What are the hardest and easiest majors? What majors are most appealing? I asked several students what they thought were the hardest/easiest and most attractive/least attractive majors. Despite their different classes and majors, there seemed to be a common consensus in their answers.
“I would say the hardest major at Andrews is chemical engineering because of the super intense classes and labs that they have to do. The easiest would probably be business administration, simply because the concepts you are learning are ones that are quite easy to grasp.”
- Enzo Bacchiocchi (sophomore, finance)
“I think the hardest would probably be one of the STEM majors, especially something like chemistry. The easiest major would probably be an art major; you literally just paint things and take pictures. Least attractive major, mathematics. It’s boring and nerdy. What are you gonna do with math, be a teacher? The most attractive major is business. The world is run by business.”
- Edward Cervantes (freshman, accounting)
“The most attractive degree, obviously, I would say, is aviation. You get to fly planes thousands of feet in the air, hundreds of miles away, and I think it’s pretty sweet being in the clouds and seeing God’s creation from a different point of view. The least attractive, or the hardest, I would say anything STEM: engineering, biology, chemistry, pre-med—gross. I don’t like science and it seems pretty hard.”
- Luke Mularczyk (sophomore, music and aviation)
“The most attractive major is biology. I really like that biology is really diverse. You’re not only understanding the breakdown of humans, but it’s literally the study of life, so it’s really cool to see how our creator made all these things. I also like that we can understand the way we were made as humans. I couldn’t see myself going into teaching or education because I really can’t see myself dealing with teaching children and them running all over the place.”
- Nathan Elanko (freshman, biology)
“I think the easiest major … is business because every time I see a business major, they never have homework. The hardest major, I might have to say [is] architecture because they are always in the architecture building working on like a project or something, and it’s always like a big project that’s a big [percentage] of their grade, so I think that might be one of the hardest ones. I also think it is one of the most attractive ones as well because from what I’ve heard, a lot of the professors are actually really good, and like I wouldn’t say world-renowned but like people from outside the Adventist community know about the Andrews architecture department, which is not really common for Adventist schools in general.
- Callan Lewis-Balfour (junior, music and English)
“I believe both engineering and architecture to be of the harder majors out there, as well as nursing and biochem because of the sheer amount of time and dedication you have to give for them. On the easier side, I would say business or education since they seem to have a more relaxed schedule and you rarely hear them complain about their workload.”
- Guillermo Acevedo (senior, architecture)
“Some of the majors that I think are attractive are definitely theology, music, as well as mathematics. Those are the ones that really attract me. The reason why I really enjoy the mathematics major is because it goes in line with the study of God, as math is a constant within nature and I think of God as the great mathematician, so we can see mathematics in everything as well as there are fundamental laws in which God has constructed in order for this world to be intact and for things to run the way that they are, even in a cursed world. As well as music and art because you can see it in nature. … The ones that I would see myself least doing is probably something in the line of construction or personal training since they are not really my area of most interest.”
- José Villaverde (junior, theology)
“I think the hardest major is… well it all depends on the person, because depending on your time management and how you focus, anything could be easy or hard. But for me personally, I feel like the hardest major might be anything that has to do with sciences. It is just too much to remember at times and you can slack easily if you don’t take the time to memorize all that you need to do, especially with those that have to study anatomy and physiology where you have to know all these different body parts and what not. I think the easiest major could be like an art major. I think especially if you have a creative mind, that type of stuff just comes easily to you, but it all depends on your interests and your taste.”
- Joshua Callwood (senior, theology)
“I think that theology is a super attractive major here at Andrews University because of the fact that you get to learn the languages of the Bible and you get to exegete the passages very deeply because you understand the languages of the Bible. I would say that the least attractive major for me personally is math just because I’m bad at math, but I hear that the department is good.”
- Cade Bolin (senior, theology)
“The hardest majors are by far pre-med [tracks]. I think pre-med is the hardest because it seems like you are always studying and that you are taking many hard classes. The easiest seems to be maybe photography, if that’s a degree, because you’re learning more natural ways to do a certain profession. The most attractive would be architecture because the teachers and department have a great community.”
- Seth Leets (freshman, architecture)
By the looks of it, STEM majors seem to be the most feared among the variety of selections one can make here at AU. These courses put a heavy emphasis on daily study and memorization of the course material, often involving late labs and a heavy workload. The easiest majors, according to almost all the students interviewed are by far business- and art-related majors. They seem to have less-packed schedules in comparison to STEM majors. When it came to the most attractive/least attractive majors, the answers were all across the board. Students showed a much bigger variety of likes and dislikes, ranging from loving mathematics to hating it. Regardless of your major, however, it is most important to figure out what major you genuinely enjoy doing and do it with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.