<p>Just out of curiousity, but how would you rank the hardest and easiest majors at Penn?
(this by no means, should decide anyone's major haha)</p>
<p>I think you’re looking for Africana Studies.</p>
<p>Hardest: The engineering majors (and probably also the business).</p>
<p>This isn’t really a valid question, as difficulty is relative. (No doubt, everyone will put science/math/econ, but some people I know don’t seem to have issues with those majors.) If you’re wondering which major has the fewest number of course requirements, look it up.</p>
<p>If you take the easy way out Wharton and CAS econ can be pretty easy. If you take the toughest way, Wharton and CAS econ can be really hard. Science and engineering majors tend not to have easy ways.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the person.</p>
<p>I’m a History major, and my roommate from last year is, by his own admission, a (relatively) poor writer, and so would struggle to get As in some of the History classes that I’ve taken. He just naturally isn’t a humanities person.</p>
<p>Whereas if I were to major in Finance, his major, I’m sure that I would struggle to get As, just because of my personal preferences (and innate abilities?).</p>
<p>I think this is generally true; I know of math/science majors who shudder at having to write even short (<5 pg.) papers. Likewise, I’m sure an English major would gasp at the sight of a calculus problem set.</p>
<p>In terms of amount of work, though, I think there’s an objective consensus that students in the Engineering school have more work than students in the other schools. However, that doesn’t mean that Engineering students necessarily consider their classes harder or get lower grades than students of other majors (although this might be true). If you’re in the Engineering school, you probably have a strong math/science background and can do well in the classes.</p>
<p>I agree. If a science loving, math loving person who isn’t strong in grammar and writing will think that being an English major is the hardest thing in the world. And that goes both way. If a humanities person who likes literature and doesn’t exactly like formulas would find a engineering major ridiculous.</p>
<p>yeah but people in math and science are better in the humanities than humanities majors are in math/science. That’s why you don’t see “Shakespeare for Engineers” for example. Also since most people at ivies did well in the SAT and verbal is at a lot higher level than math*, I would think ivy engineers are pretty darn good at writing papers. </p>
<p>*while SAT I math is probably at the 9th or 10th grade level, it’s far from trivial to get a top score</p>
<p>I got a 760 for my SAT math, but it was my lowest score and I fervently hate math and science, so it must depend on the person. I mean, for me, I’m sure no CAS econ would be easy.</p>
<p>with one voice: I’m glad to hear from a fellow humanities person. What did you take for the math and science requirement? The requirement is very light, but still, I have to plan!</p>
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<p>Same here. Except I got a 780 math (muahahah!!) That means i’m 20 points better than you as a human being, of course ;)</p>
<p>lol at knowing your SAT scores after graduating college
<em>cries because I’ll still remember mine</em></p>
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And I’m 10 points better than you as a human being.</p>
<p>It’s all relative. The only reason I’d consider Engineering or Wharton difficult is the rigidity of the curriculum. There isn’t as much breathing room for fluff courses and stuff. If you’re taking 4 upper level humanities courses it’s probably just as hard for an English person as 4 upper level engineering courses are for a science person. However, a CAS curriculum is flexible enough that you should never have to take a ton of upper levels in a semester unless you reall want to. With engineering you have to take several upper level classes every semester or you won’t graduate on time.</p>
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<p>For the Formal Reasoning requirement, I took Math 103, and for the Physical World requirement I took Environmental Science. Still have to fulfill Living World…
I got a B+ in both because, as I said, I’m better at humanities classes and writing papers than college-level math (although I did fine with math (to follow the trend: 790 on SAT) and science in high school. (Plus, a lot of mathematically adept Wharton kids dropped down into my Math 103 class for an easy grade, making the curve harder 
)</p>
<p>For Living World, take Ling058 for Spring semester with me! Have you heard anything about it? It doesn’t sound too mathy, so it should be good.</p>
<p>hardest: computer science, engineering in general, chem, phys, math.
easiest: uhm, a lot in CAS.</p>
<p>Also, I disagree with Venkat and I don’t think there’s enough variability in the Econ major to make it really hard, unless you take doctoral classes.</p>
<p>CAS graduation requirement is 32 cus. </p>
<p>Wharton is 37. </p>
<p>Engineering is 40 or 41, depending on major. </p>
<p>That should give you some perspective…</p>
<p>^CAS majors like Biochem are 36 credits, so it’s pushing Wharton…</p>
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Well, I’m also hoping to take one doctoral class senior year :). I wouldn’t call CAS econ tougher than engineering, but if you take 220-222, honors 212, and stat 430-431 (instead of econ 103) it can be slightly more difficult than what most of my friends are planning to take. It can at least give Wharton a run for its money except for Stat concentrators.</p>
<p>^^^ umm there’s more than just biochem. fine arts, PPE, humanistic philosophy, romance languages. these would be examples of less science-y majors that require 36 to graduate.</p>