<p>Could someone please tell me what its like for both majors?
They both spark my interest so if you know anything about these programs could you please let me know. I know they are both top-notch but I want to know more about their social life and how much free time they get to do the things they want to do.</p>
<p>*i meant to say student instead of stued. need a new keyboard</p>
<p>Pretty much a very different curriculum. You should look online at the course requirements for each area (you’ll need to figure out what kind of engineer). I don’t know that anyone can tell you that one’s easier than the other, but Engineering will require some intense math, physics, and engineering courses that will be difficult and time comsuming; business will likely be much more reading and writing and working on larger-scale “projects” and also time consuming. </p>
<p>Of course, you should select based on which interests you more and which you could see yourself doing in life past college, not based on which one will offer a more “fun” social life in college with more free time… By looking at the course descriptions for both, that’s a starting point. I do believe there tends to be more “weeding out” classes early on for engineering students than there is for business, but that’s more of a hunch. I suspect that the engineers will tell you than engineering is much tougher and the business majors will tell you that all the work for business classes is more tougher and more difficult. It’s a little like comparing apples and oranges, though…</p>
<p>If your goal is to be a top student, you’d be working hard with either one. If your goal is to strive for fair-to-mediocre, my beliefs are that you could be a mediocre business student easier (and with less effort) than being a mediocre engineering student. I’m curious to what current students have to say on this.</p>
<p>“If your goal is to be a top student, you’d be working hard with either one. If your goal is to strive for fair-to-mediocre, my beliefs are that you could be a mediocre business student easier (and with less effort) than being a mediocre engineering student.”</p>
<p>I agree to some extent. </p>
<p>It’s true that if you are looking to VOLUNTARILY EXCEL, those looking to excel always put in the most effort possible, no matter what the class, so the difference in your free time is not going to be different. </p>
<p>But unlike astrophysicsmom I do believe you can say which major REQUIRES less work to get As in. </p>
<p>I would say it’s generally easier to get As in the business school than in the engineering school. I say this because some of the smartest kids I knew in HS are struggling to get Bs and sometimes Cs in engineering class, whereas the smartest kids I knew in HS are struggling to get As and sometimes Bs in business classes. Of course, /how/ much easier the business classes are, and how much math versus writing they involve, depends on your major and particular skills. For example, finance would be math heavy, and the finance majors I know hardly have any classes with much reading/writing involved. It would be different for a marketing major.</p>
<p>Now keep in mind, since it’s easier to get As in the biz school, you’re going to have to do more to stand out and employers are going to hold your GPA to a higher standard. Ex., a 3.2 from the engineering school would still be fairly impressive, but a 3.2 from the business school? Not so much. A 2.7 might be an acceptable GPA for an engineering major, but a 2.7 would look pretty bad from a business major (so, you better have a better than average resume under your belt or apply to jobs that aren’t looking at your GPA!). So in the end, maybe it’s all a wash. Doesn’t matter if the engineering classes are “harder” to get As in, you are also given more “slack” when it eventually comes time to apply for a job. And doesn’t matter if business school classes are “easier” to get As in, because you’re expected to have more of them. </p>
<p>I also agree with astrophyiscsmom that it’s a HORRENDOUS idea to choose a major based on “how much free time you’ll have.” The coursework is indeed EXTREMELY different - even if both classes involve math, the TYPE of math and the real world problems you’re solving/the application of the math are going to be totally different. And the careers afterwards are equally very different. Both schools will afford you with enough free time to have friends and socialize (maybe a little less for engineers!) if you manage your time well, and if you don’t manage your time well, you’ll be screwed for either one.</p>
<p>Putting aside the different flavors between the two degrees - Engineering is a very challenging degree for people who likes math and science. Very time consuming and requires a demanding amount of your time. Your college life will be much less stressful as a business major, especially at a school like MD which is well rounded in all programs. i.e. not just a technical school.</p>
<p>Im an accounting major at Maryland and my twin brother is an engineering major lol. I think anyone could be a mediocre business student but you have to get into the school first. Once you are in you could probably coast by with C’s but then it would be really hard to get a job when you graduate. Regardless it will be easier for me to graduate with something like a 3.5 gpa than it will for brother to graduate with a 2.7 or even to make it through in engineering. The engineering school at Maryland beats the life out of you and I am glad I didn’t end up going that route. That being said if my brother somehow graduates with an engineering degree he will probably make the same or more the first year out of college even though I will have made mostly A’s and B’s while he will have a C- average haha</p>
<p>I studied both simultaneously for about a year.</p>
<p>Business: easier, the people in it are fairly run of the mill (normal but kind of boring sometimes, quirky individuals are underrepresented), the building itself is extremely nice, the class topics weren’t very interesting to me, and I guess what caused me to eventually drop the business major was that it felt like everyone was just trying to secure financial security for themselves, meaning there was little entrepreneurship and just a lot of kids wanting to make a decent amount of money and head back to suburbia. Sorry to offend anyone, that’s certainly not the case for all business school students, but the overwhelming majority to me struck me like that</p>
<p>Engineering: more difficult, the people in it can be a bit snobby, people are more quirky, kim building is nice but you won’t have many (or any) classes in it, more of a feeling of purpose and that you can accomplish something meaningful if you want, more opportunities for undergrads (lots of professors take undergrads into their labs, whereas in the business school you’re gonna have to go outside of campus to find internships and even then unless you have top grades they’ll be difficult to snag), professors are more involved and accessible</p>
<p>this is all just personal opinion though! everyone has different experiences!</p>
<p>^ Agree w/ the above poster; Business is easier (and I think more snobbier, considering the people who I met in my prev. visits to UMD). Engineering gives one a sense of purpose, as stated earlier. It’s just much harder and rewarding. Go to <a href=“http://www.ece.umd.edu/Academic/Under/bsee.html[/url]”>http://www.ece.umd.edu/Academic/Under/bsee.html</a> and see for yourself the academic reqs…</p>