The Hardest Majors – Ranked by Millions of College Students

Author’s Note: This article is based on a longer research paper. The paper can be accessed for details.

In this article, I cover how we can know that some majors are harder than others.

Then I rank 118 majors for difficulty based on millions of student ratings.

Finally, I go over how a hard major differs from an easy one, and what all this means for what you should major in (hint – don’t pick an easy major).

Are Some Majors Harder than Others?

Are some majors harder than others? And if so, how can we assess which are hard and which are easy?

As for the first question, the evidence is strong that some majors really do require much more work than others.

Consider these facts:

• The National Survey of Student Engagement estimates weekly study time by major and consistently finds enormous differences. In 2016, the average physics student studied 19 hours per week while the sociology student studied 13 hours per week. This is a 6 hour per week gap, in other words, the physics student studied about 50% more than the sociology student. These differences are not trivial – over 4 years, this amounts to 800 more hours of study time. These staggering differences in study time are consistent for all the years for which we have data. 
• One study shows that biology students get better grades in courses they take outside their own major, except in other STEM fields. If grading standards across majors were the same, this wouldn’t happen (why would anyone do worse in courses they love?), since it does, it tells us biology courses are harder than non-STEM courses.
• Finally, non-STEM majors tend to give out higher average GPAs than STEM majors. This is in spite of non-STEM majors spending much less time studying than STEM majors.

So far I’ve shown that rigor is not equal across majors. With whatever metric we use, STEM majors are more rigorous than non-STEM. But in this article, we’re trying to see which majors are hardest.

I turn to this next.

Study Hours Aren’t the Best Way to Measure Difficulty

To estimate the difficulty of a major we could just use weekly study hours, but there are several issues with this.

First, time spent studying in a group is likely factored in. But if you’ve ever walked across a college campus you know that group studying does involve a group, but little studying. In other words, easier majors can afford to spend their time inefficiently because they have a lot of free time. This is Parkinson’s law at work and it makes study time a noisy measure of difficulty.

Second, just because an assignment takes a lot of time doesn’t mean it’s difficult. Architecture takes the number one slot on weekly study time each year. But this is probably because of all the time required to do the drafting. Presumably, once one knows how to use the software and the rules of architectural design, the drawing itself is not difficult, just time-consuming. Things that are difficult do tend to take more time, but they are not the same.

In short, study time is a good indication of difficulty but does have weaknesses.

Measuring Difficulty Using Student Ratings of Difficulty

Instead, I use the ratings of course difficulty by college students themselves, generated as they rate courses they’ve completed. In these ratings, college students rate their courses on a 1-5 scale of difficulty. From these ratings, I calculate the percentage of professors in each major that are at least of average difficulty (3 or higher).

This data has the advantage of being extensive. My difficulty ratings are based on data I collected from over 200 universities, over 150,000 professors, and almost 3 million student ratings, covering 118 majors.

I validate that these difficulty ratings correspond to reality. For example, the list below shows that STEM majors do have the highest difficulty rating, as we’d expect to see. Also, difficult majors do tend to study more.

In short – the students’ ratings of difficulty appear to be quite accurate.

Disciplines Ranked By Difficulty

1. STEM
   • 63% of professors are difficult
2. Business
   • 56% of professors are difficult
3. Health
   • 48% of professors are difficult
4. Social Sciences
   • 46% of professors are difficult
5. Liberal Arts
   • 44% of professors are difficult
6. Education
   • 36% of professors are difficult

118 Majors Ranked By Difficulty

According to the data, Biochemical Sciences is the hardest major in America today, while the Elementary Education major was rated as the easiest.

You may also notice that difficult majors tend to be high-paying, and majors rated as easy, low paying. I discuss this more below.

Hint: Check out the links for extra details about each major such as common occupations, lifetime earnings, and much more.

What does it mean for a major to be hard?

I’ve taken courses from almost 20 fields during my time in college, and these are my observations on the difference between courses in hard and easy majors.

Hard majors require a lot of effort. This means more than studying a lot. It means studying with intense focus and concentration – which is mentally exhausting.

Hard majors will give many long assignments that will require you to give 100% of your effort. But even after trying your hardest, much to your frustration, there will be problems that you will be unable to solve and will need help from classmates or even the professor.

As a practical example, the big term paper in my 300-level philosophy class required less effort than just one engineering assignment – and I knew very little about philosophy.

Hard majors give exams that expect you to have mastered the material. It’s not enough to memorize how to solve the homework problems, you will need to have learned it well enough to apply it to related but brand new problems. Moreover, the grading is strict and the curve is less generous.

With easy majors, you can get away with cramming the day before the exam, to quickly catch up on the material you’ve been ignoring. You will not get away with this in a difficult major. The material builds in layers, and each layer takes time to learn and practice. Thus, difficult majors require consistent gradual effort throughout the semester.

In short, difficult majors require you to learn more material and master it to a higher level than easy majors do.

Implications of Major Difficulty for Your Choice of Major

1 – Difficult Majors Develop More Skills

You may have heard people refer to a college degree as just a “piece of paper”. This perception probably comes from easy majors as the educational value of these majors appears to be very low.

On the other hand, if you want to learn a lot and come out of college with a ton of skills that you can take onto the job market immediately – pick a harder major.

2 – Difficult Majors Earn More

Related to the earlier point, the marketplace rewards workers according to the skills they have. My research confirms that difficult majors earn more than easy ones. This is true within every field: for example, hard liberal arts majors earn more than easier liberal arts majors. Thus if you want college to pay off in terms of a career, you will want to focus on harder majors.

Check out this post for average earnings by college major.

But Will I be able to Handle a Difficult Major?

A common fear students have when choosing a major is that they’re not smart enough to handle a difficult one.

Fortunately, you’re not alone and this fear is common. I experienced it myself and know how crippling it can be.

The reality is though, that this fear is baseless. Don’t let difficulty stop you in your choice of major. If you’re willing to work hard, chances are you’ll make it through just fine, just like I did.

Here are some final tips to make difficult coursework more manageable.

Embrace Difficulty

First, recognize that the difficulty you’re experiencing is a good thing. It’s a sign that you are learning and developing new skills and abilities. One of the key characteristics of deliberate practice (the way mental models and skills are developed) is that it is challenging and intense.

Understanding this may help you embrace the difficult courses and learn to enjoy the strain.

Study Effectively

Second, there are highly effective study strategies out there that make the learning process 10X more efficient and enjoyable. One of the best works on this is Cal Newport’s How to Become a Straight-A Student, which has transformed my studying experience. I write about effective learning techniques here.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found this article helpful.

Have a question or comment for me? I’d love to hear from you below.