Spring semester is typically full of lethargic students desperately in need of a sun lamp and an advisor to help them make a commitment to their major. To help you determine your destiny at Columbia, we put together a list of our recommendations for majors that are the “easiest” in terms of fulfilling credit requirements. While any Political Science student will yell at you about their thesis and how difficult it is, we simply recognize with this list that some majors are easier than others. For good measure, we also bring you the hardest majors to fulfill in case you still thought you wanted to major in a hard science. May this list help you decide how you’d like to spend the rest of your time at Columbia (and which useless major you’ll put on your resume).
The “Easiest” Majors
- History, 29 points. You may have already learned the material in your APUSH class in high school, but History could be a good decision if you’re trying to put minimal effort into completing a major.
- English, 30 points. You read some books. You get some credits and a useless major. It’s simple.
- American Studies, 30 points. Imagine how wonderful it would be to just think about America all the time (aka what the majority of Americans do anyway.)
- Political Science, 29 points. Similar to History, this major isn’t too hard to get out of the way before senior Spring. However, this one could be a little more useful if you’re not just trying to go into academia.
- Philosophy, 30 points. We’re starting to notice a correlation between uselessness and the number of credits.
- Psychology, 30 points. Now you can say you’re a science major without all the hassle!
- Sociology, 30-31 points. Become the next Shamus Kahn.
The “Hardest” Majors
- Physics, 41 points. You’re basically Brian Greene. Or one of his disciples, at least.
- Astrophysics, 49.5 points. Similar to Physics, but you’re Neil DeGrasse Tyson instead. You can watch Cosmos and point out everything that’s wrong, but nobody else would really get it. At least you get the fun of Astronomy to stem the barrage of Physics problem sets.
- Economics-Mathematics, 53 points. Sure, Econ majors get the best jobs. But do they really get it? Well, if you ever want to be secure in both your job offers and your intellect, you have a lot of problem sets to get through first.
- Computer Science, 54 points. Computer Science majors do complain about their work a lot. Guess it makes sense now.
- Chemical Physics, 77 points (at maximum). Okay. You’ve got it tough. At some point, you realized that you had to take almost as much math and physics as Math and Physics majors. It’s okay though. Your textbooks keep you warm in Butler.
- Almost Any SEAS Major. It’s the hard knock life.
9 Comments
@Anonymous Astrophysics is
Calc I-IV (3pts each) = 12
Astrophysics I-II (3pts each) = 6
Astrophysics 3000×2 = 6
Physics I-III (3.5pts each max) = 10.5
Mech, E&M, Waves & Optics (3pts each) = 9
Quantum I-II (3pts each) = 6
TOTAL = 49.5pts
@Finn Klauber You are correct. Accidentally added each physics sequence to the total number of points.
@biased much? Why only include science/math majors for the hard list? The comparative literature and society major, for example, is 42 points, and that doesn’t even include the minimum of two languages students are required to take. While I totally support STEM majors, it is beyond unhelpful to keep perpetuating these stereotypes that the humanities and social sciences are “easier” than the STEM fields. We all have our talents, and we all work hard. Do you really think a SEAS kid would have an easier time with a 12 pg essay on Flaubert than an English major would with a calc problem set?
@tru say same deal with classics – 40+ points not including the language prereqs
@Rachel Deal OR you could be a STEM AND humanities double-major ;)
@biased much? Well of course it’s harder to be a double major. And props to people who are good at both the humanities and STEM. Most of us aren’t. The post was about picking one major, and you (or whoever wrote this) intentionally stacked both the “easy” and the “hard” list to make it look like all the humanities/social science majors are easy and all the STEM ones are hard. You sought out majors to fulfill your preconceived biases rather than actually doing some research.
@Gary Pickholz Unfair criticism of English & sociology in particular. Many in those programs pursue a burdensome double major of which these are only one component of their time, the infamous Out of Towner joint BA/Mrs degree. The requirements can be overwhelming.
@hey there gary please fuck off w your patriarchical bullshit
@damn bwog going for the throat with that english major diss