What do you think is perceived as the most difficult major at your school?

[DrBuro]

At my school, a physics major is out of control. That's my vote.

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[dajimmers]

Natural Science: Biochemistry
Engineering: I don't know, that computer/electical thing everyone says is hard.
Social Science/Humanities: cakewalks

 

[nekrogg]

physics (ie quantum, nuclear) man those kids look like they havent slept for days

 

[Kazema]

That's easy for mine, computer science. CS@CMU isn't about learning anything, it's about figuring everything on your own in order to complete professors' assignments, which usually you don't understand. Professors just talk about their research in lectures, which may or may not have anything to do with the assignments.

So basically if you can get through it, you're going to be pretty damn amazing in the real world. If you can't hack it, well...then you go to medical school .

 

[nekrogg]

That's easy for mine, computer science.

computer science?! hella easy major in my school

 

[Kazema]

computer science?! hella easy major in my school

Yeah CS at CMU, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, Berkeley, UIUC, etc etc are unlike most computer science programs.

 

[ShyRem]

Chemistry or math. The physics classes were cake compared to biochem, abstract algebra, and advanced calculus (aka real analysis). Not to mention that advanced chem lab sucks DAYS from you.

 

[fuglydoc]

engineering hands down! specifically electrical. ok im a little biased 😛

 

[markboonya]

chem E and EECS(electrical engineer and computer science). i dont know how some of these majors produce pre-meds with acceptable gpa's. i bow down to them.

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I don't think there is a consensus at my school, but each of the engineering specialties love to claim that their's is the harderst major. Honestly, I think the correct answer is Political Science 😉

 

[fuglydoc]

I don't think there is a consensus at my school, but each of the engineering specialties love to claim that their's is the harderst major. Honestly, I think the correct answer is Political Science 😉

i would not last a semester in PS 😳 i suck at the politics

 

[pballer66]

Definetly say Comp science or physics.

 

[FutureDrKt]

biomedial engineering at case for sure (i say that and its not even my major!) 🙄

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

i would not last a semester in PS 😳 i suck at the politics

I'ts kind of funny that you mention that. All of my science/engineering friends love to thumb their nose at Poli Sci and related majors. They talk about how they would easily get straight As as a Poli Sci major, and then they go take a Poli Sci (or history) class and get a B or B- after a semester of bitching and moaning about all the reading they have to do and their crappy TA and the subjective grading and yadda yadda yadda. I've never seen an engineer friend get an A in a Poli Sci class - suckers!

 

[riceman04]

Elec and Comp sci at my alma mater

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OWLS!

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Difficulty of a particular major at a particular school differs, so it is hard to say which is hardest. However, the general level of "respectability" of a major to society goes from the most quantitative and theoretical to the least. I break it up into ranks:

I: Mathematics, Physics

II: Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Biochemistry, Astronomy

III: Geology, Biology (general, evolution-ecology, genetics, etc.), Economics

IV: Philosophy, English and Foreign Languages, History, Art History

V: Psychology, Political Science/Government, Religious Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Ethnic Studies (African-American, Native-American, Asian-American, Jewish, etc.)

VI: Music, Studio art, Drama/Theater, Movie Studies

 

[TheMightyAngus]

Difficulty of a particular major at a particular school differs, so it is hard to say which is hardest. However, the general level of "respectability" of a major to society goes from the most quantitative and theoretical to the least. I break it up into ranks:

I: Mathematics, Physics

II: Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Biochemistry, Astronomy

III: Geology, Biology (general, evolution-ecology, genetics, etc.), Economics

IV: Philosophy, English and Foreign Languages, History, Art History

V: Psychology, Political Science/Government, Religious Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Ethnic Studies (African-American, Native-American, Asian-American, Jewish, etc.)

VI: Music, Studio art, Drama/Theater, Movie Studies

This is far from "respectable." It's completely subjective. Some people are good at math and physics but can't learn foreign languages. Others have a gift for writing but can't do long division. People do what they're good at.

Yeah, you could say that Comp Sci is a more difficult major than Philosophy. But I think it's a lot more difficult for someone to make a living with Philosophy than Comp Sci. Give credit where credit is due.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

This is far from "respectable." It's completely subjective. Some people are good at math and physics but can't learn foreign languages. Others have a gift for writing but can't do long division. People do what they're good at.

Yeah, you could say that Comp Sci is a more difficult major than Philosophy. But I think it's a lot more difficult for someone to make a living with Philosophy than Comp Sci. Give credit where credit is due.

Cool down! This doesn't mean that I necessarily have this heirarchy of respectability. I highly respect philosophy, for example. And music, languages, art, and history. And I agree that pursuing a career as a musician, artist, writer, etc. is MUCH harder than being a doctor, lawyer, etc.

I was just listing my particular impressions as to what subjects are most respected by most of society.

 

[hnbui]

engineering as is elsewhere

 

[byeh2004]

i think biology is one of the hardest majors if not the hardest major in UC Riverside, our program here is very comparable to that of UCLA's bio program. Our bio courses have a 60% fail rate, and only 4% of the class get As.

 

[Shredder]

Ee. i think engineering in general is definitely the toughest, and thats why engineers typically make the most money straight out of college.

 

[DrHopeless]

I would say BME

 

[45408]

physics and engineering are probably up there, but my school has a killer architecture program. It's pretty well known, and it weeds out quite a few students. The lights in that building are on at all hours of the night.

 

[sierra89]

physics and engineering are probably up there, but my school has a killer architecture program. It's pretty well known, and it weeds out quite a few students. The lights in that building are on at all hours of the night.

without scrutinizing your past posts to try and figure out the answer to this question, i'm going to ask: do you go to USC?

definitely architecture and BME @ USC are tough programs...econ sounds very easy here

 

[NCSUco04]

toughest hands down had got to be a BS in underwater fire prevention...

 

[byeh2004]

lol or underwater basket weaving

 

[riceman04]

Difficulty of a particular major at a particular school differs, so it is hard to say which is hardest. However, the general level of "respectability" of a major to society goes from the most quantitative and theoretical to the least. I break it up into ranks:

I: Mathematics, Physics

II: Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Biochemistry, Astronomy

III: Geology, Biology (general, evolution-ecology, genetics, etc.), Economics

IV: Philosophy, English and Foreign Languages, History, Art History

V: Psychology, Political Science/Government, Religious Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, Ethnic Studies (African-American, Native-American, Asian-American, Jewish, etc.)

VI: Music, Studio art, Drama/Theater, Movie Studies

hahahahahahaha........english and foreign lang, art history......more respectable.....hahahahahahahaha.......than psyc.....hahahahahaha.

You have been smok'N that ganja man for too long

 

[Engin]

I'ts kind of funny that you mention that. All of my science/engineering friends love to thumb their nose at Poli Sci and related majors. They talk about how they would easily get straight As as a Poli Sci major, and then they go take a Poli Sci (or history) class and get a B or B- after a semester of bitching and moaning about all the reading they have to do and their crappy TA and the subjective grading and yadda yadda yadda. I've never seen an engineer friend get an A in a Poli Sci class - suckers!

That's because we have three other science and engineering classes to take while we take that "easy GE." So we slack in that class. Unfortuantely poly sci isn't as easy as we think and it end up biting us in the gpass.

 

[Stroganoff]

biomedial engineering at case for sure (i say that and its not even my major!) 🙄

haha, funny you say that, cuz that's what I'm doing. Do you go here too? PM me, it seems like NOBODY I know has even heard of SDN. 🙄

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

hahahahahahaha........english and foreign lang, art history......more respectable.....hahahahahahahaha.......than psyc.....hahahahahaha.

You have been smok'N that ganja man for too long

It is a public secret that psych is crap, and an easy as hell major posing as "hard science." Please.

 

[fuglydoc]

physics and engineering are probably up there, but my school has a killer architecture program. It's pretty well known, and it weeds out quite a few students. The lights in that building are on at all hours of the night.

same with one of our engineering buildings (we have three). it stays open 24/7 😀

 

[jeffsleepy]

The psych classes I've taken have been the easiest in my four years of college... lower division... upper division... doesn't matter. You go to discussion sections and see people try to get all introspective and crap but for some reason you give them a simple multiple choice test and they die.

 

[jeffsleepy]

physics and engineering are probably up there, but my school has a killer architecture program. It's pretty well known, and it weeds out quite a few students. The lights in that building are on at all hours of the night.

Good call on architecture. Those students work longer hours in their studios than I do in the computer labs. They're crazy.

 

[stifler]

i think its biochemistry, but thats cuz im a biochemistry major and not many are willing to take on the challenge, so most dont know how demanding it is. the 16 courses for a major (there is no biochem minor). the physical chemistry etc.

i think the most difficult major ppl think it is is either physics or econ.

 

[PTPoeny]

Everyone at my school thinks the hardest major is their own!

Personally I think the hardest major for everyone would be the "opposite" of what they are in... I would fail out of school so fast in a drawing major....love to do it, but I would fail.

 

[Minion677]

economics, because it has the lowest average gpa at my school.

 

[Kazema]

The psych classes I've taken have been the easiest in my four years of college... lower division... upper division... doesn't matter. You go to discussion sections and see people try to get all introspective and crap but for some reason you give them a simple multiple choice test and they die.

I agree that most undergrad psych classes aren't too tough. But there are some subfields of psych that can get pretty heavy even at the undergraduate level, mostly the stuff involving cognitive modeling and artificial intelligence.

 

[Hoberto]

Personally I think the hardest major for everyone would be the "opposite" of what they are in... I would fail out of school so fast in a drawing major....love to do it, but I would fail.

I agree, I'm a Chemical Engineering major and lots of people claim it's the hardest one out there but if I tried to major in Poly Sci or Psych I'd probably go nuts. (hehe, no pun intended.)

 

[jbrice1639]

It is a public secret that psych is crap, and an easy as hell major posing as "hard science." Please.

where is psych considered a "hard science"? There's a reason the psych building is across from two of the biggest bars at my undergrad campus... 🙄

As far as teh hardest major, I had two extremely intelligent friends who failed out of school because they were aero engineers...so that would be my vote...i however was an english and advertising major...wanted something easy, but still more respectable than...psych... 😉

 

[45408]

without scrutinizing your past posts to try and figure out the answer to this question, i'm going to ask: do you go to USC?

definitely architecture and BME @ USC are tough programs...econ sounds very easy here

nope, in the midwest

 

[45408]

where is psych considered a "hard science"? There's a reason the psych building is across from two of the biggest bars at my undergrad campus... 🙄

As far as teh hardest major, I had two extremely intelligent friends who failed out of school because they were aero engineers...so that would be my vote...i however was an english and advertising major...wanted something easy, but still more respectable than...psych... 😉

As a major, I will certainly not argue that psych is a tough one, but as a science, it's certainly multi-faceted. I'm involved in neuroscience research, and it's a science as much as any of the biology or chemistry I've done.

 

[RayhanS1282]

Pharmacy.

These folks have to take G-chem and Orgo at the same time. And during their freshman year to boot.

 

[oblivious]

physics/math

 

[DrBuro]

The easiest, by far, is film or some kinda of film studies major. I have a friend that is this major. All they freakin do is watch movies and write essays about Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

 

[hnbui]

The easiest, by far, is film or some kinda of film studies major. I have a friend that is this major. All they freakin do is watch movies and write essays about Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

i thought we were discussing the most difficult majors? 😕

 

[gerido]

Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science

I would press to say that biomedical engineering is harder because we have to program and CS don't have to take physical chemistry 🙂

 

[ClinPsycMasters]

I wonder if there is a "scientific" way to find which major is the most difficult one. Looking at GPA is one way but people do self-select into their particular major. We could look at who makes the most money but that would be market-driven.

I have not taken any courses in comp sci but in terms of how much time you need to spend on assignments, I think it must be one of the hardest. It's mind-numbing work, my friend says, and when you do coding and it's not working, it's very frustrating trying to find the error. Stats is hard too and is mind-numbing work as well, but comp sci is much worse.

In terms of intellectual ability, I think physics is the hardest. Math is up there too. I hated my organic chem class but I don't know much about chem.

Biology is easier. Biochem, genetics, and cell biology are harder. Genetics combines biology with math, but I think pure math is more difficult.

Social sciences are some of the easier majors. English and lit are similar. Philosophy is harder. I majored in psych and it was pretty easy. When I switched to psych from biochemistry, I was free of all those labs, the difficult concepts, and complex experiments. I put in the same effort for psych that I had for biochem, and I was getting A after A after A. And I was getting C's in biochem.

Engineering is obviously up there with physics and math. Pharmacy requires the greatest memory in the world. So conceptually not as hard as physics, but tons of memorization.

Anyhow, this is how I see it:

Physics and Math and engineering
pharma, computer sci, law,
Economics, biochem, chem, cell bio, other sciences like geology
philosophy
social sciences like psych and anthropology
arts music

 

[mitl]

Computer Science and Engineering Honors (CS + Elec. Eng + 5 Grad Courses)

Pharmacology (Pretty much Biochem + a lot more)

 

[Electronegative]

Aerospace engineering.

 

[Corpsman Up]

Chemistry is ridiculous at my school. Rumor has it that the department is under investigation/revision because so many people fail it