<p>I'm an English concentrator, and I wouldn't consider English to be a difficult concentration, not by a long shot...but then I know science concentrators who say that proofs are easy but writing English papers is really hard, so I guess it's all a matter of personal strengths and weaknesses. The way I see it, though, English isn't that bad. You almost never have to memorize anything, and you never have an English paper that doesn't compile. Worst comes to worst, you can BS something and get a B-. It's basically impossible to fail an English class if you do the work at all, which can't be said for some fields. Plus, English papers tend to be shorter, and the reading loads lighter, than in other humanities disciplines (this is because they expect you to do a careful job on the papers and to actually complete the reading).</p>
<p>In terms of cores, there are 2 required courses for English concentrators (used to be 3, now they've given you more of a choice on the Am. lit requirement) and their quality/difficulty varies a lot based on who happens to be teaching them that year. But the professors for those courses rotate pretty frequently, and you can take them at any point in your college career, so they're not that much of an obstacle if you plan carefully. Plus, 2 courses really isn't that much of a requirement--Physics, for example, has 6 required courses--so English really lets you off pretty light.</p>