What are the most difficult majors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Math is very hard for people who aren't good at math. I had a friend of mine as an undergraduate who failed a prerequisite class 3 times, and had to shift his major from math to education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Uh huh. If math isn't hard, then why is there such a high attrition rate for men as well as women in STEM fields? Are the men being driven out by teh sexizm too?

The problem with math and hard sciences is almost all of the programs are purposely designed to weed people out. Many courses are graded on a curve. It's not uncommon for anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of initial majors to drop the program. That's just the way the program is designed at many schools.

In my physics classes if you got a 30% you generally would pass and move on

[Anonymous]

difficulty of material is always going to depend on innate ability and prep ( math major here who had a lot of Stuyvesant kids and kids of professors in her classes). That said, some classes are a slog in terms of workload in lab sciences, especially higher level cell and molecular bio. Plus you can’t even do that stuff at home or in the library. You have to be in the lab.

[Anonymous]

The problem with math and science is that, not only is there a answer, but you have to understand how to get the answer. And you have to understand the assumptions, etc.

In the more qualitative sciences, people use words to describe what is observed. For example, ruby is red. But now, we understand why a ruby is red, and it has to do with atomic physics of the properties and physics of light scattering.

In the quantitative sciences, we use mathematical models to describe what is happening. That requires understanding the advanced math and the physical models.

And if we do something wrong, the consequences can be huge.

If you look at IQ's for majors, Physics and Astronomy are top.

[Anonymous]

I know a bunch of Mackinsey alumni and lot of younger ones have hard science backgrounnds, e.g. EE, some former lawyers and MDs. They all make a lot of money and do not come from money.

[Anonymous]

Astrophysics
Math
Nursing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Agree.

Female engineer here. I disagree. Engineering is very hard. Law school was a complete joke by comparison.

I agree that Engineering is difficult, but Law really depends. There is more of a fixation on class rankings and school prestige. In Law, it’s more important to graduate at the top of your class than it is in Engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Physicist. I never found the physics classes hard. The hardest classes for me were the ones which required a lot of memorization. My lowest grade in college was in Art Appreciation.

My approach is to understand the problem space and figure I could analyze my way through the classes. That working in Physics, Math, History, philosophy. But not Art Appreciation.

Chemical engineering major here and I can relate to this. I did really well in classes where the ability to “figure things out” (math, physics, physical chemistry, economics) but found classes that had a high degree of memorization (micro-biology, organic chemistry to some extent, intro history classes) to be more frustrating to me and less enjoyable.

I will say that to get home from the engineering building at my school, I had to walk past the architecture building and they were always *still* there and would yell out the windows making fun of the engineering calling it a night before 3 am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Agree.

Female engineer here. I disagree. Engineering is very hard. Law school was a complete joke by comparison.

Yeah, my son is an engineer and is breezing through law school. He reminds me of a law school classmate of mine who could just cut through the cases to find the critical nugget of analytical value. You want to loathe people like that, but, of course, they're engineers, so they're super-affable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever you are not good at is the hardest major for you. If you’re not good at math, STEM majors would likely be the most difficult for you. If you’re not good at reading, analysis, and writing, majors like English and history might be the most difficult for you.

If your major is *that* difficult, you are likely not in the best major for you.

This isn't true. Not all engineering majors couldn't hack it at English or History.

I vote electrical engineering as one of the hardest. Chemical and petroleum engineering are up there too.

Sure some can. I could. History major who missed the Calc bc ap exam due to mono. Thought it was no big deal because I loved math and would just take diffiqs. But ran out of space. Took ap exam 3 years after hs with no additional classes and minimal review and passed.

But you're presuming that all English and history majors couldn't hack it as engineers?

Yup, pretty much.

Engineers can do reading, analysis, and writing. English and history majors can't do math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever you are not good at is the hardest major for you. If you’re not good at math, STEM majors would likely be the most difficult for you. If you’re not good at reading, analysis, and writing, majors like English and history might be the most difficult for you.

If your major is *that* difficult, you are likely not in the best major for you.

This isn't true. Not all engineering majors couldn't hack it at English or History.

I vote electrical engineering as one of the hardest. Chemical and petroleum engineering are up there too.

Sure some can. I could. History major who missed the Calc bc ap exam due to mono. Thought it was no big deal because I loved math and would just take diffiqs. But ran out of space. Took ap exam 3 years after hs with no additional classes and minimal review and passed.

But you're presuming that all English and history majors couldn't hack it as engineers?

Yup, pretty much.

Engineers can do reading, analysis, and writing. English and history majors can't do math.

Sure some can. I could. History major who missed the Calc bc ap exam due to mono. Thought it was no big deal because I loved math and would just take diffiqs. But ran out of space. Took ap exam 3 years after hs with no additional classes and minimal review and passed. 

I also help my kids with math when needed. Both are in TPMS and Blair magnet.

I also learned Fortran in 8th grade at Va Tech.

So, yes, some history majors can do math!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the age of this college scandal, what are the majors that people that get in through back doors can’t hack? I feel like job recruiters/grad schools should look at majors, rather than specific colleges.

They often do. But do you necessarily want someone who excelled in physics doing marketing and PR?

This is obviously pretty unusual, but I have a PhD in physics...and part of my job is marketing and PR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a BS in Chemical Engineering and I would vote Physics as the hardest.

Ha! My son is a mechanical engineering major (he hopes) and he would say chem is the hardest.

(If he washes out in mechE he'll major in physics)

This just demonstrates why this is a pointless idea. The difficulty of a major often has to do with the curriculum at a specific school. At my university, the people who washed out of physics majored in ME. At my DH's, it was the opposite.

There is some correlation between which majors are difficult and the type of university. For example, humanities are typically more difficult at SLACs and Ivies. Hard sciences are more difficult than engineering at elite privates, and engineering more than hard sciences at flagship state universities. But there are obviously exceptions to this. And for places like CalTech, Stanford, MIT, and Princeton, you'd have to go department-by-department to figure out whether a particular hard science or engineering discipline was more difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Agree.

Female engineer here. I disagree. Engineering is very hard. Law school was a complete joke by comparison.

Yeah, my son is an engineer and is breezing through law school. He reminds me of a law school classmate of mine who could just cut through the cases to find the critical nugget of analytical value. You want to loathe people like that, but, of course, they're engineers, so they're super-affable.

Well, we had engineers and doctors in my law school class. They didn't "breeze" through it. They were on par with everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Depends on your strengths. Some people really struggle with writing, some people really struggle with math.