<p>Does anyone know which college majors have the lowest GPAs, which ones have the highest, and those in between?</p>
<p>Engineering is probably one of the lowest because of difficulty.</p>
<p>I’m an institutional researcher, and my best guess is that it would vary from one college to the next. Some engineering departments might have really rigorous or just plain difficult programs that produce low GPAs, other departments might have really lax programs that produce high GPAs. There’s also the issue of the overall average GPA for any given institution. The average GPA from the engineering departments at two universities might be identical, but if the average GPA across all majors is .5 points higher at one university, then clearly the departments are not equal.</p>
<p>Since I presume you’re asking this question in context of thinking about what you personally would like to major in, let me offer one other insight. Research from Smart, Feldman, and Ethington (year escapes me, book title is “Academic Disciplines”) confirms that a student’s success is FAR more predicated on how well the chosen major matches the student’s abilities and personality than on the major itself. In other words, major in an area that you’re interested in, your skills line up, and that you feel like you fit in. That’s the major where you’ll develop the most.</p>