (I am a Chemistry Major). 😍

I am particularly turned off by Calc 3.

Well, NO ONE...ESCAPES the--from the...ALKATRAZ!

 

[StudentDRoNET]

Engineering of some sorts...exactly which one varies by school, usually electrical or mechanical

another hot avatar! I am assuming a LOW RIDER model? anyhow, I like the girl on Yourmom's avatar better - she looks cuter, more innocent and classy

 

[shnjb]

another hot avatar! I am assuming a LOW RIDER model? anyhow, I like the girl on Yourmom's avatar better - she looks cuter, more innocent and classy

Perhaps i should get a hot asian girl avatar as well but I'm married.

 

[sherry1088]

I've heard biochem is one of the hardest majors at my school

 

[sherry1088]

I've heard biochem is one of the hardest majors at my school. I wish I knew that before I picked it as my major. lol..but it's okay. I love it!

 

[Jack223]

This is turning out to be the most useless thread ever.

CLEARLY, my major is the hardest!
No, sir, I beg your pardon? Surely mine is harder.

Seriously, different people find different subjects hard.
Do you think Einstein found undergraduate physics and mathematics difficult in his 20s? Surely to him, literature was probably more difficult since it probably didn't come to him as naturally.
Do you think Shakespeare found literature to be difficult? How would he have felt reading the theory of relativity?
Can you imagine Freud having difficulties with psychology? But surely he would be less comfortable with physiology?

Just FYI (I'm not trying to be a know it all), Freud was a medical doctor and he did research in physiology and neurology.