What is toughest undergraduate major?

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Originally posted by: simms

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
I take back my previous vote, this has to be brutal.

I call chop.

Almost certainly, but still hilarious.

 

[simms]

Originally posted by: dullard

I've said it before, chemical engineering undergraduates have a LOT of work but it is all easy work. A chemical engineer is the Jack of all trades but master of none.

<- Dullard: BS and MS in chemical engineering and PhD in engineering (focus on chemical engineering and math).

Good point.

I have to agree with you on that. I've taken everything from CS programming in C, to Civil Structures, to Engineering Economics, hell, even English was compulsory.

If anything I've heard that ChemE's just know rates a hell of a lot better than Chems. Mass, heat, fluid rates, etc.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: simms
If anything I've heard that ChemE's just know rates a hell of a lot better than Chems. Mass, heat, fluid rates, etc.

I don't like the comparison of chemical engineering to chemistry. So much difference between the two. Heck you could be quite a good chemical engineer in some jobs and know nothing at all of chemistry. But yes, your point is correct. Chemistry work is often spending months to develop gram quantities of chemicals. To the chemist, it often doesn't matter how long it takes to get the product. Chemical engineers need to figure out how to do the same thing in just hours and while producing ton quantities of that chemical.

 

[liluqt]

I really wish Home Ec was a major. Damn I'd rule.

 

[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!

 

[simms]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: simms
If anything I've heard that ChemE's just know rates a hell of a lot better than Chems. Mass, heat, fluid rates, etc.

I don't like the comparison of chemical engineering to chemistry. So much difference between the two. Heck you could be quite a good chemical engineer in some jobs and know nothing at all of chemistry. But yes, your point is correct. Chemistry work is often spending months to develop gram quantities of chemicals. To the chemist, it often doesn't matter how long it takes to get the product. Chemical engineers need to figure out how to do the same thing in just hours and while producing ton quantities of that chemical.

That, however, goes with your point that ChemE's are jack of all trades...

Learning about all that will certainly be fun when I have next term's courses..

 

[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

 

[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?

 

[phisrow]

One thing to note is the diffirence between minimum requirements for a major and real world requirements for success in a field. A lot of the engineering majors, for example, have pretty nasty minimum requirements. However, a decent percentage of engineering students will be able to become engineers. Sure, the people at the top of the class will probably get cooler jobs than the people at the middle and bottom; but given decent economic conditions many of them will be alright. Something like history or philosophy majors, on the other hand, face the opposite problem. It probably won't take that much effort to merely pass all the classes that you are required to take; but since there is such little demand for historians and philosophers, only the very best students will ever make it in the field.
How difficult a major is, then, depends in part on how much you care. I agree that an engineering or, depending on the school, med/sci major is going to be tough pretty much by default, whereas a fair few humanities majors are easy if you just feel like coasting; but being a humanities major good enough to make it in the field is likely to be very tough indeed.

 

[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.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Darien

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

Guess I must be the exception then.

 

[Turin39789]

Get a f'ing Job

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Darien

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

Guess I must be the exception then.

If you can write well, then you are

 

[J Heartless Slick]

Originally posted by: Siva
Every major is different, what kind of moron thinks there's a "hardest" major.

I spent 8 hours a week in labs which I get no credit for in addition to a full course load. Meanwhile most theatre majors at my school would faint at the idea of more than just 6 hours of classes a week. But if you asked me to act, I couldn't, no amount of classes or learning could make it easy for me. Meanwhile if you put any of them in a lab they'd probably freak out.

College is about finding what you like, what you want to study, and what you want to do with your life. That's what makes a major easy. If you're major is so difficult to you maybe you oughta switch.

<---- Chemistry major btw.

I agree. Whereas I could, with a lot of work, do well in any science or math base major. My head would explode if I had to understand, critique, and write poetry.

 

[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.

 

[imported_Pablo]

"What is toughest undergraduate major?"

Considering the form of that sentence, English would be pretty tough for you...

 

[nageov3t]

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.

 

[Cleaner]

I have a BA in History, a BS in Comp Sci, and a BS in Analytical Cartography (I worked for the school and got free schooling). The analytical was the worst of the three. Very tough as it involved high level math, statistics, programming, AND writing. I got the history degree first and it really helped with the cartography degree. None of them were 'easy' by any means. They each present their own challenges and hurtles.

 

[edro]

LOL @ EE being the hardest! LOL!!!

I would have to say some kind of Chemistry class, either Biomechanical or Pre-Med... memorizing all those medical or chemical terms would be hard as hell.

 

[SwiftWind]

learning cisco stuff is your worst nightmare. trust me.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[snoopdoug1]

Physical Education

 

[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?

 

[desteffy]

Its different for different people

For example one of my profs. said he originally was thinking about being a psychology major, but after a few classes he found out that it was "too hard" because there was too much writing. He later got a PhD in math from Waterloo.

But how can you guys say EE is the hardest? this poll seems more like a vote of "what is your major"

At the school i'm at, EE is definatley not the hardest major, soo... maybe your school is just different.