<p>The stereotype that engineering majors have to work harder than humanities majors is so strong that I think the burden of proof is on the person who says otherwise.</p>
<p>^ I think the proof lies with the one who makes the claim. And stereotypes are definitely good proof :rolleyes:.</p>
<p>I never said it was proof, but for the sake of a forum I don’t feel at all uneasy about using stereotypes as bases to make arguments. I’m open to persuasion, but I don’t expect you have anything constructive…</p>
<p>Isn’t 5/ semester the normal amount? </p>
<p><< Ignorant Quarter system sufferer.</p>
<p>The reason science/engineering programs in undergrad are often harder than humanities is not because the subjects themselves are so easy, it’s because of the way the college structures the programs.</p>
<p>For example, in my college, majors such as English, Politics, History, etc require about 40 credits for the major. Meanwhile, degrees such as Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, etc are more specialized and sometimes require twice as many required credits for the major - for example, my major is nearly 80 credits. The average GPA’s in these majors are generally lower, and the classes are curved, so a certain percentage is guaranteed to get C’s and lower. In Humanities classes, there are no curves in my college, so often the whole class gets A’s and B’s with 2 people getting C or below. </p>
<p>I’m honestly not trying to bash your major, please don’t get me wrong. I understand those types of courses are reading/writing intense and require a lot of work too. But I completely understand why they’re perceived as easier in most colleges once you look at required credit number and grading policy.</p>
<p>^ There is a huge difference between an “easy major” and easy classes. Yes, I understand that humanities type majors require different credit requirements than math/science/etc but that does not mean that those courses are necessarily easier. </p>
<p>It is also much harder to curve humanities classes because they are not normally test based, and it is very hard to curve papers. However, if most of your class is getting As then there is pretty rampant grade inflation. That is unfortunate :(.</p>
<p>^ No, the majority of the class don’t get A’s in humanities, but the average is usually a B around here. In my chem and physics classes, the average is usually a 50 and grades need to be adjusted. 25% of the class gets C+ or below. My humanities friends have fewer required classes, less time spent in class (no 5 hour labs) and higher grades. So in comparison, you could say they’re relatively easier. Not “easy” but “less difficult” i guess. Maybe at your college it’s different, I don’t know. I’m sure it varies.
Let me put it this way: Let’s pretend that Humanities and Engineering are equally difficult in coursework - the class difficulty is exactly the same. Well, if English requires 40 credits and Engineering 90 and everything else is the same, wouldn’t you say the 90 credit one is harder? Same difficulty but over twice the work.</p>
<p>Yeah but we’re comparing semesters, not majors, so major requirements don’t matter.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. Everyone needs the same amount of credits to graduate, no? At my school, in addition to the ~60 credits we need for most humanities majors, we are required to take roughly 30-40 credits of 300-400 level classes outside of our program. The other engineering majors require no such outside course work. In that way, we are both taking roughly the same amount of upper-level classes, even if they are not necessarily in our major. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that humanities classes and engineering classes are exactly the same. I am just sick of everyone saying they’re oh-so-easy when most of them are just basing it on the one writing class they had as a freshmen. Different people have different strengths. I know that I personally am not a math/science person (even though they’re easy for me, they’re very boring and I would quickly lose interest and not do well) and there are people that are not humanities/arts people. There were chem and engineering majors in one of my humanities classes last semester that said that this class was their hardest one, while it was one of my easiest. Different people simply have different strengths. One is not necessarily more difficult than the other, and it is just complete crap that people look down on humanities majors so much.</p>
<p>I’m not saying they’re easy romani. I know a higher level english class isn’t the same as the gen ed I took freshmen year, anymore than a rocks-for-jocks course is indicative of advanced geology. I would say subjects like foreign language (esp russian, chinese and arabic) are extremely difficult, more so than certain sci majors. and obviously some subjects just come more naturally to certain people so it’s all relative. btw, i’ve only ever seen people on CC look “down” on majors, in the real world no one cares lol.</p>
<p>@the OP - you didn’t mention how many credits the 5 classes were. If it’s over 18 and you have a part time job or internship, it will be hard. otherwise go for it; 5 classes and working less than 15 hours a week isn’t bad.</p>
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<p>Examples just from this thread: </p>
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<p>The real world is much different than CC lol (in SOOO many ways). Yes, “humanities” majors are “looked down” on here. Not just in this forum either. :(</p>
<p>^ No jobs on the side. History/English classes will just be regular amount of credits… in general, humanities and social sciences classes are about 3 credits each?</p>
<p>that is true. However, it also depends on the professor on how hard each class is.</p>
<p>Alright, so in general… 2 history courses, 3 english courses, and a music course a semester should still leave me with a good amount of free time?</p>
<p>Well that’s slightly different from your original question.</p>
<p>^ Once again, entirely depends on the credits you are taking (6 courses could be anywhere from 6 credits to 24 credits) and it depends on your profs. I am taking 3 humanities courses, 1 anthropology course, and a language and I have absolutely no free time.</p>
<p>@ James: I realize. Was just wondering.</p>
<p>Alright… so I have a good idea that this is at least possible. Thank you people.</p>
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<p>Every humanities course I have ever seen has been 3 credit hours (except maybe a foreign language with lab). People are taking 18 hours in Engineering, others are taking 15 or 16 hours with many of them classes they couldn’t care less about or aren’t gifted in, what could be easier than taking 15 hours (The minimum at many places to graduate in 4 years) in the field(s) you enjoy most?!!</p>
<p>^ Huh?!?</p>
<p>There are such thing as humanities and music courses that are 1 credit, and there are many that are four credits. Six courses can vary greatly depending on credits, profs, level, etc. Which is why I said it DEPENDS.</p>
<p>What did the 15 credits in the field you enjoy most have to do with what I said?</p>
<p>The language course i’m takeing is 5 credit</p>
<p>And my other three are 3 each.</p>
<p>I feel swamped with just that.</p>
<p>Also, you should not compare other’s majors on how hard they are. YOU may not think there hard, but others do. The reverse is true as well.</p>