Which college majors are most difficult?

Engineering is the most time consuming of those three, but history is the most difficult of those three to me personally the way my brain works. What do you mean by "hardest"?

business

Chemistry

Any kind of engineering

Computer Science

Math

Are probably the four hardest.

Physics is probably up there too.

Again depends on what you're good at. I doubled in CS and math, and it was very time-consuming, but I wouldn't call it difficult. I put in the work and did extremely well.

lakai.90 wrote:

If you were to rate these majors 1-10, 10 being hardest, which would the following rank:

- History

- Engineering

- Psychology

Or do you believe they are all the same because each person is different.

Really it depends on your skills. If you analytically oriented, then you'll probably excel at engineering, chemistry, etc. without it ever being overly difficult; however, many of those same people wouldn't cut it in humanities where a lot of writing is required. And vice versa.

I don't mean to shit on the humanities... But I disagree with the "every person is different" argument.

Every humanities class for me has been the same level of difficulty. I've taken 300 level and 100 level courses and I feel it never gets harder. Much of the grading is subjective, and teachers give out much higher grades in them on average than in my other classes. Half the class sucks up, and 25% or more of the final grade is attendance based. As a result, you'll most probably finish the class with at least a B+.

I'm sure people who are extremely good at math/engineering/chemistry but can't write worth crap exist (not including foreigners as English isn't their first language), but they are most probably in the minority... Math related subjects inherently require coherent, clear, concise thought. And, a senior level math class is teaching more difficult things than a sophomore level one.

I'm a math major fwiw.

You're absolutely right, and I was a non-science major, although I was pre-med and pretty much had a Biology major.

From hardest to easiest for almost everybody: Engineering>math>physics>chemistry>biology>psychology=English>sociology

any engineering/math/physics are the hardest majors by far. history doesn't come close.

I've also heard somewhere that math majors are difficult as far as concepts but not in work load, which is more prevalent in majors like computer science, engineering, and sciences that have labs.

yagama wrote:

I've also heard somewhere that math majors are difficult as far as concepts but not in work load, which is more prevalent in majors like computer science, engineering, and sciences that have labs.

I don't think math was hard in terms of concepts. The workload wasn't bad until you got to real analysis and real analysis II, then it was honestly more work than my CS major was.

CS isn't hard in terms of concepts either, but projects are time-consuming.

Honestly though people whine way too much about the majors being hard. I went to a school with very good programs for both math and CS (Maryland) and as long as I put in the time I got As no problem. It just took a lot of time, and that's time most people aren't willing to put in because there are much more fun things to do in college, like drink and have a social life (which I did once in a while, but not all the time).

Also I was not a collegiate athlete for the entirety of college and when I was my grades were notably lower even though I still ran just as much when I wasn't. Organized practices and competitions are really time-consuming so if you're a collegiate athlete IMO you have the right to call any major "hard."

Criminal Justice, gymnastics and sociology are the hardest by far.

Drama or Dance is the hardest because you will be too distracted by all the hot girls in your class

Math is an easy major, if you are capable of it.

You'll find out if you're capable when you take your first-level analysis course. If you can learn the difference between uniform continuity and pointwise continuity, you can learn anything.

yagama wrote:

I've also heard somewhere that math majors are difficult as far as concepts but not in work load, which is more prevalent in majors like computer science, engineering, and sciences that have labs.

That is spot on. Grad school in math requires a high IQ and the ability to concentrate on the same problem for a long period of time. But, other technical areas require a greater volume of work.

Bad Wigins wrote:

If you can learn the difference between uniform continuity and pointwise continuity, you can learn anything.

...or the Weierstrass M-Test.

Nope, way too many entitled math graduates ITT. It's really not that difficult. It's beautiful, but it's not difficult.

I like all the odes to banga's major, chemistry!

It really does depend on what you are good at. I went to a highly selective college for undergrad and majored in mathematics. I always liken math to sprinting; you are either good at it or you aren't, and there is only so much you can do to improve your ability. I started to show great aptitude for math when I was in pre school and it has always come naturally to me. Some of my friends that majored in history or government wouldn't have had a prayer of a chance past calculus. However, the only C I ever got was in a 100 level classics class. I would have had a much harder time majoring in a reading/writing intensive discipline than in math.

I do think it depends on the person. I'm a chemist, and while there was plenty of hard work and late nights I don't think chemistry is objectively harder than anything else. I don't think I could cut it in English or Humanities. I've always done alright on writing assignments, and I'm a good presenter and teacher. So I'm able to make clear and consise arguments. But I simply couldn't come up with the deep literature analysis my classmates would present. My brain just doesn't let me interpret too far beyond the facts I'm given, unless I can test my interpretation.