One day I was taking the Megabus back to school and I ended up sitting next to this older guy (60s, early 70s maybe). I was studying for calc 3 and he made a comment to the effect of 'I'm glad I didn't have to do math like that when I was in school'. This of course prompted me to ask him what he majored in, assuming some kind of social science or bio maybe-- the response was 'math and physics at Ohio State'
I also think that the difficulty and perceptions of a lot of majors are really unfair. I'm in chemistry but a lot of my friends are English majors or whatever and they do a LOT of work and put in a lot of effort, more than I do a lot of the time probably to get similar results. And I'm not all that bright.
And as one of my best friends, who's an English major, says, 'I know engineers think were stupid, but don't get me wrong, we read things they write and we think they're idiots'
Yes, but, I've coined a term to underscore the fundamental distinction between the two worlds: empiricity. A wing section, just for example, generates lift because of principles that are beyond man's control. Ultimately, the "hard" sciences are disciplined by reality. The airplane flies or does not. The "soft" topiics, and I include part of what I learned in b-school here, but not most of it, since things like econ and finance to mea re really much like engineering, have no such test, ultimately, and, as such, also seem to have diminished utility and difficulty. Understand also, I could've gone either way, having a perfectly balanced SAT before I embarked on the whole Aero Engin thing.
Next time your English major friend talks to an engineer, tell him to reserve judgment and, instead, do his job and ask the engineer, "do you want fries with that?" Empiriicty again: if they're really that stupid, how come they tend employable and valuable, yet the same does not obtain for English majors? I accept that the latter work. The problem for them is, that work does not provide a lot of valued utility to others, at least as measured by the market. That's okay, so long as they understand the tradeoff... but judging by a lot of complaints I hear from people, many do not.
As for you: Chem... hmmm... probably a pretty good way to go these days.