<p>i would go with:</p>
<p>1.) ElecE/ChemE
2.) CompSci
3.) MechE
4.) BioE
5.) AeroE
6.) CivilE
7.) UndecE</p>
<p>you?</p>
<p>1.) ElecE/ChemE
2.) MechE/AE (they’re really almost the same major within a few classes…and actually are combined at some schools)
3.) BioE, CivilE, StructE
4.) CS
5.) UndecE</p>
<p>Just my view, nothing scientific of course ;)</p>
<p>What about Industrial & Operations Research? Or Nuclear?</p>
<p>This question comes up enough in this forum that it might work as a ‘stikie’ at the top. Everybody ponders this question, and the answers are all over the map. As an engineer (at once nuclear, now systems and operations research), I always wonder how I can answer in a way that is helpful to a student. I only know my experience–I can’t tell you about courses I did not take! So, let’s try to ‘deconstruct’ the question, as the film studies majors would say…</p>
<p>All engineers will (or should) take the same math courses: diff equ, statistics, multivariate calculus, linear algebra. </p>
<p>The introductory courses for all the majors are about equally difficult. So, the question is, how hard are the 300 and 400 level courses in these majors?</p>
<p>Nuclear engineers will have to learn fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and physics of solid materials (materials science) along with the mechanical engineers. They will have to learn power systems, circuit theory, and control theory along with the EE’s. They will need to know risk analysis, simulation and modeling, and optimization along with the systems engineers. So, I would submit, nuclear engineers (and aerospace engineers, which are similiar) have the ‘worst’ of all worlds.</p>
<p>But, really, you need to get a feel for what YOU might be interested in. What types of technology float your boat. I suggest looking at the curriculum for each of the majors–the actual names of the courses. Then, spend an afternoon at the engineering library. Look through the books on that subject. Are you drawn to that application of technology? If you find yourself immersed in a book on concrete load calculations, then civil engineering might be your ‘bag’. If you are intrigued by a signal processing book (meet Monsieur Fourier!), then you are likely to have a leaning toward electrical engineering. Courses are harder if you’re not interested in the subject. (The converse is not true. Even if you’re interested in the topic, the course can still be a struggle. But, at least you get off to a good start!)</p>
<p>And, by the way, we’re all geeks here. It’s okay. You can talk to us. If you confess that you really were intrigued by a technical book, then we are brothers (or siblings!).</p>
<p>Remember, you are a big part of your education. It’s a personal journey, and it’s hard for us to advise you on what you will find challenging. It’s nearly impossible to predict what will go beyond challenging to be overwhelming. So, first, know thyself. Then you will be better able to ask questions about different engineering fields.</p>
<p>Some good points in there, Redbeard.</p>
<p>Structural is nearly identical to aero and mech, fyi. I’m taking the same classes as my friend in Colorado who’s working on a PhD in optical physics, and I’m in this so-called “easy” structural field. I have to do everything that mechanical engineers do (dynamics, materials, thermo, fluids, etc), all the risk/consequence stuff that systems engineers do, all the econ stuff that most other engineers don’t have to deal with, and while I don’t have to deal with circuits that often, I have to deal with government restrictions and codes, so therefore I have to do everything that a law student has to study, too! So, my field is harder than advanced physics, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, economics, AND law school, COMBINED! (You can spin this any way you want, is my point.)</p>
<p>All engineering majors are difficult, just in different ways. No matter how many college freshmen think civ eng is easy, studying tensor calculus and theoretical structural mechanics is still a pain in the butt! 
So, to reiterate what Redbeard said, check out what sorts of things <em>you</em> like, ask questions about various engineering majors and how they’re each difficult, because anything worth doing’s going to be tough, and engineering certainly falls into that category. Just work to figure out which you’ll like the best. This whole ‘ranking engineering in terms of difficulty’ thing doesn’t really accomplish anything.</p>
<p>-Amy</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Engineering Physics is the hardest, followed by ChemE and EE. Then most everything else. Then environmental and civil are the easiest.</p>
<p>aibarr, i’ve heard ‘through the grapevine’ so to speak that civeE is one of the easier engineering majors for undergrad, but it quickly gets ratcheted up during grad school…does this seem like the case for you?</p>
<p>good points to the above posters. how is computer engineering? is it on the level of EE or more towards CS?</p>
<p>At my school (Cornell), Comp Eng is combined with Elec Eng, we call it ECE, verry similiar. I would like to submit my ranking of difficulty
Eng Physics
ECE (My original)
ChemE
Mech/Aero
Materials
CS
Civ
Operations/Industrial (My Major)
Enviro</p>
<p>Any other engineering such as nuclear I feel I do not know enough about to comment.</p>
<p>Karthikkito- There are easier courses and harder courses in civ eng for undergrad. Some of the required courses in civil engineering have to cover so much material (eg, ALL of environmental engineering in one semester…) that you don’t have time to get terribly in-depth or mathematical about things, so that may be where the rumor comes from. Civil engineering’s just a really broad topic. It encompasses transit, traffic, water resources, pipes, land development, HVAC, architecture, economics, project management, hydrology, water purification, sanitation engineering, bridge design, building design, airport design, earthquake design, wind design… the list goes on. A civ’s got to know about all of these things.</p>
<p>Once you decide which area you’re going to specialize in, though, (ie, I decided to specialize in structural engineering, which, as it turns out, is actually really complicated… think “systems engineering meets mechanical, but bolt everything to the earth, which sinks and moves, and then make the structure stand still and carry extreme loads”…) then it gets really complicated, really quickly, because instead of a broad, survey-like curriculum, you’re getting into the math and science of whatever specialization you’ve decided upon.</p>
<p>Mrnova,</p>
<p>Wow, hah, I always wanted to major in ECE (and that’s now my “anticipated major” after getting in to Cornell ED), but I am pretty sure now I’m going to go with Operations Research.</p>
<p>So you think OR is definitely “easier” than ECE was? As in it’s not too hard to keep a decent (I just want to try and keep a 3.0+, 3.5+ and I’d be ecstatic) GPA or anything?</p>
<p>Also, how would you describe Cornell’s OR program in general? I have always liked computers and math/science stuff but also like econ/business/history so I’m thinking OR would suit me better than pure ECE. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>aibarr, makes sense…later specialization, so by the time things get truly frightening, people in other majors have already made up their minds about the difficulty?</p>
<p>"Also, how would you describe Cornell’s OR program in general? I have always liked computers and math/science stuff but also like econ/business/history so I’m thinking OR would suit me better than pure ECE. "
I have similar interests, including economics/political economy, mathematics, physics, business and some philosophy.
With that in mind, how does computer science compare? CS pays more than all the other disciplines at Cornell, with an average of 66k, so that’s an added benefit if it’s relevant to my interests.</p>
<p>Yeah i am quite surprised myself at how CS has been ranked in the bottom by a lot of people…i always thought it was right behind, if not on par with ECE and ChemE.
Anyways when people say “difficulty” i like to measure it with the total hours of work you put in for your classes since thats what it ultimately comes down to for me and i think it is probably the most reliable way of measuring “difficulty”. Since CS people spend countless days and nights coding shouldnt they be right on top?</p>
<p>definately agree ^^^^. is CE harder than CS?</p>
<p>MrNova… that looks right. EngPhysics is definitely the hardest. That’s pretty well known. It’s what I’m going into next year. It’s supposed to be a real grinder.</p>
<p>I thought this was the old thread. There was a thing on this topic just a little while ago with the same people standing up for their “easier majors”. Since no major in engineering is easy, it is more of a least hard kind of thing. Even still you will be working more than any other student on campus. As far as I know from a whole freshmen year (and half sophomore) standpoint. I think ChemE is the overall hardest by a LONG SHOT for freshmen year. Most engineering majors have pretty much the same courses (only special courses are ECE for EE and it’s hard and CS 173 or something for CS) but chemE has those plus a special chem course and chem lab. Both really hard with countless hours put into chem lab which is worth only 2 hours. It is pure ridiculousness which all my friends including engineers said they’d never eve want to go through.</p>
<p>So based on a freshmen year standpoint ChemE is BY FAR the hardest and most time-consuming. But when looking at this semester (chemE is still hardest) the other majors are starting to even out more with more CS, ECE, and TAM courses which we do not have to take. But I just wanted to point out the freshmen year aspect which is why I think that although chemE is not a specialized major it often has numbers lower than a specialized major. It has 2 additional weed-outs on top of the math, physics, and engineering weed-outs.</p>
<p>I know people that couldn’t continue chemE because of orgo even though they could do all the rest, seen people drop to chemistry because of the physics, seen drop into civil or chem because of chemE courses, seen people drop on the first day of chem lab b/c the crazy prof scared them so much, (the math doesn’t do people in as much, thank god because that’s my worst) so there is so much to worry about in chemE compared to the rest and I think that is why it is considered very hard and very much is harder at least for the first 2-3 semesters. How many other engineers have to do orgo?</p>
<p>Here’s my experience thus far (Junior) in Cornell.
I started as ECE, I was doing alright, 3.2GPA average for the first three semesters. Basically there are two subdivisions of ECE, digital and analogue electronics. Digital involves things like circuit design, VHDL, mosfets, etc. Analogue involves things like signal processing, forier series, etc. I LOVE digital design. While I don’t mind bui lding analgoue circuits and such, I took a signal processing class and it was dreadful. I just couldn’t see myself learning that for 3 more years. On top of that, I would like to consider Law or Business school, which isn’t going to happen with a 3.2. So I switched to ORIE. I’ve been in the major for two semesters. First semester I got a 3.9, second I got a 3.7. I also find alot of the material very real world applicable. Optimizations is great. We learn advanced simplex method topics and the AMPL scripting language. This is such a powerful and robust tool that I’ve already used in my non academic life. Also alot of the finance and accounting I’ve learned has been very useful as well.</p>
<p>It is also college specific. </p>
<p>I think that Chem E was the hardest at U of Wis when I went there. It was also one of the 2 or 3 best programs in the country. </p>
<p>P Chem, Transport Phenomena, and Organic were the flunk out courses.</p>
<p>beprepn (a nuke)</p>
<p>I agree with you beprepn. I am a double major (ChemE / Nuke E) at Berkeley. Basically, my intro to Transport Process, Nuclear Physics and Phys Chem were the hardest classes I have taken so far. The drop rates in these classes are one of the highest in the entire university. ON top of that, I am doing a minor in EECS and it seems that I just can’t handle all of the EE and CS courses I would have to take, so next semester, I am thinking about dropping my minor.</p>