LogFAQs > #961344898

Engineering is not nearly as hard as engineering students would have you believe, mathematical equations are not the sole representative of what makes a major hard. Obviously, a major based entirely around mathematics would have more difficult mathematical problems and thus be more difficult for people who suck at math. But if you are competent in math (let's say you completed through Linear Algebra and understood it), it is not more difficult than many other majors, and there is much less subtlety involved in being successful than some other majors that require more creative ingenuity.

In fact, math classes themselves are more difficult than engineering because application is one of the greatest drivers of the human experience and engineering consists largely of application based principles. The equation shown above for heat conduction is only difficult if you don't know what hyperbolic functions or series are. That is, it looks scarier to those who have not actually taken the math courses necessary to understand them, but is not actually that difficult.

The one thing that does make engineering more difficult than other majors is you are expected to have no problem doing the math you have done in school for years, so it is much more difficult to just come in and blast through it - most need a solid foundation in math in order to thrive.

All in all I consider engineering to be more exhaustive in terms of work load than many other majors, but not necessarily standing out as a more difficult major. The judgement of the difficulty of a major is heavily dependent on the skills that the POV looking at it possesses.

Kloe_Rinz posted... No room for failure because if you fail there will be many deaths

There is also almost always a correct answer to a problem. A luxury that engineering and math students frequently forget.