Surprisingly competitive majors

[beprepn]

<p>JHS wrote:

I, by the way, was a comp lit person before I went to law school. With a minor in econ, and time off to do a 6-month internship at a significant Wall Street financial institution. Although women were a majority of the students in comp lit at the time, it was a thoroughly male-dominated field, and it was the most competitive thing I have ever experienced – far more than an all-male prep school, sports, a securities trading desk (that was #2, though), law school, law. Every time anyone opened his mouth, it was Shoot-Out at the OK Corral. Point-for-IQ-point, the literature professors were, in my estimation, considerably smarter than my econ professors, my law school professors (at a top law school), my law review board, and everyone on the Supreme Court since 1976. (Richard Posner is probably that smart, though. And I think Robert Coover was, too.) Success in that field was unbelievably difficult to achieve. </p>

<p>Anyway, MY point with that little rant is that, while I fully accept that undergraduate grading is easier in the humanities, “easier” majors are not the same thing as intellectually deficient majors. I knew, and know, lots of successful scientists and engineers who could not have survived a week in the literary theory Terrordome.

Nuclear Engineering, on the other hand, was pretty cooperative - at least 30 years ago.</p>

[huskem55]

<p>people think that psychology is a fluff major, but nationwide, clinical psych graduate programs take on an average of 5% of their applications.</p>

[DRJ4]

<p>As a liberal arts/literature undergrad major and law schooll graduate, I agree with JHS’s characterization of the intellectual ability of many liberal arts professors. Still, one has to adopt a PC frame of reference to survive in such undergraduate majors. The point isn’t that liberal arts students and professors aren’t intelligent, but that some students muddle through to a degree simply by parroting the liberal views of the professors.</p>

[ADREW5449]

<p>Is this a right brain/left brain thing? Or is law school just more attractive to people who like to argue?</p>

[ariesathena]

<p>Undergrad psych is not a tough major. The fact that grad schools only take 5% of their applicants doesn’t mean that undergrad is hard - in fact, it could mean that 95% of the people were not appropriately weeded out. </p>

<p>Most engineers can get into a master’s programme. Does that mean that engineering is easy? Or does it mean that there’s enough master’s to meet the demand and that those who get through the undergrad are capable, for the most part, of doing grad-level work?</p>

<p>Some majors are hard simply because they require the ability to THINK, which many colleges students are loathe to do.</p>

[newmassdad]

<p>It may be interesting to note that in my MBA program at U. Chicago, the engineers had the easiest time grade wise and the humanities folks the toughest. </p>

<p>I think the difference some posters noted is due to the fact that, IMHO, EVERYTHING in humanities is subject to discussion and argument (OK, OK, there is some factual basis underlying some of the material…) whereas that is not the case in engineering or the sciences, and less so in the social sciences.</p>

<p>Put another way, there is widespread agreeement regarding the underlying assumptions (postulates, theorems etc.) in science, math and engineering. There is some agreement on the above in the social sciences (but note the frequent broad paradigm shifts) and even less agreement in the humanities.</p>

<p>Now, you want to find the arena where there is NO agrement on anything, try the business world.</p>

[huskem55]

<p>ariesathena- the question wasnt whether or not the major is HARD but how COMPETITIVE it is.</p>