<p>^They have to take a large number of science classes (Orgo I, Orgo II, maybe P-Chem, a semester or two of Thermo) in addition to engineering classes. Leaves fewer credits for GPA boosting classes.</p>
<p>Thanks Qwerty, that helps. It is literally Chemistry+ general engineering, I understand. </p>
<p>You are right. Less room for ‘fun and relaxing’ electives, or even a liberal arts sampling outside the ChemE major :'(</p>
<p>Math majors, especially with their upper division proof-based theoretical math stuff are rather difficult. But then again, on average, those who go into pure math are somewhat good at it to begin with (despite of the low average gpa).</p>
<p>I think I have said this a million times but what is considered and “easy” and “hard” major is very subjective. Math and science majors are not always hard and art classes are not always easy. In my school many people fail Political science just a much as biology because they assume that liberal arts classes are “easier”.</p>
<p>I knew a girl who changed her major (from English to math) because English was too hard for her. The instructors failed to interest her and she dreaded the classes. She chose English because she thought it was an “easy” major and wanted to be a teacher. When she switched majors, her semester GPA went from 3.1 to a 3.8 (seriously). I am a art studio major and there are some people in my class who can’t draw stick figures to save their lives.</p>
<p>^^ I agree completely.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I find the Social Sciences/History/English to be quite challenging.</p>
<p>Different people have different natural abilities and skills but some majors just pile on the work and the difficulty of the work. It’s pretty hard to argue that engineering isn’t the toughest (or near the toughest) out there with lower expectations of GPA, very high expected levels of work in terms of credits per semester if you want to graduate in four years and high levels of difficulty of the material covered. Imagine spending an average of 20 hours a week on computer science labs for one course.</p>
<p>Arguably the HARDEST engineering major - nuclear engineering.</p>
<p>^Somehow I doubt it… Though that might just be where I go.</p>
<p>BCEagle: Some kids might have a low GPA because others might be pressuring them to to be engineers or doctors. For example, I have seen many threads on this board that say “my parents are pressuring me to be a biology/engineering/math major” or “I want to change majors because I hate biology” or “a French major is not very marketable”. I rarely hear someone with a liberal arts/fine arts major say “my parents are pressuring me to be a sculptor”. Therefore, the reason why liberal arts majors might have higher GPA is because they WANT that degree. If that passion isn’t there, you WILL NOT do good in the course. I don’t care if its mechanical engineering or introduction to watercolors. Parents/adults/mentors are more likely to pressure young people to be doctors/lawyers and not artist, photographers or linguist.</p>
<p>Second, the amount of work is very subjective. My professor told me about a junior who took into to U.S. History, Intro to Political Science and Global Issues all in the same semester. All three of those classes require A LOT of reading and and many people fail those class. This poor student had Cs and D’s in all three of those classes. Political science (at my school) requires a lot of reading and there are some students in college that struggle with the readings. Its not fun to learn about the three branches of government or about what constitutes a republic. This girls spent many hours in her books and was barely getting by.</p>
<p>I have an arts degree in a business major and also have a graduate computer science degree. I found the arts and business courses to be fairly easy compared to the computer science courses.</p>
<p>Engineering students have a ton of reading to do but they also have problem sets and labs. My sons first and second computing courses had north of 90 labs each. Labs could take from fifteen minutes to forty hours of work. I’ve seen courses where it was impossible to do problems without knowledge that you had to have from outside of the course. Engineering students often take courses with hundreds of other students with little personal attention and difficult logistics to navigate. Your course interface may be a grad student that just flew in from Nepal who barely knows how to speak english and may have no practical experience in administering the course or your labs.</p>
<p>You have to absolutely love engineering or else you probably won’t survive.</p>
<p>Okay, I guess we will have to agree to disagree then :).</p>
<p>For me, any subject is difficult if I don’t have at least a small genuine interest in it. For example, History bores the hell out of me. I can’t stand it and it’s physically painful to study for exams. So for me, that’s a hard subject. I* hate *history. </p>
<p>I’m a mech. engineering major and I love it. So, for me, it’s an easy subject.</p>
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<p>Quite frankly, you seem to be in high school.</p>
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<p>Interest grows with age.</p>
<p>It’s a lot easier to relate to a course with significant life experience.</p>
<p>ThisCouldBeHeavn: Was that comment really necessary?</p>
<p>I think ThisCouldbeHeavn has a point: several people who commented are class of 2014…And I’m assuming a lot of them have never been to college. </p>
<p>Even though anyone has a right to comment, a little bit of experience would help here. It’s hard to legitimize the opinion of someone who probably never took a college class, much less tried out a couple majors, when you’re talking about hardest majors.</p>
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<p>Or maybe I just dislike the subject.
It happens.</p>
<p>I’m a computational mathematics major, but I started out as a philosophy major. My first year of college I took a lot of different types of classes trying to decide what I really liked. I loved philosophy because it made me think about things in creative ways. I love math for basically the same reasons.</p>
<p>I know people who have had to change majors because introductory CS was a requirement they couldn’t get through in three tries. They weren’t CS majors, but things like atmospheric sciences and most engineering classes require at least one semester of CS. Meanwhile, others find CS totally natural. </p>
<p>Me personally, I have so much fun in math and CS classes that it hardly seems like work at all, even when it is difficult.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is fair to say that humanities classes are “easier.” Sure, it may be easier to get an A, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the work is easier. I have strong writing skills, and I love creative writing, but analytical writing takes a lot of out me. It’s not that its difficult intellectually, but physically it is exhausting. If I spend four hours writing a 20 page thesis vs four hours working math problems, the writing is the one that will leave me with a headache, because it requires me to be fully engaged the whole time. Even in difficult math problems there are pieces where it is more muscle memory than really thinking. Also, analytical writing just isn’t that fun to me.</p>
<p>I think the hardest major is the one you enjoy the least, whatever that may be.</p>
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<p>We’re talking about the macro level though. I think that a relatively small part of the population could earn a CS or EE or CE degree. Writing may be hard for you but it’s something that you could get better at with effort and practice. There are a lot of people that just can’t do some of the traditionally hard majors.</p>
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<p>I think so. It’s not just that high school classes are often easier than college classes, it’s that the structure of the classes are radically different. And before you get to college you don’t necessarily realize how big of a gap there is between humanities and hard science classes. If you haven’t experienced that, than it’s really hard to have a meaningful opinion on what’s more difficult.</p>
<p>I think it’s fair to say that in humanities classes, interest tends to be the big limiting factor. In science classes, aptitude is much more important. If you have both aptitude and interest, the workload on the science side will tend to be more of a burden.</p>