Do they consider difficulty of your major ? Forum

[Wade LeBosh]

Yeah? Adcoms agree with me.

If you have enough evidence that says otherwise, please, enlighten us.

[bjsesq]

Yeah? Adcoms agree with me.

If you have enough evidence that says otherwise, please, enlighten us.

Are you saying this is evidence? His claim that adcoms agree with him?

[PDaddy]

It may make up for a little, but not an appreciable amount. If you have enough evidence that says otherwise, please, enlighten us. Also, stop arguing that ug psychology isn't a joke, dude. It is.

Ok...I get your point. I think most majors are good, depending on what the course load is and what the person takes from it. But if it's generally considered to be a joke, I won't argue the point. I can only speak from my experience at my university (a national top-10 public).

Glad I wasn't a psych major. Jeez!

[Wade LeBosh]

Yeah? Adcoms agree with me.

If you have enough evidence that says otherwise, please, enlighten us.

Are you saying this is evidence? His claim that adcoms agree with him?

I found it funny someone would make a baseless claim and then demand evidence from someone else soon after.

[bjsesq]

It may make up for a little, but not an appreciable amount. If you have enough evidence that says otherwise, please, enlighten us. Also, stop arguing that ug psychology isn't a joke, dude. It is.

Ok...I get your point. I think most majors are good, depending on what the course load is and what the person takes from it. But if it's generally considered to be a joke, I won't argue the point. I can only speak from my experience at my university (a national top-10 public).

Glad I wasn't a psych major. Jeez!

I was a criminal justice major and am proud to claim that my major is, almost without exception, complete and utter garbage.

[bjsesq]

Yeah? Adcoms agree with me.

If you have enough evidence that says otherwise, please, enlighten us.

Are you saying this is evidence? His claim that adcoms agree with him?

I found it funny someone would make a baseless claim and then demand evidence from someone else soon after.

I said the second line.

[PDaddy]

Are you saying this is evidence? His claim that adcoms agree with him?

This is not evidence. Why the focus on Psychology. My point is that a lower GPA in a tough science major (even if we exclude psychology) will win out over a higher major in a less demanding major, all else being equal.

Quit acting like I said some random ugly chick is as hot as Scarlett Johansson.

[IamJosh]

And I don't knoiw what schools you guys went to, but Psychology is a very tough major at the top universities, one of which I graduated from. The average grade in the 100 level psychology courses is about 2.7.

Okay, you're right and wrong. My psych 101 professor told me that most psych majors get their lowest major grade in 101. It's a weed-out class at "top" schools. Upper level classes? Not so hard. Psych will always be a joke major, and I say that as someone who considered it for a really long time (and decided against it for unrelated reasons.) I'll also say that I completely screwed up in that class, so I'm not coming from a position of "I got an A+++ without studying so everyone else should, too." But I will say that my professor basically told me she didn't want to teach the class and one of my TA's could barely speak English and she graded two of my papers. Despite my not doing well, the class was still a bit of a joke.

On topic: Major difficulty is totally arbitrary. I have a buddy who is a total math genius and is really good in the sciences. He'll probably keep a 3.8+ GPA through undergrad as an econ/bio major (or whatever he ends up doing along those lines) but he'd be a C student as an English major. Really, really smart... but inarticulate. Is English a harder major than bio? No. It depends on what one is good at. The only thing that can be measured is workload, and that MIGHT carry a little weight?

[bjsesq]

Are you saying this is evidence? His claim that adcoms agree with him?

This is not evidence. Why the focus on Psychology. My point is that a lower GPA in a tough science major (even if we exclude psychology) will win out over a higher major in a less demanding major, all else being equal.

Quit acting like I said some random ugly chick is as hot as Scarlett Johansson.

I said it twice, bro. This line wasn't even directed at you. You acknowledged the point and I dropped it.

[PDaddy]

Ok. My bad above, dude...

This is so random...let's move on. You get my point. I made it several posts ago. There's no point in debating the merits of a psychology degree. The bottom line is that a tougher major can make adcoms look beyond a lower but still competitive GPA. A 3.4 in a tough major such as a hard science, mathematics, history, English, etc. would merit such consideration.

[IamJosh]

Ok. My bad above, dude...

This is so random...let's move on. You get my point. I made it several posts ago. There's no point in debating the merits of a psychology degree. The bottom line is that a tougher major can make adcoms look beyond a lower but still competitive GPA. A 3.4 in a tough major such as a hard science, mathematics, history, English, etc. would merit such consideration.

Note: No sarcasm...

Do people consider English tough?

[rinkrat19]

Ok. My bad above, dude...

This is so random...let's move on. You get my point. I made it several posts ago. There's no point in debating the merits of a psychology degree. The bottom line is that a tougher major can make adcoms look beyond a lower but still competitive GPA. A 3.4 in a tough major such as a hard science, mathematics, history, English, etc. would merit such consideration.

And some of us still think you're wrong.

My middling engineering GPA (and chemistry minor) didn't get me into any schools I wouldn't have gotten into with the same GPA in basketweaving.

[PDaddy]

On topic: Major difficulty is totally arbitrary. I have a buddy who is a total math genius and is really good in the sciences. He'll probably keep a 3.8+ GPA through undergrad as an econ/bio major (or whatever he ends up doing along those lines) but he'd be a C student as an English major. Really, really smart... but inarticulate. Is English a harder major than bio? No. It depends on what one is good at. The only thing that can be measured is workload, and that MIGHT carry a little weight?

This is a good example. For law school, his deficiency with the english language would definitely hurt him. So, for law school, it would matter. That's why the course load is so important. We TLSers advise people of where they might get into school without seeing transcripts. We don't know their courses, grade trends, inflation, number of "I", "NG", "W", "CR/NC" grades, etc. It's tough to really gage what someone's GPA means.

[shoeshine]

This is so random...let's move on. You get my point. I made it several posts ago. There's no point in debating the merits of a psychology degree. The bottom line is that a tougher major can make adcoms look beyond a lower but still competitive GPA. A 3.4 in a tough major such as a hard science, mathematics, history, English, etc. would merit such consideration.

The bottom line is that law schools would rather take a Criminal Justice major with a 4.0 over a Biology major with a 3.5. They like the 4.0 more because US News Rankings do not care about the type of major but they do care about the entering GPA of the class.

[PDaddy]

This is so random...let's move on. You get my point. I made it several posts ago. There's no point in debating the merits of a psychology degree. The bottom line is that a tougher major can make adcoms look beyond a lower but still competitive GPA. A 3.4 in a tough major such as a hard science, mathematics, history, English, etc. would merit such consideration.

The bottom line is that law schools would rather take a Criminal Justice major with a 4.0 over a Biology major with a 3.5. They like the 4.0 more because US News Rankings do not care about the type of major but they do care about the entering GPA of the class.

True (bold)...hence my advice to apply early. Early application diminishes this effect. Read my first post.

The rankings come into consideration late in the cycle. Early on the adcoms are reading the files more in-depth, and they are more likely to take that biology major with the lower GPA over the crim major with the 4.0.

[bjsesq]

I wholeheartedly approve of my major being used as the shit major comparison point. Please continue to do this in the future.

[ResolutePear]

Will a 3.4 gpa with a tough double major be as good as a higher gpa with a less difficult major?

Yes, as long as the major is truly "tough" - like Psychology, a hard science or mathematics - and you apply early.

All else being equal, I'd take a double-major (3.4 in Psychology/History) over a 3.8 in Sociology.

Psych is the easiest major at my school.

[ResolutePear]

Are you saying this is evidence? His claim that adcoms agree with him?

This is not evidence. Why the focus on Psychology. My point is that a lower GPA in a tough science major (even if we exclude psychology) will win out over a higher major in a less demanding major, all else being equal.

Quit acting like I said some random ugly chick is as hot as Scarlett Johansson.

There is no way you can say that one major is easier than another just by looking at the name of the major.

You can have a BS(BA, really) in Physics where the person took lots of theoretical classes on one end, and a BA in Poli. Sci. major where the person took lots of analytic coursework because he/she's into Economism or something else that can be considered "applied" on another. You can't measure who had harder classes.

I heard (from an ex-Harvard Law adcomm) that they give a soft for people that take hard classes, but it's nothing that's going to make or break you. You either have the GPA, or you don't.

[ResolutePear]

That goes without saying, going into a science or engineering major will allow you to take the patent bar. So.. there's that.

[Rock-N-Roll]

Quit acting like I said some random ugly chick is as hot as Scarlett Johansson.

I'm not going to go all the way out there and say she's ugly, but I really don't get the Scarlett Johansson is sooo super-hot thing, generally, so this analogy fails to work for me.

[Bildungsroman]

Quit acting like I said some random ugly chick is as hot as Scarlett Johansson.

I'm not going to go all the way out there and say she's ugly, but I really don't get the Scarlett Johansson is sooo super-hot thing, generally, so this analogy fails to work for me.

Super cool story bro.

[Rock-N-Roll]

Quit acting like I said some random ugly chick is as hot as Scarlett Johansson.

I'm not going to go all the way out there and say she's ugly, but I really don't get the Scarlett Johansson is sooo super-hot thing, generally, so this analogy fails to work for me.

Super cool story bro.

Ha.
I feel like my post is as useful as anything else in this thread.
The OP's question was answered a long time ago.

[Blessedassurance]

Ok. My bad above, dude...

This is so random...let's move on. You get my point. I made it several posts ago. There's no point in debating the merits of a psychology degree. The bottom line is that a tougher major can make adcoms look beyond a lower but still competitive GPA. A 3.4 in a tough major such as a hard science, mathematics, history, English, etc. would merit such consideration.

I guess if we're going to throw in English and history we might as well throw in anthropology and or political science, and re-affirm the arbitrariness of the yardstick.

[Opie]

I have to say for the record that I found accounting classes moderately difficult. I'm a business major, which I don't think is considered overly difficult and don't expect any brownie points for, but I think will help me out some day in the future because my interests are in employment/labor.

I've heard that some schools like majors that have an emphasis on research and writing like law does. For this reason they may favor Journalism, Philosophy, and Literature... Majors everyone else on the planet finds mostly ridiculous.

[rinkrat19]

I have to say for the record that I found accounting classes moderately difficult. I'm a business major, which I don't think is considered overly difficult and don't expect any brownie points for, but I think will help me out some day in the future because my interests are in employment/labor.

I've heard that some schools like majors that have an emphasis on research and writing like law does. For this reason they may favor Journalism, Philosophy, and Literature... Majors everyone else on the planet finds mostly ridiculous.

My roommate was a business major of some kind and we used to laugh at the pathetic math assignments she brought home. "OMG, rinkrat, today we learned about the X and Y axes!" We both got through AP calc in high school, so her business college math was what we'd been doing in 8th grade.