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[Timbuktu]

Architecture. Even if you have the most talent, it is still tough in terms of work load. And even if you put in more hours than anyone, you can still fail. And you have to face people wanting to tear you down every other week. You have to be able on quite a few fronts to succeed.

 

[EzLink]

At my uni I have 24 contact hours. I got 5 hours of Japanese, 6 hours of Discrete Maths, 6 hours of Calculus and Algebra and 7 hours of Computer classes. I think I should be doing 3+ hours a day homework if I want to keep up but so far I'm not :lol

24? Jesus. I'm only gonna have 12

and 3 hours really isn't all that horrible considering your classes. In fact if I only need three hours a day for homework I'll consider myself lucky

 

[hamchan]

fuuuuu

it can't be that bad can it? :/

also once you have the degree and are working, the actual work isn't going to be super frusterating and difficult right?

perhaps i should have done more research before willy nilly picking a degree

Well it has its highs and lows. Last night I spent 5 hours stuck on a programming assignment and I was getting so frustrated that I couldn't solve it that I actually starting to feel physically ill. However when I finally finished, it was the best feeling in the world :lol
If you like to solve problems then Computer Science is for you. Just expect to feel like crap if you can't solve them. :lol

To be honest I have no idea what the workforce will be like after I get my degree.

 

[torontoml]

Currently in second year of engineering, trying to decide between civil and materials. The math is definitely tough but I seem to be getting better at it overall with the more courses I take.

 

[Salazar]

the archeaology stuff sounds really cool.

The archaeology stuff, beyond its toe-in-water introductory stages, involves some taxing mathematics and science. Too taxing, at any rate, for me to master. I was, however, powerfully thrilled by the museum management and artefact conservation parts of the course. It is an exciting thing to plan an exhibition.

 

[Chris R]

Solving most problems in any CS class shouldn't be hard. Solving them in the most unique/correct/graceful fashion is where the challenge comes in.

 

[Peronthious]

Solving most problems in any CS class shouldn't be hard. Solving them in the most unique/correct/graceful fashion is where the challenge comes in.

Or in some most cases, the specific fashion that the professor wants to see.

 

[Haly]

My discrete math class wasn't that hard. Got a B in discrete math II because I slacked off.

Solving most problems in any CS class shouldn't be hard. Solving them in the most unique/correct/graceful fashion is where the challenge comes in.

Agreed.

That and debugging. Programming is lots of work but it pays off when you finish a particularly difficult program. Debugging is just a soul crushing process.

 

[Femmeworth]

:/

See, I've already put in my two years of gen eds. I was literally out of time and had to pick a major. So I picked one with good money and good job security.

Hows the workload? How many hours a day do you usually sink into homework?

blah this is making me feel very uncertain of my choice

To be fair, my last post is in need of some context. I'm only in my second semester of college, and I'm discovering that college just might not be for me. I have motivational issues, which may be a result of Computer Science just not being the best major for me.

In regards to the workload, my first semester was pretty easy, but the difficulty increased quite a bit during my second semester. I'm currently taking a class on data structures and a class on discrete math, which isn't too good of a combination. Not to mention, both of my professors have accents and are from Europe, so I don't exactly get a whole lot out of the lectures.

 

[Rektash]

Don't really know but I am in 4th year bioinformatics and genomeresearch and its quite tough :lol.

UEARGHBARELASF!

 

[liquidspeed]

To be fair, my last post is in need of some context. I'm only in my second semester of college, and I'm discovering that college just might not be for me. I have motivational issues, which may be a result of Computer Science just not being the best major for me.

In regards to the workload, my first semester was pretty easy, but the difficulty increased quite a bit during my second semester. I'm currently taking a class on data structures and a class on discrete math, which isn't too good of a combination. Not to mention, both of my professors have accents and are from Europe, so I don't exactly get a whole lot out of the lectures.

Yeah My differential equations professor has an extremely thick chineese accent... Its very very hard to understand a word he says often times. He is a forgiving grader though thankfully.

 

[vordhosbn]

In my experience:

Electronics
Computer Science
Physics
Medicine
Molecular Biology
Maths
Chemistry
Psychology
Law
Biochemistry

BTW: I do Sociology :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol So fun to watch other people stressing about work when I have so little.

Spoiler

but then they'll get a good degree

I agree with that list, but I think you should take Psychology out..unless it's like a doctorate or something.

Yeah My differential equations professor has an extremely thick chineese accent... Its very very hard to understand a word he says often times. He is a forgiving grader though thankfully.

Whoa same, but I actually got used to it after 12 weeks.

 

[TheLastFantasy]

Why isn't anyone mentioning Medicine?

 

[liquidspeed]

Why isn't anyone mentioning Medicine?

I think a couple of people have.... btw a friend of mine just declared himself an Engineering & pre-med doubble major..... he was already struggling with engineering so I was like" Wat are you doing???"

 

[liquidspeed]

I agree with that list, but I think you should take Psychology out..unless it's like a doctorate or something.



Whoa same, but I actually got used to it after 12 weeks.

Its weird... some days it is possible to understand some things he says.. other days its like wtf? It also seems to get worse when people ask questions

 

[Femmeworth]

I think a couple of people have.... btw a friend of mine just declared himself an Engineering & pre-med doubble major..... he was already struggling with engineering so I was like" Wat are you doing???"

I think your friend has a death wish.

 

[vordhosbn]

Its weird... some days it is possible to understand some things he says.. other days its like wtf? It also seems to get worse when people ask questions

Oh damn exactly! it's a lot more understandable when he's talking about concepts concerning the lecture but as soon as someone asks a question I honestly can't follow.

 

[liquidspeed]

I think your friend has a death wish.

I know...... I about killed myself doing electromagnetic physics and statics last semester ( as in a week before finals I looked up and realized I hadnt had dinner in 3 days) I made it out with an A- and he ended up with a c-.....

 

[JdFoX187]

Journalism/English was enough for me. I know some people who were math majors and I wanted to shoot myself when I looked at some of the things they did for homework. Then they look at me and want to shoot themselves when they heard about some of the papers I've had to write, or just writing on a daily basis.

 

[liquidspeed]

Journalism/English was enough for me. I know some people who were math majors and I wanted to shoot myself when I looked at some of the things they did for homework. Then they look at me and want to shoot themselves when they heard about some of the papers I've had to write, or just writing on a daily basis.

yeah I dont think I could read all that material fast enough lol.... I took a jouranlism class in highschool and I thought it was really hard despite doing well in most other forms of english.

 

[J2 Cool]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZO9i3sV1Mk#t=8m12s

 

[dinazimmerman]

Journalism/English was enough for me. I know some people who were math majors and I wanted to shoot myself when I looked at some of the things they did for homework. Then they look at me and want to shoot themselves when they heard about some of the papers I've had to write, or just writing on a daily basis.

I find mathematics to be difficult but doable... even enjoyable when there's no pressure to resolve problems quickly like during an exam. But I also find writing papers to be quite difficult. I'm not a horrible writer, but I'm very slow. I also overthink things, so it takes me a while to organize my thoughts in preparation for writing anything. The only time I enjoy writing is, again, when I have ample time to set my ideas straight. Overall, I do believe the difficulty of doing mathematics is a great deal higher than that of writing, but writing does present its unique difficulties and, for me, it also involves a lot of stress. Also, I feel like reaching a respectable level of competency or proficiency at writing is, for the most part, easy, but becoming very good is accordingly very difficult. On the other hand, learning mathematics at any level is just difficult for a large group of people. These are, of course, personal observations, and I could very well be generalizing incorrectly.

 

[ajim]

med
engineering
design
sciences

 

[tokkun]

Philosophy.

Yes and no. It's no cakewalk to read Hegel. On the other hand, the overall workload and grading don't seem to be very harsh compared to other majors. It takes a very sharp mind to be really good at it, but you don't have to be really good at it to get through the major.

 

[Tater Tot]

Journalism/English was enough for me. I know some people who were math majors and I wanted to shoot myself when I looked at some of the things they did for homework. Then they look at me and want to shoot themselves when they heard about some of the papers I've had to write, or just writing on a daily basis.

I graduated with a Journalism Degree. It was not very challenging, but compared to my architecture classes. It was a walk in the park.

 

[perryfarrell]

MATH

In terms of sheer brainpower required, math beats all.

Beats physics, languages, philosophy, or applied stuff.

 

[FlawlessCowboy]

I would say Philosophy.

I'm taking "Intro to Philosophy" right now, and that crap is rough. I can't imagine trying to major in it.

 

[zaxor0]

I would say Philosophy.

I'm taking "Intro to Philosophy" right now, and that crap is rough. I can't imagine trying to major in it.

If you have any trouble with anything specific you can pm and I can give some advice, I'm about to graduate with a philosophy degree.

 

[SaskBoy]

Commerce.

Only because I have to work with stupid people and take dumb classes like Business Communications.

Next year I can take more Finance and Accounting classes so it should be better.

 

[Sol..]

MATH

In terms of sheer brainpower required, math beats all.

Beats physics, languages, philosophy, or applied stuff.

I would agree if labs and capstones weren't involved. Building something big and inevitably stupid ends up being 10 times harder than any math class i've ever taken. It sucks to work so hard towards something that ends up being so simple.

still. med seems to be the hardest.

 

[Yaweee]

Why isn't anyone mentioning Medicine?

Med school is something you do after your undergraduate degree in the US, so it isn't really a "major". "pre-med" normally just refers to Bio or Physiology, which isn't that brutal of a degree.



Math is a weird subject in how much of it you need to take for other majors. Physics (and presumably CS) majors will place you half way to a double in math.

 

[Loxley]

I guess I represent Art School-GAF, so my choice would be Biomedical Illustration

Spoiler

Which is totally not my major. Nope, no bias here. Anyway...

.

Also, Comic Art is a pretty brutal major, Illustration is arguably the most competitive, Industrial Design is also extremely demanding.

 

[Peronthious]

I would agree if labs and capstones weren't involved. Building something big and inevitably stupid ends up being 10 times harder than any math class i've ever taken. It sucks to work so hard towards something that ends up being so simple.

still. med seems to be the hardest.

Look at some of the high level math articles on wikipedia and come back. I tried to go through a bunch of things on higher dimensional analysis and all I got out of it was a headache.

 

[Ferga]

how about economics?

 

[Yaweee]

how about economics?

I hear post-grad (PhD) degrees in it are rough as hell, but that undergrad degrees aren't exceptionally bad.

Look at some of the high level math articles on wikipedia and come back. I tried to go through a bunch of things on higher dimensional analysis and all I got out of it was a headache.

The highest-level stuff isn't necessarily what you cover in an undergraduate program. Most of the super complicated stuff in any given field will only be covered in graduate courses, or you might even have to learn the material outside of a class.

 

[Macmanus]

Communications.

 

[Vox-Pop]

Writing about the awesomeness of Francisco Toledo is very hard.

/artschool

 

[Lonely1]

I would agree if labs and capstones weren't involved. Building something big and inevitably stupid ends up being 10 times harder than any math class i've ever taken. It sucks to work so hard towards something that ends up being so simple.

still. med seems to be the hardest.

The hardest exam I ever presented was for Topology IV. (Toplogy of Continuums). Only 5 questions. It started at 8:00 AM and I finished it (or rather, gave up) at 10:00 PM . I got a 60%...

 

[Lamel]

I'll echo what Corky said and say it's on a different plane (hurr) of experience. For another analogy, it'd be like a mechanical engineer being a professional driver. Even if it was similar, I'm not sure why you'd want to be an airline pilot if you have an engineering degree. The pay scales are worlds apart.

It's always been a sort of "dream" of mine to fly an airplane, but yeah, the reason I stay away from it is because of what you said. Engineering degree is much more "valuable". Then again, if you work for an airline for a while, you can earn in the 6 digits.

 

[tokkun]

Look at some of the high level math articles on wikipedia and come back. I tried to go through a bunch of things on higher dimensional analysis and all I got out of it was a headache.

You can say the same thing about trying to read Gravity's Rainbow. Does that mean that American Literature is the most difficult subject?

As I said before, the difficulty of any major depends on your personal aptitude and background.

 

[Vaporak]

I would agree if labs and capstones weren't involved. Building something big and inevitably stupid ends up being 10 times harder than any math class i've ever taken. It sucks to work so hard towards something that ends up being so simple.

still. med seems to be the hardest.

Why do you think there isn't a capstone project for mathematics majors? I don't know about other schools but mine at least has one.

 

[Thagomizer]

Med school is something you do after your undergraduate degree in the US, so it isn't really a "major". "pre-med" normally just refers to Bio or Physiology, which isn't that brutal of a degree.



Math is a weird subject in how much of it you need to take for other majors. Physics (and presumably CS) majors will place you half way to a double in math.

Organic Chemistry, Genetics, Biochemistry, and anything involving Cladistics say fuck no.

Spoiler

I have to take those classes all in the same term, because my school is evil.

http://www.ambion.com/tools/pathway/loadImage.php?pos=tl&im=images/InsulinReceptorPathway.jpg
The explanation for the above. I will have to memorize this for Cell Regulation in a few years. Among others.

 

[Peronthious]

You can say the same thing about trying to read Gravity's Rainbow. Does that mean that American Literature is the most difficult subject?

As I said before, the difficulty of any major depends on your personal aptitude and background.

I have nothing wrong with that argument. Anyone who can get through that and thoroughly criticize it, or do the same with Ulysses for that matter, is well deserving of whatever praise they receive.

 

[Dennis]

MATH

In terms of sheer brainpower required, math beats all.

Beats physics, languages, philosophy, or applied stuff.

You are absolutely correct, but I suspect most of the posters who deny this fact, have never gotten so far in Math that they encounter the really high levels of abstraction.
This is a brick wall for a lot of people in terms of how far they can go in Math.
Most people can become proficient in something like entry-level Calculus simply by learning to use the formulas by rote learning etc. But that is not really what Math is about.

 

[norinrad]

I've only done 5 weeks of Computer Science so far and I already feel like shit. Discrete Maths can go straight to hell too.

Jeez welcome to the club, I'm hating it with Passion. I probably should have chosen some easy major and fucking lie my way through life with it, but that would be unhealthy. sigh

 

[cwmartin]

to OP: Props to you man! I try not to underestimate the power and knowledge engineers hold in this day and age.

how about economics?

As for me I discovered Economics in college and never looked back, I loved every minute of economics as an undergrad.

 

[zoku88]

MATH

In terms of sheer brainpower required, math beats all.

Beats physics, languages, philosophy, or applied stuff.

I don't agree, because math usually doesn't have the problem solving component that physics has. It's more of being clever enough to figure out which theorems can be used in what way to prove something. Hard, but not as hard as solving problems in physics.

 

[Witchfinder General]

I guess I represent Art School-GAF, so my choice would be Biomedical Illustration

Spoiler

Which is totally not my major. Nope, no bias here. Anyway...

.

Also, Comic Art is a pretty brutal major, Illustration is arguably the most competitive, Industrial Design is also extremely demanding.

Hey, I'm an Illustrator too! I've considered medical illustration (I've even had a few drawings published) but I don't find the subject matter as interesting as I used to.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

MATH

In terms of sheer brainpower required, math beats all.

Beats physics, languages, philosophy, or applied stuff.

I can tell you that Physics is much harder than math, having majored in both. I was comfortably taking graduate math courses as an undergrad and that was really the only time that it started to become harder than my physics undergrad classes. All of my double major friends that were Physics + something else seemed to think their physics major was by far more demanding. I've yet to meet someone who did Physics + Math and found math harder.

 

[karasu]

music, anything performance related.