What is toughest undergraduate major?

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: SwiftWind

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: SwiftWind
learning cisco stuff is your worst nightmare. trust me.

Have you taken any mid-range college level engineering, math, or computer science courses? CCNA can be earned by a decently tech-savvy HS kid.

I know it goes far beyond that, but so do these majors I listed above. Unless you're talking about the upper level Cisco certifications (which take more years then a BS in eng, math, or cs to truly learn) I just can't agree with you.

CCNA/CCNP/CCIE
need I say more?

Yes you do. The CCNA is getting about as respectable as the A+ ceritification. It is passable by semi-intelligent HS students, as I said before. If you want to get technical, you can take a month crash course and pass your CCNP. I'd like to see you pass all the finals required to earn your BS in any Math, Eng, or CS major with a month of studying. The actual study time required to really know your stuff and IMHO deserve the CCNP is less then half that to obtain a BS in the fields I listed, and not nearly as difficult.


The CCIE is ridiculously hard to get, but that skill level and time required to earn it (including the hands on experience you should have) far surpasses the time required to earn a BS.

By your argument, we should include fields such as Neurosurgeon programs and other highly advanced and technical fields to be compared in difficulty to undergraduate degrees.

 

[dr150]

Communications

...followed by Forestry

 

[liluqt]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: liluqt

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: Jzero
Music. And not because you have to be a whiz to take it. No, it's because you still have to take the same gen-ed requirements, and you are still required to maintain the same number of credits to get full-time status, but your classes are all .5-1.5 credits despite meeting 2-3 times a week.

I could take a CS lab class, a Science lab class and 2 non-lab classes and be full-time with a day off every week.
The music majors had to take 8 classes just to be full-time. It's lunacy. I had a brief stint as a band instructor this summer and I thought how awesome it would be to go back to school for music ed until I remembered the ass-tastic curriculum I'd have to endure to get there.

At UMD, the only classes that are 1-2 credits for music majors are lessons (1cr) and ensembles (2 credits). Then some relatively easy electives they take for 2crs (for piano I think there are only 2-3 electives they have to take for 2 crs). It looks time consuming, but I wouldn't say it is hard as long as you were decently gifted (if not, why would you be a music major in the first place).

PS I am not a music major, but this was just looking up information from my colleges music department website.

I go to UMD too!

UMCP or UMBC?

College Park

 

[yoda291]

I'd say pre-med bio or pre-med physics.

because most of those people aren't genuinely interested in the field or the work. Mostly for the prestige and the "what comes after".

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Originally posted by: simms

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Horus
HISTORY. When you EE majors write 30K+ words in 2 months for essays, come back and talk to me.

Stupidest analogy ever, I could probably manage writing 30k+ words in 2 months (though I would probably hate it) .
Heck I've written two lab reports in the last 3 weeks that together are 60 pages and 16,000 words.

Correction: Thirty Thousand words which require creative thought to come to conclusions. I've heard this type of thought process is difficult for engineers

Finish a 500 line C++ project in one night like I just did, then come back and tell me you didn't have to be "creative". n00b.

but at the end of the night, your program either works or it doesn't work as an English major (and probably History too), even after the paper is done, we then have to defend it point-by-point, and can't really tell whether or not the teacher will like the thesis until we've already been graded.

You know what that means? Part marks. With a C program, if it doesn't work, ya get a big 0 for marks.
Yours is more subjective anyways.. if the teacher "likes" the thesis.

Precisely.

When my program fvcks up a test case, that's 7-10% off the grade instantly. When someone writing a paper fvcks up their supporting evidence, they get a little red ink and make a couple points off?

The last C++ project I had before this one was an Othello game tree. The class average was slightly over 25%. This kind of sh!t is unheard of by any liberal arts major.

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenixPrecisely.

When my program fvcks up a test case, that's 7-10% off the grade instantly. When someone writing a paper fvcks up their supporting evidence, they get a little red ink and make a couple points off?

The last C++ project I had before this one was an Othello game tree. The class average was slightly over 25%. This kind of sh!t is unheard of by any liberal arts major.

Hahah. I remember walking into one of my EE classes. First day, first thing the prof says is half of you will fail. This is a weeder class. It used to be upper division, but they moved it down to get you guys to change majors and not waste too much time.

 

[ViperVin2]

CE... programming classes are no walk in the park =/

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

I don't think you can really compare bio-classes to CS/CE classes. Most tough bio-classes are tough because of the insane memorization that is required. My definition of a tough class is one that exercises your mind and really makes you think. One in which you can memorize all the definitions and still fail if you don't understand the material. In my experience thus far, none of the classes I have taken even begin to compare to the CS/CE classes in terms of mental toughness.

 

[simms]

You know what sucks? I have 4th year classes moved down to 2nd year, and some C++ programming totally irrevelant to the major... I'm not complaining, but all these weeder classes my program had AREN'T WORKING. We have a class 150% times any other year.

 

[cain]

a single major is nothing, 2 majors and a minor kicks ass

 

[StuckMojo]

Microelectronic Engineering

 

[Pakky]

Aero Engineering. Those guys work all the time!

 

[forumJunkie]

EE would definitely have to be the hardest

 

[AmitPatel]

EE is a joke... but then again I think everything is easy...
<-- has a BS in Chemical Engineering (3.97/4.00 GPA) from The University of Texas at Austin

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Horus
HISTORY. When you EE majors write 30K+ words in 2 months for essays, come back and talk to me.

Stupidest analogy ever, I could probably manage writing 30k+ words in 2 months (though I would probably hate it) .
Heck I've written two lab reports in the last 3 weeks that together are 60 pages and 16,000 words.

Correction: Thirty Thousand words which require creative thought to come to conclusions. I've heard this type of thought process is difficult for engineers

It probably is. Most of the engineers I know suck at writing.

Most of the engineers I know can write a half-decent paper if you hand them reading material about the subject at hand, none of the arts students I know can write a 30 page lab report the performance characteristics of of a multistage amplifier circuit, let alone propose improvements to the circuits as is required in a lab report.

BTW, design (which is what engineers do) is by definition a creative process. I don't know where you came up with the idea that engineers aren't creative.

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

i'd say any chem or electrical engineering just cause you have to take all of the hardest classes in math/physics/chemistry, and general engineering classes instead of easy gen eds, while still having just as many courses in your major as math and physics

 

[BurnItDwn]

I say Chem E, because I looked at some of the notes my little sister took in class, and it is insane. (She graduated spring 2004 and is in grad school now.)

 

[dym]

everything is hard...

 

[Martin]

Not all schools have it, but the hardest is undoubtedly Engineering Science (also known as Engineering Physics). EE/CE squeezes in at a respectable second, with other engineerings closely behind it. Anyone who honestly thinks bio/physics or CS is as hard, let alone harder, needs to get their head checked.

For those saying CS: I'm in third year CompE. My easiest course is Programming Languages. An easier version of this course is the hardest course that my 3rd year CS friend has.
For those saying history or any of that liberal arts bullsh!t, you are fscking insane. I had to take a social studies course, so I know very well how hard each of them is.

As for Engineering Science, its quite a bit harder than the regular engineering - deeper and academically demanding. About 30% of the poeple drop to regular engineering after first year. I just don't know how the rest survive.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Originally posted by: simms
I'd say EE. I'm a Chem Eng, 2nd year and it's alright, I know some EE's went nuts in first year.

Bio isn't that tough. The Chem courses I'm taking incorporate Organics as well as protein structuring etc.
If you're talking about ADP NADP and kingdom phylum class family genus species.. that's all memorizing. Not that hard, and not really applicable in real life when you can easily read it from a book.

APPLYING that knowledge (eg: engineering) is where you must LEARN different environments and design for them..

your at UofT right?

Wait till your ECE friends hit 3rd year...that's when sh!t hits the fan.

<--- 3rd year ECE @ UofT.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Horus
HISTORY. When you EE majors write 30K+ words in 2 months for essays, come back and talk to me.

Stupidest analogy ever, I could probably manage writing 30k+ words in 2 months (though I would probably hate it) .
Heck I've written two lab reports in the last 3 weeks that together are 60 pages and 16,000 words.

Correction: Thirty Thousand words which require creative thought to come to conclusions. I've heard this type of thought process is difficult for engineers

It probably is. Most of the engineers I know suck at writing.

Most of the engineers I know can write a half-decent paper if you hand them reading material about the subject at hand, none of the arts students I know can write a 30 page lab report the performance characteristics of of a multistage amplifier circuit, let alone propose improvements to the circuits as is required in a lab report.

BTW, design (which is what engineers do) is by definition a creative process. I don't know where you came up with the idea that engineers aren't creative.

I think you're wasting your time. I highly doubt they can see elegance or beauty in a circuit or algorithm. I see some of these things (like DRAM config for example) and just wonder how the hell people were able to come up with it.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Horus
HISTORY. When you EE majors write 30K+ words in 2 months for essays, come back and talk to me.

Stupidest analogy ever, I could probably manage writing 30k+ words in 2 months (though I would probably hate it) .
Heck I've written two lab reports in the last 3 weeks that together are 60 pages and 16,000 words.

Correction: Thirty Thousand words which require creative thought to come to conclusions. I've heard this type of thought process is difficult for engineers

It probably is. Most of the engineers I know suck at writing.

Most of the engineers I know can write a half-decent paper if you hand them reading material about the subject at hand, none of the arts students I know can write a 30 page lab report the performance characteristics of of a multistage amplifier circuit, let alone propose improvements to the circuits as is required in a lab report.

BTW, design (which is what engineers do) is by definition a creative process. I don't know where you came up with the idea that engineers aren't creative.

I think you're wasting your time. I highly doubt they can see elegance or beauty in a circuit or algorithm. I see some of these things (like DRAM config for example) and just wonder how the hell people were able to come up with it.

diff sense amplifier!! very interesting

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: mAdD INDIAN

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Horus
HISTORY. When you EE majors write 30K+ words in 2 months for essays, come back and talk to me.

Stupidest analogy ever, I could probably manage writing 30k+ words in 2 months (though I would probably hate it) .
Heck I've written two lab reports in the last 3 weeks that together are 60 pages and 16,000 words.

Correction: Thirty Thousand words which require creative thought to come to conclusions. I've heard this type of thought process is difficult for engineers

It probably is. Most of the engineers I know suck at writing.

Most of the engineers I know can write a half-decent paper if you hand them reading material about the subject at hand, none of the arts students I know can write a 30 page lab report the performance characteristics of of a multistage amplifier circuit, let alone propose improvements to the circuits as is required in a lab report.

BTW, design (which is what engineers do) is by definition a creative process. I don't know where you came up with the idea that engineers aren't creative.

I think you're wasting your time. I highly doubt they can see elegance or beauty in a circuit or algorithm. I see some of these things (like DRAM config for example) and just wonder how the hell people were able to come up with it.

diff sense amplifier!! very interesting

I really liked the clocked one. Of course, none of this helped on the final today, but....c'est la vie

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: mAdD INDIAN

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: Horus

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Horus
HISTORY. When you EE majors write 30K+ words in 2 months for essays, come back and talk to me.

Stupidest analogy ever, I could probably manage writing 30k+ words in 2 months (though I would probably hate it) .
Heck I've written two lab reports in the last 3 weeks that together are 60 pages and 16,000 words.

Correction: Thirty Thousand words which require creative thought to come to conclusions. I've heard this type of thought process is difficult for engineers

It probably is. Most of the engineers I know suck at writing.

Most of the engineers I know can write a half-decent paper if you hand them reading material about the subject at hand, none of the arts students I know can write a 30 page lab report the performance characteristics of of a multistage amplifier circuit, let alone propose improvements to the circuits as is required in a lab report.

BTW, design (which is what engineers do) is by definition a creative process. I don't know where you came up with the idea that engineers aren't creative.

I think you're wasting your time. I highly doubt they can see elegance or beauty in a circuit or algorithm. I see some of these things (like DRAM config for example) and just wonder how the hell people were able to come up with it.

diff sense amplifier!! very interesting

I don't think anyone who still thinks the number of words in a paper has any merit towards its difficulty can be credited with making an intelligent decision pertaining this topic.

 

[Cryption]

I'm a CS major, but some of my friends are Computer E's, which from what I've seen is by far the hardest undergrad major!