<p>Academic rigor depends on the student, not the UG. There are various levels of every class that you can take. As an example the same school may have different levels of the first Chem. class. One needs to be able to place as high as possible (D’s Chem level depended on her Math palcement score) and also should be able to choose. There are Honors Chem, Chem for Engineering majors…etc. Many classes ahve options. Again, some are determined on your placement score, so another example is Foreign language. You can place (as an example) right into 3rd year of college Foreign language, which is plenty rigorous for any HS’er at any college who is not a native speaker. The list of examples can go on and on. To prove this point further, this fact is one reason why (again as an example), Medical Schools do not care about UG that applicant graduated from, they care only about college GPA (all pre-med have to complete certain set of Med. School pre-reqs) and MCAT score. These numbers pu all applicants on the equl footing so to speak. So regor is up to you, not the UG that you are planning to attend.</p>
<p>I don’t see architecture listed here as an often fiendishly competitive, time-sucking major even at the “lesser” schools. My architecture friends at UC Berkeley weren’t seen for weeks at a time because they’d basically live in the studio. Son who was in an architecture program at Montana State also couldn’t believe the work loads. (He dropped the program.) </p>
<p>Re: #19</p>
<p>No surprise that the list includes many colleges with lots of engineering and science majors (who have time consuming lab courses to take), and sometimes art or architecture majors (with time consuming art studio).</p>
<p>General differences in workload by major:</p>
<p><a href=“Why College Students Leave the Engineering Track - The New York Times”>Why College Students Leave the Engineering Track - The New York Times;
<p>Note that, within MIT, workload varies by major:</p>
<p><a href=“http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N59/pressure/breakdown/course/index.htm”>http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N59/pressure/breakdown/course/index.htm</a></p>
<p>“Note that, within MIT, workload varies by major”
- But not at other places??? I would say that is just another one that confirms about all the bogus information out there. The common sense seems to be more accurate.</p>
<p>All schools have easier and harder majors. Look at what the football players are majoring in. I had a super-easy major at Harvard, though dh wouldn’t have found it as easy as I did (He double majored in physics and biology which would have been the death of me.) It was often time consuming, but I loved every minute of it, so it never felt like work.</p>
<p>I agree with MiamiDap #20 that much of what determines rigor is the.course selection made by the student. Workload can also vary by the credit load a student takes on. Some students take the bare minimum and others load their schedule. Students can also choose to take classes from the best professor or the easiest. They can do all the recommended reading, or just what is necessary to pass the test . College is a lot about what the student brings.</p>
<p>As an FYI…my son would have found the rigor of an engineering program to be too much…but he loved music. My daughter was the opposite…found the rigor of her engineering program to be just fine.</p>
<p>Workload does vary by major, but when people compare workload between colleges, it means which has a higher workload when you compare one major at one college to the same major at a different college.</p>
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<p>Product Design is by definition not Liberal Arts.</p>
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<p>Looking over the list, at least 11 are not primary known as STEM destinations. It is, however, no surprise that you interpret the list that way. (And perhaps no surprise that I protest. 
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<p>At Reed, the rigor is pretty much predetermined by the school, the required courses, and the level of attainment to proceed to the next level.
The hum110 required course for all freshmen, comes to mind with its required reading list ( for the year) of at least 30 books.
Also the qualifying exam that must be passed junior year in order to prove your readiness for senior year during which you will write & publish a research thesis which you will defend to an orals board.
These things are required of all graduates.
Im not really sure what would be considered an " easier" major at Reed.</p>
<p>My youngest, attended a high school (approx 1600)which was larger than her sisters college. (Approx 1200)
Very different experience as freshmen in college, not so different as upper class men ( except for the publish thesis & defending to an orals board part. Youngest attended a masters university, which does have senior projects in the small college that gave her diploma)
So I will agree that a student who is determined to make the most out of their education, can work as hard as they want, and have enough attention from faculty that they need.</p>
<p>But one of the complaints about Reed was that for humanities majors, there were no " gut" courses in the sciences. They were taking the same science courses as students majoring in chem, bio or physics.
Science majors still needed to take the pretty intense Hum110, but they also found if they took a studio or performance class, many hours were required for rehearsal or to complete art assignments, so it was really a wash as to which was the more difficult path.</p>
<p>Another thing about comparing expensive schools which offer only need based aid, to schools with lower EFC.
The need only schools, . oNLY offer aid for four years.
If you need longer, because of changing majors, poor grades or a need to take a lighter load because of health or family concerns, you are as they say, “SOOL”.
Its good to come to terms with that up front, and if your kid might need 5 years, because every winter they get strep throat or are hit hard with seasonal depression, or they need to work more than 10hrs a week to pay for school, you might want to admit that they may not have a diploma in 4 years.</p>