<p>Cognitive Neuroscience?</p>
<p>Math is not one of the most difficult majors.</p>
<p>What types of engineering are the most difficult while which are the easiest in most cases.</p>
<p>Whether computer science counts as engineering is a tricky ticket 
Some parts of CS are unambiguously engineering (ex, robotics), other parts are entirely math in all but name. </p>
<p>One semi-objective definition of what is engineering or not is whether the degree program is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). </p>
<p>For example, at my university, the BS in Computer Science is ABET-accredited. At other places (i.e. at colleges without distinct schools of engineering), it may not be ABET-accredited.</p>
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<p>This is a totally minor quibble, but the hardware-counterpart is usually called computer engineering, as a sub-discipline of EE, since there is far more to EE than computer engineering.</p>
<p>I’ve not taken all the majors out there, but from my experience in school:</p>
<p>chemistry, maths</p>
<p>I know English might not be considered one of the hardest, but I sucked at HS English. I cannot imagine having to take it in college; I would fail!</p>
<p>Math can be pretty tough, especially at high level. Sure, you have easy classes (like everything the first two years), but they get tougher as you go down. Some types of physics are also very tough, because you need to just have the right brain to see the solution. </p>
<p>CS can be tough, as can any type of engineering. However, I feel that engineering is not that hard; it just takes a lot of time. I know I’m going to **** off some engineers with my last statement, so let me reiterate: Engineering can be complicated and tough, but with enough willpower, most people in the class can get to the right answer, that just sometimes doesn’t happen in high level math, physics, and CS. In this sense, ARCH isn’t “hard” but it is time-consuming.</p>
<p>I guess here is where I’m going: what’s the paradigm for most difficult major?</p>
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<p>I have a MS in EE. And let’s me tell you, what sepeates engineering from other majors is that in many occasions, you can have all the time in the world and you still won’t get right answer. You either get it or don’t. You cannot simply just “work through” like you do with humanity/social sci papers. </p>
<p>The hardest majors are ones that combine Electrical Engineering and Computer Science/Enginering as one major (4 year degree). For instance, MIT’s EECS, Berkeley EECS, Cornell ECE, CMU ECE.</p>
<p>Talking about combining 2 most difficult majors into one</p>
<p>Excellent point. What do we mean by “difficult”? Is it grading? Effort required? Intellectually demanding?</p>
<p>Most majors are going to require some combination of willpower/effort, natural ability, prior preparation, enjoyment of the subject, and (possibly) willingness to suck up the grading.</p>
<p>Usually, all those go together, and are going to be wildly different from person to person. (let alone the differences from university to university!)</p>
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<p>This is undoubtedly true of many engineering classes - I can think of a couple that really didn’t require much more than a lot of sweat (99% perspiration, 1% inspiration, folks!).</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are plenty of engineering classes I’ve taken where hitting the books 24/7 will hardly help you a lick at all. Engineering is an awfully diverse matter, even within disciplines.</p>
<p>architecture? lol w.t.f</p>
<p>I would definitely say architecture (B.Arch) is one of the most difficult majors because of the time commitment. All the architecture majors I knew practically lived in their studios. One person stayed up all night once making little trees for her model… And everybody still gets slaughtered in their critiques!</p>
<p>Not everyone can succeed as an architect.</p>
<p>I would probably say the engineering programs for the most part.</p>
<p>QUESTION: How “difficult” would you all say the neuroscience major is compared to psychology major?</p>
<p>^ I’m minoring in Neuroscience I don’t think it’s that hard, but I’m just a freshman so I’ve taken easier classes. Imo, cognitive neuroscience is harder than behavioral neursocience. I took ap psych in HS and we did a unit on neuroscience (behavioral). I felt like psych was pretty easy, the neuroscience was harder, but it wasn’t hard. Sorry, I haven’t taken Psych in college so I can’t really say. Everyone seems to think it’s pretty easy though.</p>
<p>Is EE hard? Yes… and no. Personally, I enjoy math and I have a natual talent at it so I had little trouble visualizing and internalizing the abstract concepts involved in EE. I was fortunate to have done electronics as a hobby since I was in junior high school as well. Learning to use a recurrent-sweep oscilloscope and buring up a lot of components in those days must have developed a lot of neural pathways that helped me in college. Hey, if you wanted to go to the Berklee College of Music to study guitar, wouldn’t it be helpful if you had been playing since you were a kid?</p>
<p>Routine problems in EE can be very time consuming, and mathematically intensive (lots of systems of equations, differential equations, Fourier transforms, Z-transforms, probability and statistics, etc). These are the kinds of problems that can be solved with sheer determination and lots of time (Matlab helps a lot too), and are likely the types of problems that previous comments are referencing. </p>
<p>Other classes of problems that are not so easily solved involve original designs that require a more holistic knowledge of EE (and often mathematics, physics, CS, and other engineering areas). In all honesty, most fresh BSEEs can barely design their way out of a wet paper bag. Some never really get the hang of it, and go into other areas of EE. This is not a criticism of their education or intelligence. It is a testament to the true difficulty of the subject material. It is difficult to describe this to a non EE major, or a prospective EE student.</p>
<p>There is a huge difference between the type of thinking involved with EE versus, say architecture. Architecture is time consuming, but not very math intensive (relatively speaking). Generally speaking, architecture involves a lot more aesthetics than EE. I honestly don’t think any of the architecture professors I teach with (and I love some of them like brothers) would be very good EEs. Not that they couldn’t do it if they really had to, but I think it would be very, very painful and probably unfulfilling for them too.</p>
<p>I could go on but I am getting tired of writing and I want to get back to designing a very sweet vacuum tube based guitar amplifier. Over and out.</p>
<p>lol at this thread…</p>
<p>whatever you, personally, are worst at… THAT is the hardest.</p>
<p>Well we can put it this way. Math/physics/engineering tend to be hard for the vast majority of people; especially abstract math is just not the way most people think. That’s probably the only way we can measure “difficulty on average” – how unfriendly something is to most people. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, I think that if one picks the right major for oneself (i.e. something fun to the given individual), any major is pretty easy to get through the bare minimum for! It’s getting very into a given subject that is very challenging to almost anybody at all.</p>
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<p>I’d have thought something like neuroscience would be pretty complicated – maybe you’re just naturally into it? And what does a neuroscience class’s work typically consist of?</p>
<p>^From what I’ve heard, neuroscience at my college is pretty difficult. The curriculum includes all the prerequisites for medical school but also includes classes with gross neuroanatomy and neurohistology labs…for the core neuroscience course, students are required to learn all the very specific intracies of the brain.</p>
<p>CS majors are somewhat of an amalgamation. Some schools have CS in their engineering departments. Some have them in Arts and Science. There are a variety of ways to focus the major on.</p>
<p>CS is generally comprised of software engineering (including programming), hardware (computer organization, architecture) and theory (foundations, algorithms, etc.). My son, a CS major was once told that he’s a electrical engineering major because he tutors circuits, calculus, differential equations, probability and statistics, and physics. He’s also taken linear algebra so one might conclude that he’s a proper engineering student but that would not be the case. He’s also taken two semesters of discrete structures some might think that he’s a math major.</p>
<p>The software engineering portion frequently starts out with heavy programming with bits of hardware and computer science sprinkled in before it is formally covered. In our son’s first computing course, there were over 80 labs. Some could be done in fifteen minutes. Some could take 40 hours. Some were impossible to do unless you had reference books on algorithms (they were problems that you’d find in upper level courses). Most of the problems were in between 15 minutes and 40 hours. But you have to get all of that work done in 14 weeks. And you also had physics, calculus and writing too. So there is difficulty in just managing the sheer volume of work from Computer Science courses with heavy labs (there are a lot of these).</p>
<p>You get hit with the hardware courses in your second year. Many that go into CS thinking that they will learn programming then wonder why they are learning hardware concepts and playing around with circuits. Some that are very good at programming find that they have a lot of trouble with the hardware side. Then later on you’re hit with the theory courses (you have to take a bunch of math courses too and there are some that can’t hack the math courses and switch to something else like CIS). You may be a great at the programming course but then you get hit with essentially pure math courses and there are some that can’t hack this or that have to take the theory courses more than once to pass.</p>
<p>One thing that I’ve found with a lot of first-year CS majors is that they know very little about what to expect in the major and the three kinds of things that they do which are quite varied, can surprise them and even knock them out of the major. The major is difficult because of:</p>
<p>The amount of work, especially in lab courses
Some of the problems and labs that you get aren’t solvable without information that isn’t covered in the course.
Switching gears from software to hardware
Getting snared by the math courses
Inability to grasp the theory courses</p>
<p>For me, personally, engineering would be the hardest. Engineering = math + science + technology + common sense. Those are my worst fields.</p>
<p>Chinese would be considered a really hard major for a typical U.S. college student.</p>
<p>I found learning Mandarin to be fairly easy. Then again, living in Beijing for over a year might have contributed to that.</p>