Difficulty of Majors

Chris2fer21

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Sep 14, 2016
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What are some of the more difficult majors at the Naval Academy? I know the engineering ones are hard but how much harder compared to a civilian college? Also is it true that most people change from engineering to English or history or something?
 
If you go to MIT, Purdue or other top engineering programs, I would argue more depth is involved. Many of my classmates have taught at SAs and now teach at state and private universities.

Their feedback is they can assign projects and tasks at 'regular' schools requiring deeper dives and were restricted at SAs because the students had more courses and other responsibilities
 
Academics are only one part of the equation at USNA. Every mid must also participate in sports, maintain their physical fitness and meet all of the military obligations. I don't know of any civilian college where everyone is required to participate in athletics.
 
My DS was told that Aeronautical Engineering is one of the hardest majors at USNA (but he is doing it anyway lol)
 
There are certainly some majors here that everyone seems to say are difficult, such as EE, Nuke E, Aero, Math, and Physics, but the difficulty of any major is also partially determined by each persons ability to understand the course material in that major. I don't think the academics here are harder than they are at any other top notch engineering school, but the various unique USNA things make it difficult(i.e. minimum 15 credit hours, the other athletic/military obligations already discussed here, billets upperclassmen hold within the company, etc.)
 
MABlue nailed it for many. For some the thought of writing papers sounds horrendous. For others, doing multivariable calculus for 4 years sounds like the dentist. Do what interests you, do what fits your strong suits and you will enjoy your experience much more.
 
Not sure what the OP is asking, you need to clarify. Do you think the courses will be too easy or is this just a hypothetical question?
 
I have some friends who were in the same major at UC Berkeley and we've compared the programs in casual conversation. I took less electives and had less meaningful internships (four week internships are way too short) than my civilian counterparts. The curriculum was barebones compared to that of UC Berkeley and seemed to only just hit the necessary wickets for ABET accreditation. I would say USNA is easier academically when comparing courses, assignments, and professor expectations.

However, I did have the opportunity to personally take classes at another civilian university, and I found the workload and difficulty there to be similar to USNA courses if not a bit lighter and easier. Or perhaps I felt that way because my classes started at 10AM, I had no billet or watch to stand, and there were no Forestall Lectures to ruin my night of sleep.

What is hard depends on the person. I've had to help nuclear engineers with cyber homework because they just could not get a handle on manipulating memory stacks. Meanwhile, I scored a solid C in physics and walked away from that final happy to have survived.
 
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Physics was easy, chemistry I am pretty sure is made to destroy the human race, boats was my favorite class at USNA, EE I am pretty sure was only there to electrocute me, give me a book to read and a paper to write and I am at my best. I was a very middle of the pack student at USNA after initially nearly flunking out. I stayed in my comfort zone academically for a major and was surprised how much I enjoyed most my engineering stuff. I graduated with honors for my first masters. I have now spent over a decade as systems engineer and am on my way to another masters in it (it's been the least amount of work of all my degrees and by far the easiest). At USNA you will have time to review majors and talk to upperclass. The decision doesn't have to be made today. Keep an open mind and ask questions when there as a Plebe. Make an informed decision when they ask you to declare.
 
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