Engineering Degrees Ranked By Difficulty (Tier List)
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- Here is my tier list ranking of every engineering degree by difficulty. I have also included average pay and future demand for each degree. So if you're trying to figure out what to study, this video is for you.
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0:00 intro
1:05 #16 Manufacturing
1:40 #15 Industrial
2:18 #14 Civil
3:42 #13 Environmental
4:13 #12 Software
4:52 #11 Computer
5:33 #10 Petroleum
6:10 #9 Biomedical
6:42 #8 Electrical
7:17 #7 Mechanical
8:16 #6 Mining
9:00 #5 Metallurgical
9:56 #4 Materials
10:42 #3 Chemical
11:32 #2 Aerospace
12:14 #1 Nuclear
I used to be good at math but then I discovered weed.
Ok Jason 😂 I thought for sure this was my husbands comment
😂😂@@terrimoore7431
Relatable 😅
😂😂😂😂 FACTS DUDE!!!!!
Literally me
I've met a lot of people who say Electrical Engineering is so much more complicated than Mechanical due to EEs having to work with literal microscopic components, math & what they cannot observe compared to ME work. And Radio Frequencies might just be one of the most complicated things in general, The Smith Chart being an example of this.
i still think it depends a lot of the university! Mech Eng can get as abstract as any EE degree if it focuses on Fluids and Energy.
Yes. Even here in our country (Philippines) they say that the Licensure Exam consists of 2 parts.
Electromagnetics. It’s a complex field and heavy in Calculus with partial differential equations (Maxwell’s). I disagree with his assessment that ordinary differential equations was the highest mathematical study. I studied partial differential equations in my electrical engineering studies.
True
Hold on, i study Electronics engineering, which is pretty much how it’s called in my country but the same thing as electrical engineering for other countries, and well, i’m in 1st year but my brother who’s in 2nd affirms the smith chart isn’t really that difficult, like saying it’s like a compendium of formulas that depending on what you need you do a tiny polar coordinates like calculus and you’ll get the formula, just that i takes time, not so sure tho, as i say i’m still a freshman but i believe him
Do NOT choose degree based on difficulty, or future pay. Choose the one which is actually interesting for you.
If it is boring for you, you will not be motivated to grow, and you will never reach your potential. But if you are really motivated to grow, because the field is very interesting for you, you will more likely to get above average pay.
Also you will be more satisfied with your career, and have happier life regardless of salary.
Thanks for the advice man
Have you ever heard of "starving artists"? I can assure you that many love what they do, yet do not make as much as engineers. Many people having high-paying jobs continue to have hobbies they love. They don't give up their inherent skills that produce little monetary benefit, yet they understand the odds of "making it big" doing so.
@@davepaturno4290 There are many starving artists, yes (what's their highest math?). However, there aren't that many "starving engineers." Most of the engineers can adapt to other engineering disciplines.
@@andyh4262 My point is that you don't have to "love what you do" to have a successful career. I love driving sportscars, but I am not a professional racer.
Yeah I chose EEE out of interest, turns out I don't like It as much as I thought but there's no other career that I can think of that suits me... I guess sometimes that advice isn't very applicable :(
Probably the most difficult specialty is the one you're least suited for, and the 'easiest' is the one that feels like an invigorating challenge. I am 57 and a senior EE major (up late studying now, as a matter of fact). Oldest in my class, but I love it. So thankful to have the opportunity, even though it's late in life. I hope to do signal processing and have begun taking grad courses as electives for my BS. I feel like a dumb impostor, even though my GPA is good. I have to work so hard. Hope I can become competent in my field. Hat's off to the many successful engineers on this thread!
Please keep us update on that Grad date 🙏🏾 God speed
I'm 51 and looking into engineering of some kind. Not sure which field. Just looking at it is scary, haven't had a math class in almost 4 decades and the last one I took was pre-algebra. But I love figuring things out. So maybe I'll give it a try. Keep going and show them age doesn't mean everything.
For anyone desiring a career in engineering, DONT base your decision on which discipline to pursue based on perceived difficulty or time-to-graduate. Find your strengths, follow your area of interest, and go from there. There is no 'easy' vs 'hard' in engineering; all of it is difficult.
I'm a recently retired EE from 1985 and the most-difficult problems I've dealt with at work were not the technical ones; those are straightforward and can be solved with perseverance and discipline. Being creative and solving problems is what keeps me going. The worst things are ridiculous program schedules forced on you by upper management, employee turnover that results in a lack of experts, and inefficient methods that are forced onto the design teams that were developed by people who dont do any "real" work other than creating an empire for their own career growth.
This is so true. Much of my EE career was learning the specific processes and so on at the employer. Things a smart HS graduate could master. Cross functional knowledge is also important. I had a lot of prior life experience with mechanical stuff and its always been valuable for insights when problems arise.
This is so true! The most frustrating thing I've dealt with during my career in automotive EE is the ridiculous timing of the projects... and it is getting worse and worse 😢
We called that last group paperwork engineers.
Excellent suggestion . You will do much better with your future than looking for the easy way out . Aldo consider Grad school .
I found that the hardest problems I faced as an engineer weren't the engineering problems. They were the problems of working with people, especially managers who either didn't understand or didn't want to understand practical reality. I don't know how many times I heard the ridiculous query "If we can put on a man on the Moon why can't we X?", conveniently ignoring multi-billion dollar budgets, thousands of people, decades of work, many early rockets that exploded during testing, and people who died getting there.
I'm an Electrical Engineering (EE) Graduate (Univ. of Tenn, Knoxville - Class of 1981. I have a 3.2 GPA, close to the average. Getting through it was difficult, in fact, I still consider it the most challenging period of my life, but it also made my life after I graduated. I was fanatical about getting through it - failure was not an option! But then I had a fascinating career of 32 years before I retired. I did circuit design, software engineering, software management, and a lot of system engineering. I have zero regrets and a lot of good memories. I worked in factory automation and later public safety radio manufacture, installation and maintenance. I worked in 18 different countries. A degree in EE is valuable across many disciplines. I guess what I'm trying to tell you is "Go for it!" You can be proud of your accomplishments in school and later during your career!
I find Electrical Engineering one of the toughest engineering disciplines.
Class of `87 ASU EE here. BSEE degree was the hardest thing that I ever did. Failure was NOT an option for me either. I have had a wonderful career ever since.
Wild you still remember your GPA after 40 years.
I couldn't tell you my High School GPA nor my Undergraduate GPA.
I agree with you 100%. I had no realization of the uniqueness of my EE job until much later in my career and talking to others complaining of thing I never knew. I can honestly say NOTHING was boring and almost every day I walked out the door say "wow what a ride!!".
The part about being fanatical, failure not being an option, rang true for me. When the chips were down...at 4 am, exhausted after hours and hours already of study/homework, I refused to yield. I knew I would never "fail" in the sense that I would not graduate; failure for me, however, was not turning the degree into a top-performer solid career. Of course, that is a much more nebulous failure line, requiring a greater factor of safety as a result. I ended my degree program (ME) with a 3.69 GPA at 4.5 years. The extra half-year being from class prerequisite structure (being a transfer student made the class progression wonky), rather than difficulty in material.
Ordinary differential equations is the highest level of math for electrical engineering? What about Bessel functions, convolutions, zernike polynomials (if you have to study optics/lasers), Fourier analysis, state-space controls, maxwells equations, schrodingers equation, algorithms… all required for an understanding of electromagnetic theory. If we’re going by math difficulty, electronic communications engineering should be at the top of this list without a doubt.
True bro
I always thought that Electrical has the highest level of Math
True solving the wave equation gave me PTSDs
Ode is math most of the things you've mentioned below is physics.
For example Maxwell equations are pdes but very easy to solve compared to more general pdes.
Same for computer engineering as well both EE and CSE are supposed to be first and second place tbh
Thank you so much for correcting the above person who did nothing but overrating the difficulty of her major in a deceiving manner@@typoilu3413
Great video...and great comments. I'm glad that, today, there still are some serious and sane folks around.
It's a terrible video, it's obvious he doesn't have a meaningful understanding of many of the fields he's talking about...
As a ChemEng it doesn't contain that much chemistry and chemistry as a science is not "vaguer" it's still deterministic at a molecular level, and where phenomena become more probabilistic in nature is actually at the point where chemistry crosses over with physics.
The weird focus on mathematics (despite them all apparently only requiring levels which shouldn't be hard for anyone who can get admitted to an engineering program) totally fails to grasp what makes people actually find different disciplines difficult.
Also the analysis lacks rigour, as there's no correcting for sample population differences in the time to graduate and GPS stats, despite the fact that many of the "less difficult" disciplines are so specific that they will self-select for very motivated and engaged learners, compared to a more generalist discipline like Mech/Chem, or something "sexy" like Aero, where a wider range of applicants with less cohesive motivation and aptitude will take the degree.
It also misses multiple niche disciplines that have amongst the most difficult course content, like Control Systems, Structural, and Explosives engineering, or disciplines that are hugely difficult due to the sheer depth of applied knowledge needed like Demolition, Marine and Offshore engineering, and Naval Architecture.
Retired ME here - Class of '81. Worked Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, Commercial Products, Rapid Prototyping, and Medical Devices. I agree for the most part with your Tier and Ranking list. My comments are primarily related to real world vs academic experience. The most important thing in school is high-level math skills, because school is mostly theory. Math will not be so critical in day-to-day work, practical experience will rule then. In my entire career, I only knew a few engr's who could step up to a board and work through the entire process of problem solution - including descriptive equations and solutions. It was rarely needed. Speed and efficiency rule the engr. process, because time=money, and it goes without saying that you're expected to be correct. From this POV - practical experience has the most value. Wise assumptions and knowing what will and will not work go a long way. Something needed every day, but barely taught in school, is Design, Fabrication, and Assembly. Study the Machinery's Handbook - and any other one specific to your specialty. Learn a good Solid Modeling program - e.g., Solid Works, and be able to run FEA and dynamic kinematic analysis on it. Learn Statistics, and Data Base manipulation. On top of all that - be the best damn communicator you can possibly be - Concise, Precise, and Accurate.
Two disciplines not listed that you'll find prevalent in Industry are: A) Quality Engineering, and B) Safety Engineering. Ranking them is really difficult - because they often draw the least-competent people, and in some places they get the least respect - but when the chips are down, these positions are where you want your sharpest tools - for two reasons - Quality will save your company, and Safety will save your life.
Interesting. You're right of course, most engineering is more a matter of efficiencies, and few engineers use high level mathematical analysis in daily work, or at least not as such, since computer modeling systems have become highly sophisticated and reliable.
That said, for a student who likes higher mathematics, the few, there's always going to be jobs that require these skills. It takes the proper company, in the old days, places like Hughes Research and Bell Labs, which are now long gone, but there's always going to be places like that somewhere that specialize in inventing the future. It'll probably take some searching to find the right place. The advantage is you'll get to work on a variety of interesting problems, and there'll always be a job as a quant on Wall Street, where your bonus will likely exceed your yearly engineering salary.
55y ME
Been working in product development where I needed statstics and FE (i.e. numerics and understanding) metallurgy and solid mechanics.
Offshore engineer heavily using probability and statistics, fluid mechanics and thermal analysis. And practical “big data” computer skills (parallel computing).
Then onto now where I dabble in thermodynamics, solid mechanics, data analysis and using my manufacturing engineering background to optimize.
If you’re at a certain level the math always pops up. However, putting math (or knowledge) to real world problems seems to be the most difficult for any engineering field.
…and I second your point on q being quite important.
Beside basic math skills the other is work experience in the field. You can put anything down on paper but practical experience will tell you if it can actually be done.
That was excellent communication
@@hap1666 "On top of all that - be the best damn communicator you can possibly be - Concise, Precise, and Accurate." I am mostly retired (tried to retire and they made me an offer hard to turn down to work part-time) and this is maybe the one thing I found most surprising as a new engineer. I figured if I "got the answer correct" I was good to go! No sir! If no one understood what I had done, so they could have confidence in it, I was nowhere. And when it comes to getting someone to part with money for a product or a new development program, you had better have this part down: Concise, Precise, and Accurate, and be clear why this is in *their* best interests.
Graduated with my Civil Engr degree in 1988. Spent the next 32 years designing and building things people need and use. There will always be jobs and work for Civil Engrs. It's not the highest paid or most glamorous but it may be the most consistent and steady of all. I liked that I could work in an office doing design or in the field overseeing construction or many things in between. I was able to find my niche that I did well and enjoyed working. Life is so much better when you like your job.
I graduated with a BSCE in 1980 and have worked in the consulting side for 43 years, mostly planning and designing municipal infrastructure. I just turned 65 two months ago and, although I could retire now, I will work another two or three years because I like what I do, part of which involves teaching and mentoring young engineers and performing QA/QC reviews (yes, I actually enjoy QA/QC because I want our final product to be as good as we can make it and because it provides more opportunities to teach). I stepped down from managing projects several years ago because it's a young man's sport, especially as the accounting side of project management has become more and more onerous over the years. I went to engineering school to avoid accounting. 🙂
I agree with your comments. I love civil engineering because I can drive around and see that what I have designed became reality, including water tanks, pumping stations, water supply wells, urban and rural roads (no highways or freeways), correctional institutions, drainage structures, etc. In fact, this idea of being able to see your own work manifested in the real world, which was first communicated to me by the three civil engineers that I knew when I was in high school (two friends' fathers and one of my dad's fraternity brothers) is why I chose civil engineering over the other fields. I had considered electrical and mechanical, but they just didn't have the same draw with me.
BTW, my family is a technical family. My mom was a math major until she dropped out to marry my dad. My dad has a degree in Petroleum Engineering, but he didn't work in the oil industry. After he finished a tour in the Air Force, he worked as a general engineer and sales engineer for Dow Chemical, then changed fields completely to teach high school chemistry. Five of his male cousins have engineering degrees and one also added a PhD in Pharmacy. Two of his female cousins have degrees in mathematics. One taught in high school and other at a junior college. Oh, and my paternal grandfather was a chemist with Dow Chemical.
As an architect, it is fun to drive by projects you worked on. I overheard my son-in-law talking to some friends of his and he said this about me: "I don't know what he really does, but he had something to do with half the buildings downtown."
@@pyhead9916 I have located most of my above-ground projects in Google Earth and dropped pins for them, including water tanks, pumping stations, correctional institutions, storm drainage structures, etc. I have "pinned" a few of my underground projects (i.e. pipelines), but they're not as interesting in Google Earth. Have you done the same?
@skysurfer5cva which civil field should I choose if I want to build and design residential developments, sewer, water, storm, landfills, quarries, streets, highways and bridges? I'm a heavy equipment operator looking into pursuing civil engineering and want to design and build the projects I work on. Looking at my states PE exams I'm unsure if those are broken up into construction, geo, transportation and structural. Is there a civil discipline that does all of those? I asked the civil engineer that designs our developments which civil field he was in and he told me civil is there a broad civil PE license?
@@WOLeifFr In California, the Civil PE covers all aspects of civil engineering, with a few exceptions. For example, a Civil PE can design structures, but it takes a Structural license on top of the Civil license to design (IIRC) buildings over two stories, schools, and hospitals. There is also a Geotechnical license that can be added after a civil license, but I don't know what the added benefits are.
On the other hand, I understand that in Illinois, Civil PEs cannot design any structures without also having a Structural license, even a 3-foot-tall retaining wall. Also, thrust restraint for a buried pipeline is actually a type of structure, so I'm not sure where they draw the line.
These nuances vary from state to state, so you will need to do some research. BTW, except for two small single-story reinforced masonry pumping station buildings, all of my structural designs have been for non-building structures (e.g. retaining walls, cast-in-place vaults, circular clarifiers at treatment plants, etc.) and most of those have been reinforced concrete.
When it comes to your education, you will have non-elective foundational courses that address your interests, plus some you may not care about.🙂 For example, my foundational courses included Fluid Mechanics, Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, Fortran (a computer progamming language), Transportation Engineering (which featured one of the two terrible text books that I used), Structural Analysis, Reinforced Concrete Design, Steel and Timber Design, two semester of Land Surveying (back then, a Civil PE in California could also legally practice land surveying....that changed before I got my Civil PE), and even a course in Electrical Circuits. I took electives in Hydraulics, Hydrology, Unit Operations (related to water and wastewater treatment), etc. I chose to not take Pavement Design, Highway Design, Finite Element Analysis, and a few others.
Curriculums have evolved over the years, so research what your preferred schools are offering. For example, you may have to take have a required class for AutoCAD.
97k$ to be a nuclear engineer? lmfao.... nurses make more than that 😭
Renting a house makes more than that
Nurses don't work 37 hours a week and leave it at that
More importantly 0% job growth.
Nuclear is just a heat source. Nothing special about it really… 😅
But I love nuclear engineering 😢😢😢
In Milan's Politecnico University, at the end of 1999 the average time to graduate for an electronic engineer (NOT electric engineer) was 7.5 years. The average graduation age was 27 years, everyone who could graduate could find a job within 2 months from graduation date. Another world
I think its different for US, I study in Germany and EE is definitely more difficult than ME. When I lived in dorm with all STEM students, we just gave our math assignement to math students and according to them: CE < ME < EE. Also Chem and Bio majors had "memorize stuff without understanding" reputation, so him putting CE on 2nd place is surprise for me. They usually didn't understand our conversations (math, physics, CS, EE, ME students )
@@tatjana7008 In Poland EE is very easy
@@tatjana7008seriously i find electronic courses one of the hardest ever also electric or electromecanical engineering are the hardest ever
@@tatjana7008I am EE in Romania currently and the level of math is higher than the one specified in the video, 2 weeks ago I just passed an exam at math and we had Partial Differential equations, and I have a friend studying right now at Civil Engineering and his major is even harder than mine, involves the same level of math as mine and also harder physics, which boggles my mind since I do my major in English which is my second language compared to him doing it in Romanian.
@@winio437Here in Romania EE is easier than Civil Engineering, and also Civil Engineering is in more demand.
The Math for Electrical Engineering is one of the hardest math (Maxwell's Equations, Schrödinger equation, Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, Laplace Transform etc etc )
Exactly. I don't know why he listed only ordinary differential equations.
This math is required for Mechanical Engineering, depending on where you study it. I had to cover all the math you referenced when i was an undergrad MechE.
@@jonathanthompson3359What mechanical engineers are less likely to encounter or work extensively with is complex analysis which is the bread-and-butter for EM, signal analysis or Control theory. Pretty much all the mechanical engineers I know were always a bit flummoxed when it came to complex numbers and their use 😅
@@sebastianjovancic9814 I do agree that it's an exception to the general experience. The good side, though, is that there are plenty of hobbies where this can be used. :)
Laplace transform is fucked up, I did in uni, but I don't remember much of it, I salute everyone that have a good memory to really understand it, Maxwell is pretty hard too.
When I graduated in the 1960s with a BS in Electrical Engineering, the number of credits required for graduation was considerably higher than what you quoted. Significantly more math was required, including partial differential equations (needed for electromagnetics), vector analysis (needed for electromagnetics), and complex variable theory (needed for Fourier analysis and the Laplace transform). Although not usually required, linear algebra is necessary to really understand signal analysis.
We had all that in the late 80s as well. It probably depends where you went. At my university at that time, EE was the hardest school to get into - you needed a 3.5 GPA over the first two years to get in, and to maintain a 3.0 once in to avoid being kicked out. Of course you got all that math in calculus, differential equations, and discrete math courses, which were required for all engineering programs (maybe some didn't require DiffEQ), then you "really" learned it for EM theory, control systems, device physics, circuit analysis, etc. The mathematics courses, which were light on application, always felt superficial to me, and the learning didn't really stick. In EE courses where the math always had a clear purpose, it made a lot more sense. Also, a few weeks of vector calc in a math course can't compare to (in our case) two trimesters of EM theory.
In the years after I left, the EE program there declined a lot. Most students who would have gone into EE went to CS instead.
So, you’re roughly 80?
82@@hyperjank5129
Linear algebra is HUGE now because of machine learning and high-dimensional measurements needing to be reduced down to the few big principal components. The advent of lots of cheap sensors (and availability of lots of data) brought this about (partly anyway)
I don't know where the idea of only having to stop at differential equations for EE came from. A heck of a lot of the junior year EE courses are really just more math. You note several of those.
On top of those there are several areas of specialization where deeper math is needed. An EE specialization in control is a great example. For a undergraduate degree you're in 400 level math classes.
ChemEng here, 47yold.
I still have nightmares about being late for Thermo and Unit Ops - 25 years ago!! Hahaha
However, I did not regret a single second. One of the best decisions in my life.
Young fellas: I strongly recommend engineering.
All the best.
This is hilarious - Thermo and unit ops are my first classes of the day (T/Th vs MWF) and I’m ALWAYS late. 😂
I'm a mechanical engineer.... I still have the overslept for finals dream / capstone nightmares. I do not miss school, apparently it was traumatizing enough hahaha.
Aerospace Engineer here, don’t let the difficulty scare you too much. Yes, it’s challenging, but if you love airplanes and space vehicles, you will love aerospace engineering. I finished in 4 years with about a 3.4 GPA and I would say I have pretty average intelligence for an engineer… some of my classmates were much much smarter than me, which helped me learn from them.
I went to school for physical therapy...., 4 years undergrad bio degree (graduated summa cum laude), 3 years masters, then a 2 year doctorate....yes, i do about the same ad an electrical engineer regarding pay, but healthcare is going downhill and the burnout is awful. I wish i would have chosen aerospace or electrical engineering......regrets 😢
For electrical engineering, Complex variables and transformations are the highest mathematical classes taught.
You need the highest math skills; you have to deal with transforms and complex numbers.
Also, it should be far up on the list as it requires a lot of abstract physics and math skills. And it's very theoretical.
From our high school years, we keep questioning what is the 'iota' used for, why is it worth studying if its 'imaginary' and doesn't 'exist', but only in EE, do we understand the complete use of it, it's so magical how we use imaginary numbers to make everything that involves electricity.
No other engineering focuses on that 'iota.'
I for sure agree
S tier for sure
As an aerospace engineer I agree, your stuff is way harder
I'm currently taking the complex variables and transformation class. If it wasn't for my professor being very good at teaching this subject, I would be very lost. I quite enjoy this class because of the way he teaches it.
This list is garbage. Mech is a joke
I'm a mechatronics engineering student so I've done quite a bit of both EE and ME. It really depends on exactly what you're covering, but EE can be very difficult and involved, ESPECIALLY when you're talking about RF engineering. Anything with true electromagnetic design and RF design requires partial differential equations, not just ordinary differential equations. I'd say it should be much higher than 8th
What is RF ?
@@ak0oo radio frequency. And the electromagnetic spectrum more generally.
You need to use partial diff in mech eng also for the thermodynamics and fluid mechanics problems. RF modelling can basically be considered as fluid flow. Similar to FE analysis for stress analysis. It's different sides to the same coin.
@@ak0ooradio frequency (electromagnetic waves)
Yeah partial differential equations is considered a basic level class for our ME degree lol sorry but it is true what the video says, ME gets to learn the majority of all types of engineering degrees including electrical.
I loved being a materials engineer straight out of college. Worked pretty consistently in RnD groups and learned so much over the years. If I wasn't in a lab, I was pulling favors characterizing for others or participating in standups and brainstorming with other talented engineers/scientists. A lot of students see materials engineering as an easy course path, but only because the materials classes taken by other disciplines are very surface level. Most people don't really think of materials engineers having an affinity for quantum mechanics. For anyone who wants to study the compromise between scientific curiosity and engineering empiricism, I would definitely recommend MSE.
This is really informative. Excellent video mate!
Glad you think so!
As a former graduate of the enlisted Naval Nuclear Program, I have to agree with your assessment of the Mechanical vs. Electrical vs. Nuclear degrees. I was on the mechanical side, but we had to learn all facets of the electrical and nuclear operator positions as well. It was necessary to learn this way due to the possibility that in time of war, those positions may need to be filled if those men were incapacitated. That being said, only about 55% of the people who start in the Naval nuclear program actually see it through to the end.
Wow
Wow is that a 4 yr degree 🧐
That actually makes a lot of sense.
Gottahave backup plans.
Hey man, I just graduated nps last week (I’m an et)
A buddy of mine is a Navy aviator and on track for carrier command; his ex wife told me nuclear school destroyed their marriage.
As a retired Ph.D. nuclear engineer, I would consider chemical engineering perhaps the hardest at the B.S. level. When I got my B.S. in nuclear engineering in 1969 at Kansas State, both chemical and nuclear engineering B.S. degrees required 148 semester hours. Now, I think somewhere around 132 semester hours are required for chemical engineering there. I think the chemical engineering approach to mass transfer and fluid flow is a little more rigorous than in mechanical engineering (my graduate level minor). I am not current on what the entry level pay is for the various disciplines right now. Petroleum engineering used to have high demand and high pay.
Another thing that’s not mentioned very much in the video is the job saturation level. From my research, chemical engineering is highly oversaturated because of the few number of jobs currently available. In the US where I’m from, chemical engineering does not have very many positions available versus how many students are graduating per year. So, while it may be an incredibly difficult major, you’ll probably have to work twice as hard to find a job in it once you graduate
But you would agree that Nuclear and Aerospace Engineer are far and out the hardest if you include graduate level material right???
@@noomade Probably electrical as the hardest, to be honest
@@bestredditstories1158 Interesting
@@bestredditstories1158 - Same here!
Software engineering student here.
100% recommend. Easy classes, minimal math, and straightforward grading.
Sad the university I wanna go to doesn't have it, they only have computer science and IT
Highest pay
joke or what?
Aspire to be more than a "coder".
Remember, _somebody_ has to write the APIs you're calling; _those_ are Software Engineers and/or Computer Scientists.
@@daakudaddy5453 Not the highest but definitely one of the most sought after
I think the difficulty level is more based on your passion and how that discipline relates to it. I have a PhD EE Georgia Tech '93 and went for it because I love audio and analog circuit design. Find that spark and you'll get through. Good luck! Thanks for the video.
Chemical Engineering is definitely one of the most difficult. Consider doing it in 4 years while working a full-time job and still achieving a 3.7 GPA. The pay is MUCH higher than what they say here. I am making over $200k as a senior-level program manager in the pharma industry
How many years of experience do you have? I’m also looking into chemical engineering for uni, would you recommend it?
@@MLA979 I graduated College in 2000 with my B.S. in Chemical Engineering. I think it is a great degree, because it is so flexible. Yes, you can design chemical processes, heat exchangers, reactors, distillation columns, etc. But, you don't have to. As a Chem E., you are well-respected by others, as they know what it takes to complete the course work with a very good GPA.
I have spent my career perfecting my "personal brand". I started out for a decade in the semiconductor industry, but then transitioned over to a Medical Device company, as I didn't want to get typecast as a semiconductor engineer. I developed leadership skills, among other things, along the way, Now, nearly 25 years into my career, I have a great income with a great job with plenty of opportunity to pursue a Sr. Director type role.
I hope this helps.
Creating bogus vaccines ?
This is very refreshing to hear. I’m currently a ChemE senior. I was worried about average salary in this vid. I know starting salary isn’t $200k but willing to put forth the work and effort to get there!
What university did you go to?
Materials engineer here! I earned my BS, MS, and PhD in materials science & engineering so I could probably speak to the difficulty during degree progression. Relatively speaking a BS isn’t too difficult in that the classes are fairly broad and you may or may not specialize in something as a senior. Even at the upper levels, courses can sometimes feel like a repeat of undergraduate content but presented in more depth or require more math to understand which is where PDEs and matrix analysis come in. In my opinion, what makes materials engineering both interesting and difficult is when you conduct materials research. Depending on the materials or applications, you might need to understand chemistry, solid state physics, thermo, mechanical behavior, electronic behavior or other higher order relationships. It’s such a great field to be in right now since new materials lead to new technologies that are likely limited by the materials we currently have!
My brother ended as a material process engineer / project manager.
Started as metallurgical engineer in 1951.
He picked some up electronic engineering somewhere in the time between then and 1985 when he retired.
In 1978 or so he was turned away by the US government to head a project because did not have a PhD.
So he hired one. The PhD was glad to have finally met him. Seems like his work was what he studied.
Made more as a company president CEO because of that requirement. More than in the 1st 30 years in total.
As for me different mother. His mother paid for his college. My mother,, well she had better things to do.
By 1967 going to college and working to pay for it was not something you could do. Almost got a Biomedical Engineering degree.
Oh and designing analog computers sucks. One of those multiple op amp chips can take the place of a million lines of code with less watts.
There was few of those in my naval equipment.
Then I joined the Navy. Not a lot of money, but saw places he never seen. Did things he never did.
@@warrenpuckett4203 "Then I joined the Navy. Not a lot of money, but saw places he never seen. Did things he never did."
Not an engineer, but glad I joined the USN. Your sentence sums up my career in a nutshell. Another version of the Roy Batty speech!
Finishing up my Engineering Physics deg very soon. I'm specializing in semiconductor physics/design and plasma system to a lesser extent. Materials research, solid state physics, semiconductors, and plasma are so interrelated its shocking and wonderful. Any mix of those disciplines is truly the hardest engineering.
After 24 years as a mechanical engineer, I switched to a major construction equipment manufacturer but at a small operation they recently purchased. Most of the engineer they had acquired with the company were civil engineers doing mechanical design. They created some PPD (piss poor designs) but eventually the mother company brought in more like me. When I retired 18 years later, I was still the only one there with a PE license which resulted in more time testifying as an expert witness. Something not taught in my engineering school, but given to me by the company in the DOW 30 industrials was operator manual for the witness stand.
I agree with what a lot of people have said. It's all very hard imo. I have a UK degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked in the nuclear industry. My core discipline was structural engineering but found myself doing all sorts from stats to using manufacturing data to assessing tensile data.
What I would say is once your in a multidisciplinary industry you'll have the opportunity to transfer your knowledge and work in different areas. You'll never get bored!
Was your mechanical engineering course in uk a 3 year course
@@Hadi-vs8df yes it was 3 years, 1984 to 1987
@@danielfrancis3660 in other countries engineering courses are of 4 years , i live in Dubai right now and planning to go to the uk to study engineering so is there any harm in choosing the 3 year course over 4 years ?
@@Hadi-vs8df these days engineering courses are 3 years plus a 1 years master degree so 4 years in total.
@@danielfrancis3660 okay thank you sir , also do you know about the Bolton college in uk, if yes can you tell me if it’s a good college
For people considering which engineering discipline to study, in the grand scheme of things Tiers S through C are more or less comparable in difficulty - don’t get discouraged!! The average person will get through any of these majors if they are willing to dedicate what it takes! If you are willing to spend 4 years and commit to your academic success over everything else, you will be just fine. The majority of people who drop out are people who weren’t serious enough about the major and who weren’t willing to commit to the lifestyle. Sincerely, a 3rd year aerospace engineering student. :)
I'll take who has the best salary
Not really true you need IQ and having the correct personality type really helps too.
@@fearsomefoursome4IQ won’t get you through university 😂 you need to put in the work, my teacher always says being smart will get you nowhere. If you work hard enough you can be successful and if you fail that’s just more motivation to keep trying 🤑
@@Hypnotic.-. I think his point is if you lack in the IQ department all effort will not help you. Even though I would say my school was pretty helpful with people of less pre-education and intelligence, at some point you just can't manage to finish in time.
Generally those people don't try to apply anyways as engineering degrees are known to be hard.
PS. I don't intend to say if you have enough IQ then an engineering degree will be effortless and you do it in a month. But just because it is not everything doesn't mean it is nothing.
@@Hypnotic.-.I was a monitor for algorithms in my last semester and i tell you, some people might work their asses off truly hard and get nowhere.
Some people cannot improve enough trough hardwork to attain an engineering degree, i dont know if they were born like that or lack the basics teached in highschool and now its too late... but they seem unable to overcome some walls, and if they do it takes waaay too long. Its sad but it is what i perceived trying to teach and help people some of the most basic stuff.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes im not very familiar with English.
I did a joint honours in metallurgy and materials science, mostly because the UKAS entry requirements were the lowest of any of the engineering disciplines. I assumed that because the entry requirements were low then the course would be the easiest of the engineering disciplines. After two years of struggling through my course, and discussing syllabus with friends doing other engineering disciplines I realised I was far more advanced. I spoke to my tutor about this and he laughed saying, the entry requirements were deliberately set low to encourage more people to sign up to the course. I graduated 20 years ago and in that time I have worked for several large companies and traveled the world on business. I have not been unemployed for even one day in all this time. I highly recommend metallurgy and material sciences to any young engineer.
Thanks a lot bro
This was pretty helpful
I'm 3rd semester EE, we take 156 credits (if I remember correctly) already did vector analysis and ODE, currently taking partial differential equations, integral transforms and Fourier series.
No idea where this dude got his information from.
EE is 100% the hardest.
I’m a current CS major in college, and I definitely agree that my degree is not the most difficult degree by itself. The difficulty mostly comes from attempting to balance class requirements with internships and projects, which you need from sophomore year and up if you want to immediately contend on the job market. Competition is no joke
Ye indeed. My lil sister is civil engineer-architect & she had so much work with the study like making miniature houses etc mainly, that they literally had to skip some sleep sometime cuz of all the work they got eventho my sis is very smart. In my country they seem mostly to look for IT sort of engineers, or just regular ppl with IT knowledge, degree.
I never understood why engineering graduates make so much less than software engineers, because "real" engineering classes are so much harder. Why do so many people go into engineering when software pays so much more? Pay would have to go up if less people studied it.
@@kyleolson9636pay is based on supply and demand. SW demand is huge and the profits of the googles and metas are so big that they can pay.. I don't think "real" engineering is any harder though... To be really good in anything is difficult. Yes there are tons of easy coding jobs but those don't really require "engineers". Really good SW engineers are rare... And paid accordingly...
@@kyleolson9636That's not really true, you cannot be an engineer without studying in college, you can be a programmer by studying it on the internet. There are many programmers with shitty wages
@@kyleolson9636 because people do what they're interested in. or maybe they're like me and didn't even know what programming was before college
I’m a junior chemical engineer at MTU with a 3.9. I’ve taken lots of computer engineering classes and electrical engineering, and I can definitely say that ChemE and EE are tied to being the hardest. I have ME friends and their work is usually simplified versions of what they teach ChemE’s. CS/CE majors are to highest in demand and highest paid but definitely one of the easier engineering degrees.
Aerospace engineering is basically just mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering is similar to ChemE.
Engineering is one of the only jobs where you can be creative and be guaranteed to make a lot of money if you are smart with great social skills.
Do not be scared of STEM classes. I promise you that you can pass any STEM class if you dedicate yourself to it. Go to lecture, read the textbook, go to office hours, go to learning centers, take the practice exams. You will get it done if you really push yourself and I believe that everyone is capable of it if they fully utilize their potential. Do not undersell your self. Engineering is an extremely rewarding career path and I recommend it to everyone regardless of age.
Physics is probably the hardest undergrad degree though.
This is basically the assessment that was current in the late 70's/early 80's when I was an undergrad. Don't forget Industrial as a little easier than Civil.
CS shouldn’t be considered engineering - it’s hard in a fundamentally different way. You could be a wizard at ChemE and struggle bad in CS. Similarly you could be a CS genius but crumble when doing ChemE.
Also CE can be dramatically more difficult depending on where you learn it. In some schools it’s just a watered down EE that focuses on computers, at others it’s EE on crack where it’s basically just EE and you learn the specifics of computers. Ask your peers before choosing one or the other if you’re worried about the difficulty
@@justliberty4072Yes, we can’t forget about the imaginary engineers…
From what I seen only mtu has the learning centers and requirements of each major is 128 credits +
Hope to see Engineering Physics on the list some day!
It's a real choose your own adventure between ME, EE, and CE/SE with some optics and advanced physics like special relativity sprinkled on top.
I got the hell out of engineering for a variety of reasons. One of which was while I was forced to take a break to save money for round 2, I watched as median pay for these degrees didn't change. Not for the first 3 years I was school, not for the 5 I was out, and not for the 1 I was back in before deciding to bail.
It is *insane* how undervalued engineering is compared to the 1990s. These are the pay scales from like 40 years ago. It's unhinged.
I’d guess there are a lot more engineers out there now. More people are going to school now. Because if you don’t go to school for stem, you’re screwed financially
Wages, like most things are decided by market forces, more engineers means lower pay for each
Your're totaly right. I know a lot of engineers and no one seems to be satisfied with their career. Indeed one of them switched to business as he don't wanted to be the "slave" for the management of his company. The ROI of engineering is also really bad, instead you'll be better off doing courses and start immediately to work. With the rise of AI it will get worse!
@@Mactakun There are droves of people in trades that make more than this, and don't have to worry about their jobs going off shore. You can't fix an electrical panel or a toilet, if you're on Zoom in India.
@@Victor-ji1rz
That is not how economics works. supply and demand has two parts, supply, and demand. you are only taking into consideration the supply.
if the demand outpaces the supply, then the value should rise. and demand has outpaced the supply. the issue is engineers do not know crap about economics and accept the lower wages because they are ignorant of the value of their labor.
Good food for thought; interesting video. I'm a ChemE, and glad college was a long time ago!
For prospective engineering students: don't let the difficulty scare you off. Bottom line... most engineering degrees are hard (but worth it!). Don't go into something just for the money... do it because you enjoy solving problems, applying math and science to improve our world. Slogging through the tech classes gets you the good paying job where you get to be creative, have fun, apply your knowledge, and learn the practical applications of how to get things done in the real world. People skills are as important as technical skills to be an effective engineer. These salary numbers appear low - you'll earn more with experience, merit raises, bonuses, etc. Good luck to all aspiring engineers... work hard, study with other engineering students, and don't get discouraged. FYI, most engineers never have to do partial differential equations in the real world. But the discipline and mental stamina it takes to analyze, document, and solve these long math/science/engineering problems really does train your brain to think through complex problems and develop great critical thinking skills. You can do it!
Everything you said is 💯 true, just one thing I would add there are almost no girls in any of your classes. Just saying lol.
I found that most of what you learn will amount to no more than a hoop you have to jump through. BUT, by going through it all you have to learn how to think in "the engineering way", approaching problems systematically.
Thanks for posting this. Not only is it going to make me feel better when it takes me longer to graduate, but I can also show this to my veterans affairs school counselor when she’s wondering why I’m struggling to become an engineer.
Chemical Engineer here... The highest level of math is NOT Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE), we need to have a good understanding of Partial differential equations (PDE). PDEs are used in Transport Phenomena, Heat Transfer, Process Control and Simulation, Reactor Engineering...etc. Now this makes me wonder how accurate this tier list is.
Same here, BSChE, Wisconsin 1970. I learned from the gurus (Bird, Steward, Lightfoot), when Transport Phenomena (the Red Bible) was just introduced. They would hand out "correction pages" to be glued into the book. I had a super rewarding career. Our daughter is also a ChE, granddaughter is studying Data Science.
@@ronaldlenz5745 Thanks so cool to know, I graduated BSChE in Guadalajara, Mexico, and obtained a Master of Chemical Engineering at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Let me tell you, both Universities still use Bird, Steward, Lightfoot lectures and books to this day! As for your granddaughter she is choosing a great career, the need to use data to make Engineering decisions is key nowadays.
I'm studying environmental engineering and we will see all of that too in the course of differential equations, we even see Fourier transform, I don't know why it is lower
The most useful video!
Glad you think so!
Take all of the highest level math, physics, and chemistry classes you can handle. Engineering materials is useful also. I would look at what will make you most valuable to a potential employer. Don't neglect English writing courses. It does not matter how good your testing is if you are unable to communicate the results and recommendations, both in written words and in-person spoken presentations, to small and large groups.
WOOO ASPIRING CHEMICAL ENGINEERING GRADUATE INSHALLAH, IT HAS TAKEN A l o o o n g TIME TO GET TO THIS POINT !!! ONLY 6 MONTHS LEFT !!!!
Awesome! Way to go.
Hey fellow Muslim here! I'm interested in aerospace bc I'm a space nerd😅 still young but that's my aspiration 😅 inshallah😊
@@FoggyEditsaldcme too... can you leave you email so that we talk
In Electrical Engineering we also use Partial Differential Equations, especially for Electromagnetics (which is a fundamental basis of this engineering). See, for example, the Electromagnetic Wave Equations and the Telelegrapher's Equations.
Wow! Earned my BSNE from NC State University in 1984. Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering were considered the hardest then. My hat's off to chemical engineers. Having a second major in computer science made my career more interesting.
Wow, thank you for studying every single engineering career just to make this video for us.
I taught engineering physics for 30 years, and I wish I had had this video to show to my students. Concise and to the point - well done! BTW, it was an open secret among the physics faculty that environmental engineering was the easiest way to go - the requirement at our school was merely 1 semester of calculus-based physics.
Sup.
thanks! glad you liked the video
@becominganengineer2271 How long would a double major in cs and mechanical engineering take to attain a bachelor's degree, Associates, etc. I am a double major.
@@OceanDudeSubmarine Like everything, it depends. Your lower division courses overlap, so little slowdown there. If your CS emphasis is hardware, probably good overlap in upper division courses (thermo, etc.) but if your CS emphasis is software, maybe 5 instead of 4 years.
@@spacemonkey1053 So, 4 years then... alright I'll make the best of my time. Thanks dude.
Ding ding ding! That would be my undergrad - nuclear. A student must deal with equations where you start doubling up your Greek characters to represent certain variables. I was always a big fan of magic and nuclear engineering (when dealing with a reactor core) is pretty much magic, so I loved it :) Thanks for the overview of engineering degrees. I would think an electrical engineer would have more difficult courses than I did, but it is probably a matter of perspective :)
Great video! You've clearly done your research to put together this comprehensive list. You have focused on the key elements of each degree which I think will definitely help any prospective engineering students who are trying to decide which pathway is best for them! Unfortunately, I'm personally down in 14th place as a 'Civils Grad' but then I would agree with that. However, the most important point you made was that ALL engineering degrees are hard and anyone considering an engineering degree should be aware of that! This is mainly due to the content, there is a broad range of learning required on all engineering degree programs and this is one of the main reasons for students not completing their degree, they can become overwhelmed by the amount of study required! But it is worth it in the end!
When I first went to engineering school I planned to study physics. A short time later I switched to electrical engineering. For the first 2 years most everyone took the same courses, so these changes didn't really amount to much. By late sophomore year I unexpectedly discovered I had a knack for fluid mechanics, mathematics and combustion engines. So I changed my major to mechanical engineering and have stuck with it ever since, but have broadened my expertise to include machine dynamics, chemical engineering and control systems. I've had an amazing career and travel the world. As a high school grad, it's unlikely you'll know what you want to do. Use your time in college to discover what your natural talents and interests are. But bear in mind, a degree in engineering is only a learners permit. You will learn how to engineer and build things after graduation. Remember this...the only acceptable grade for your work in the "real world" is A+.
You are right. Have lots of Engineers and Computer Science people in my family. Physicist. Medicine, Teaching. They pick on my BSBA all the time. Thing is, it is money management that keeps the wheels greased, lol.
@@Messymy 😂 Gotta keep them wheels greased! I agree. It’s like men and women. You can invent the next super gadget, but you need money to make it happen. And visa versa, there’s more money out there than there are good ideas. Success requires both.
I’m curious why Environmental Engineering is broken out from the other Civil disciplines in this list. The one that really stands out from that group and probably deserves its own ranking is Structural Engineering.
This was my exact thought. Especially when I recall comparing workloads (read: who was already out drinking on Friday evening, and who was still at their desks trying to get assignments done by cutoff, and level of math actually used, not necessarily required) of other disciplines within the Civil umbrella during my undergrad.
probably because a lot of colleges nowadays do offer undergrad in enviromental engineering only
As science advance, there are more engineering fields open. Just like in the 1940s there were no such thing as nuke , environmental and electronic engineers.
Environmental requires more biology and chemistry than civil, so it's considered very closely related to civil but distinct enough to be its own separate major for a lot of colleges
@@clevernickname8095 not all thou, i have a degree in civil and enviromental engineering. Although it is only one Bachelor degree.
Hi, Jake. I’ve worked in Silicon Valley, as a mechanical engineer for 40 years. I’m 66 and have been retired now, for 2 years. I like your rating list of engineering disciplines. I also like your insight in mechanical engineering, describing it as a bit of a jack of all trades, adopting and working in many different spheres of the engineering trade. All I can add to what was covered, is that electrical engineers in every company I worked for are the most secure positions, with higher demand, in general, and better compensation than mechanical engineers. I can attribute it to only one thing, there are fewer of electrical engineers available, for two reasons: it is far more dangerous job, requiring at most focus and clarity of mind, while on the job, and much more stressful, because of those factors. In addition, the required level of understanding physics and math is greater, and also demand for continuous education, due to very fast changes in sophistication of hardware and safety standards. One more thing, a computer science degree is also considered an engineering degree in Silicon Valley. Computer science degree, at least in my book, is the highest degree, just by sophistication and complexity of disciplines, and amount of information required to be consumed. Thank you, again.
Completely disagree regarding computer science, as I am someone who ‘failed back’ from chemical engineering to graduate with a CS degree. I am also completely opposed to anyone calling themselves a software ‘engineer’. I can take a mathematician or any physical engineer and train them to be a programmer; the opposite is not true. I came to appreciate the concept that any real engineer must have some proficiency in subjects of energy and/or mass transfer, materials, and laboratory methods and practice. I have yet to meet a ‘software engineer’ meeting this minimum, unless they were educated through a real engineering program.
@@brianfeathers7473My apologies, I believe, there was a mixup in terminologies, my bad. I was using “computer science” in terms of science of designing and manufacturing digital hardware, including: integrated circuits, computers, and semiconductor technology, in general.
You're awesome this comment was a great read
@@brianfeathers7473You know what’s crazy through? All these “real engineering jobs” work with machines and equipment that only operate because someone developed software for them. From robotics, complex machines that handle multiple processes, to heavy duty equipment lifting; someone had to write programs and code for it. It is a real engineering job; your not better just because you decided to work a more manual route, spend the majority of your time learning very complex material, work longer hours, and have a more difficult work life balance only to still make less then the guy who spends most of his day sitting at his desk in his comfy Herman Miller chair in his nice air conditioned office with his Starbucks latte on standby looking at a computer screen and typing code.
Also if it’s that easy; you’d have more people in the field. Most people trying to enter the field from here till 2032 will either give up half of the way through to pursue something else or switch careers when the 9-5 life begins to suck the soul out of them.
I started off at school in Civil Engineering. Found out all they do is dig hills and fill in valleys. So I switched to Industrial Engineering. Found out I was borne to do this work. The fun part is while going to school for IE and later being at work with other IE's , everyone around you is just like you. It was great, I am retired now.
Could you brief on what types of projects u worked over, the experience, job market etc. I'm going for undergrads & currently deciding b/w ME & IE. IE seems interesting but I'm not fully aware of its practicality.
@@HTrntrs I washed out of engineering school 12 years ago (considering going back next year for Geomatics Engineering though), but one of my classmates who earned his industrial engineering degree now works as a MECHANICAL engineer at one of the major American aerospace corporations. So as long as you take some technical electives that transcend engineering fields (e.g. statics, dynamics, etc.), you might be able to find work in a field of engineering outside your university major.
Going to college with other engineering students back in the 80's, it became apparent that civil engineering was easier than electrical or mechanical and that chemical engineering was much harder, at least to me. As an engineering student you sort of get an insight to what the different disciplines are in for because we basically all learn the same math and science for the first two years. I loved physics but not so much chemistry. I gravitated towards electrical even though I like mechanics as well. Some of the disciplines you mentioned I wasn't even aware of. I suspect I would have gone into the computer field had it been more of a thing when I went to college. I seem to like that more than electrical.
Same with pharmacy, Pharmacy has tons of combined Biology, Chemistry and Physics 😂
Great ranking. However, I wanted to note one thing regarding software engineering. As a 3rd-year software engineering student, I would say that in the US, it varies on what type of software engineering degree you are getting. If the program is ABET accredited under the Engineering Commission, then it will be very rigorous. For example, my program's (abet accredited) math requirements are calc 1-3, calc-based physics 1-3, DE's, linear algebra, prob/stats for engineers, and discrete mathematics (one of the weedouts). In the past, I have seen that some of the non-ABET accredited software engineering degrees are not as rigorous, which is why I say this.
Had calculus 1hr./wk. for one term during Freshman year in college, decided to pick it back up at my old age, found out how fascinating the concepts really are, and loving it. Always admire Engineers no matter what kind. They are responsible for our safety, be it major buildings, bridges, airplanes, automobiles, outer space traveling, etc. etc.
When I studied Chem. Eng., back in the early 90´s, the disciplines I found most challenging had to deal with transfer phenomena (a combination of mass transfer, heat transfer and fluid dynamics, with a wide range of fluids and behaviors, newtonian, non newtonian, laminar, turbulent flows, etc.) and reactor desing (basically take the former and add chemical reactions). Of the courses given by other faculties (service courses) the most difficult (abstract) was Physical Chemistry. Chem. Eng. so called Equilibrium Thermodynamics was also tough. Mostly having to study the design of engineering equipment and chemical plants based on quite abstract models is rather complex. We took an specific course on Mathematical Modelling for Chem. Eng. on top on 3 courses of calculus, differential equations and linear algebra. Where I studied almost all engineering degrees had to take the same basic math courses (3 courses on calculus, one on differential equations and one on linear algebra). At work the most challenging thing was learning to work ¨with people¨ after studying basically to work with abstract models.
Great list! Agree with rankings if we base it solely on the hard math and science required. No problem with using that as the hardness criteria since those are understood to be hard things to study.
That said, I remember a chem engineering student in my physics 2 class who was taking an entry level microprocessor course as an elective, a class I took all three levels and got big fat As in each. She struggled mightily in that class. I helped as best I could. Ended up practically doing her assignments for her. Then she showed me an assignment for physical chemistry (P. Chem) course and holy smokes it looked like hieroglyphics mixed with ancient Elven runes.
She could navigate the math and science of one of the most difficult courses in the world, but could not grasp the concept of digital encoding.
EE graduate here, imo Telecom had the scariest currilucum where I studied, its what I imagine Applied Physics should be. Most of the teachers were not even Telecom Engineers, dudes used to come straight from the Physics department. Generally in my regiont the general perception is that EE is the hardest, but that is probably because we have a much more broader curriculum compared to what I see in Europe or USA curriculums, which subdisciplines like Power Systems, Power Eletronics, Control Systems, Telecom, Microeletronic and Microcomputers being all present in the curriculum, which kinda makes EE looks like the big monster here. Pretty sure the average gradution time is about 12 semesters or more.
We also go up to Complex Analisys in math, and it is necessary to go up this point imo, so stopping in ODE seems out of this world to me.
Yup, as a ME, this was well known in university. EEs go up to Complex Analysis, which is the highest level of math on this list.
Complex Analysis? For an EE BS? I know a lot of math has a lot of non-conventional names, but I cannot imagine a Baccalaureate degree in anything other than Math requiring a course called Complex Analysis. Maybe a follow on class in Calc using complex numbers, but an analysis class? That's brutal.
@@descendency yep, in my time, 2014, we had Complex Analysis, taught by a teacher from the Math Dpt. in a very Math way, theorems followed by proofs, followed by exercises were we had to keep proofing stuff. I guess it is supposed to be a lighter version compared to what you see in a Math degree, but teachers here hold full power and do not care who they are teaching, so they can either make our lives heaven or hell. I remember learning up to Cauchy Teorems and Singularities (still have the book), which is kinda usefull mainly in Control Theory and Signal Processing, if you can make the mental "leap" between theory and practice.
We are introduced to use complex numbers alongside the phasor notion to deal with AC circuits one semester earlier, in an introdutory Eletrical course.
@@descendency we had to do functions of complex variables/introduction to complex analysis because a lot of our probability requires Lebesgue measures and integration/transformation of complex functions.
It’s the same at german universities. Complex Analysis is a must for an EE, honestly.
Can’t imagine how anyone would put EE under chemE, ME or nuclear (subspecialty of ME in germany, just like Aerospace in most unis).
The nice thing about Aerospace engineering is that it overlaps with most of the other engineering disciplines. Propulsion is applied thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, control system design, exotic structural design, orbital mechanics, design for the vacuum and temperature extremes of space, lab testing. I managed a 4.0 in the first EE class but my GPA was a tenth too low to get in the department. I ended up getting accepted into the Aerospace department and those classes I worked my tail off to stay at the median of the class with 3.0 average. Funny to see EE ranked so easy. There is a ton of competition to get into that department, so only the best students make it.
Interesting presentation. It makes me feel a little bit better about my less-than-stellar GPA coming out of an aerospace engineering program (they call it aeronautical/astronautical at that school) that was known for not inflating grades (at least that was what they told us when students were concerned about going on to graduate school), getting through it in four years, and following that up with five years in naval nuclear propulsion.
As a retired mining engineer I was not surprised where we ranked. The credit hours when I graduated was 138, the highest at our University. It is a great career choice if you can deal with boom and bust cycles.
Some of the most versatile and competent engineers I ever met were grads of CSM.
Am currently studying 1st year mining engineering, you got any tips once I eventually get out in the field?
I agree! Getting my nuclear engineering degree pretty much kicked my butt but I made it through (BNE81). What I did learn in college was that I wasn't as smart as I thought when I graduated high school. I'm surprised that the math requirements have changed so much since I remember taking 2 years of calculus as well as half a year of advanced math (LaPlace Transformations, etc.). My hardest course was however a ChemE thermodynamics course. As far as zero growth goes I have to disagree. Although I'm getting ready to retire after 43 years in the nuclear power production field, my phone rings constantly from companies looking for engineering help for advanced and small modular reactor design and licensing. There's going to be plenty of nuclear engineering opportunities in the next 10-15 years and a definite shortage of nuclear engineers.
My son will be a graduating this yr as nuclear engineer from RPI. He was originally a ChemE, then switched over NucE. Good to hear from someone in the field that there are jobs available
I actually am the opposite. Got my degree from Arizona in '94 (one of the last group of BS students before the Dean of Engineering killed the program and folded us into Mechanical -- around '96 or '97). I don't know if it was our professors, but we had some of the best professors that could easily explain things to us (David Hetrick, Morton Wacks, Robert Seale, Barry Ganapol, John Williams, William Fillipone, and Wayne Jouse) and the NE classes were easy to understand. I found that classes in non-Nuclear subjects were actually more difficult than the Nuclear subjects (with the exception of Thermo/Heat Transfer due to Henry Perkins). We also had access to some good equipment for learning (TRIGA mk 3 - 100kW, a Co 60 irradiator, a natural uranium pile, and a linear electron accelerator).
@@csdn4483so should I be a nuclear engineer? Btw, I am in 10th grade and love everything related to nuclear energy
Was about to say. The amount of nuclear shit going on right now is crazy. New plants are sprouting up all over the world. China just invented that battery that'll supposedly last 50 years, we're redeveloping the fusion model... just saying. We have plenty of room for growth my N.E. brother!
Thermo is no joke
I spent 44 years as a mechanical engineer and never was unemployed unless I wanted to take a break. I designed everything from large CNC machine tools to steering systems for ship to hay balers, race car parts and enjoyed every job. One of the points I think that would be interesting for your channel would be to discuss what kind of hobbies, outside interest are important for being different types of engineer. I had a very close friend that ran a division of a large company and he said that the most important question he asked a person applying for a mechanical engineering position was what his hobby was. Being involved with cars, motorcycles, airplanes or other types of mechanical devices was a great indicator of a good mechanical engineer.
Rex
As a software engineer, It's fascinating to see the diverse paths individuals have taken within the engineering realm, from electrical and mechanical to materials and mining engineering. What resonates most with me is the emphasis on practical experience and continuous learning beyond the classroom. Whether it's navigating through complex mathematical equations or honing communication skills, these comments reinforce the idea that engineering is not just about technical prowess but also about adaptability and problem-solving in real-world scenarios.
As a Mechanical engineer in the workforce for about 10 years, I think the degree is super universal and can lead you to an almost endless number of jobs The down side is it is hard to be special enough, especially at large corporations, to be compensated well since they can just get a new college hire that's cheaper. But you can often find fun work in an area that you like and can do some really specialized stuff.
Aerospace, electrical, computer, and mechanical are all extremely versatile regardless. You just need to know how to build a resume.
3rd year Aerospace Engineering student here, I was surprised to see aerospace at #2! From my experience my major seems harder than most disciplines (mechanical, civil, environmental, industrial/manufacturing, etc.) but definitely seems easier than something like nuclear or electrical. With respect to chemical engineering I’d say the difficulty depends on the person, because some people are more inclined to understand chemistry than physics/mechanics, but for the average person I’d say it’s harder than aerospace.
It’s also worth noting that for some disciplines (i.e. materials/metallurgical), the average student is getting at least a graduate degree, so comparing the undergraduate degrees isn’t necessarily comprehensive for comparing career paths.
PhD student in Aerospace here. In my opinion, the difficulty in Aerospace doesn't come so much from the individual difficulty of each subject, but the variety and depth to which we study several fields. You could say we're Mechanical Engineers with some less thermal stuff but a bunch more fluid mechanics and structures. Also, my university didn't have Nuclear, but compared to Electrical Engineering, Aerospace doesn't fall behind in maths, control systems or physics.
Note that your experience may be quite different, as I haven't studied in America and my undergrad program had a base duration of 5 years (which was virtually impossible), so I don't know how a typical American program is.
Trudged through 4.5 years for a ChemE degree. Was in senior year when I realized the potential jobs I could get wasn't really what I wanted to do with my life. After graduating, switched to biology/bioengineering and went to graduate school. Found doing research to be my cup of tea (for now at least), and will be applying for PhD this year. I frequently get comments on how I could've stuck with ChemE and made way more money by now, but I'm content with my career choices.
At my University, the largest freshman classes were in EE. So they needed a landing spot for the "2 out of 3" who didn't make it past Sophomore year. Most of those EE's went to Mechanical. So they had to lighten the load in MechE to keep those students from transferring elsewhere. There are often secondary aspects to these difficulty rankings per school.
Also, if these GPA's are real it is nice to see that grade inflation is being kept in check.
Computer Science Engineer.. Six years to graduate due to full time employment. Computer Science was mostly mathematics through Calc III, and Differential Equations. Graduated in 1990 and today many things in the industry have evolved well beyond my understanding. Neural networks were the subject for graduate students when I was studying for my CS degree.
I am 85 and a mechanical + electrical engg, in 1963 I did Mech and I couldn’t pass exam so I did elec as well in 1964 ,no intellectual vanity ,but down to earth I am proud to be an engg as my fellow professional friends are making great contributions to engg professions,James Web telescope will help humanity a lot ,u can’t now say Sky is the limit
Hi. I hope you are doing well. Do you have any wisdom for us? I want to get into Computer Science. I know it is unrelated but I feel like I am entering the new chapter of life.
Computer science has really changed and matured as it's a more recent field. When I took it in the late 80's / early 90's it was part of the school of engineering so I had to take all the same classes as all the other engineering students: Calc 1-3, ODE, PDE, Linear Alg, Prob&Stat, Discrete Math, Physics 1-3, Chemistry 1 & 2, EE 1 & 2, Thermodynamics, Operations research, numeric methods PLUS a foreign language for 3 quarters! My stepson just finished his CS degree and since he already had the pre-reqs from community college, he got his degree at the universitty in only 2 years and only had to take CS classes. His highest math was Calc 2 and he never had to take any engineering classes like EE, Chemistry, or Physics.
For us aerospace engineers (speaking for germany) I'd say the most difficult part is, that you know something about EVERYTHING. You masters studies help in streamlining it to only a few topics, but everybody is learning about thermodynamics, aerodynamics, material science, software, electrical stuff... oftentimes it's the classic school-thought of "when will I ever need this, that's not even my future line of work".
That being said you are insanely quick in regaining everything, should you be in a pinch
Great work on collecting all the data that allowed you to put together this video. However, I was expecting "new" engineering fields such as Robotics Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering to be included in this ranking. Maybe you could come up with part two.
100% plan to do it again next year
Retired Mining Engineer here. Although certainly not the most glamorous profession, it provided a ton of wide and varied experiences: you are expected to be a bit of a jack of all trades, and I have had to become proficient in Materials, Environmental, HVAC, Industrial, Geology, as well as having a good working knowledge in Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical/Electronics disciplines. Depending on the specific jobsite, you might find yourself as the only engineer on site and have to wear many hats. As you stated, you might end up in some very out-of-the-way places, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Remuneration can be very good, especially if you are in the developing world.
Am currently studying the first year of mining engineering, got any tips?
@banana6837 Mining engineering today (unlike when I was studying) is incredibly reliant on specialized software. Take advantage of being a uni student, and become familiar with as many software packages as you can (get free demo or student versions if available). You will probably change companies several times, and mining companies, even in the same region or country, often vary widely in terms of what CAD package they use, what planning and design software, even more specialized stuff like ventilation or safety software. Learn it all and become proficient with as many as you can. I still do a bit of consulting work, and every job uses different software, and they send you files in a million different formats.
@@Fredman2410 thank you for the help:)
Currently learning Vulcan and Carlson . It’s a lot but I rlly enjoy it
Useful content 👍
Now I feel flattered thinking that my AE bf once said I can be a nuclear engineer, as a joke😂
I studied EE at a University in Germany and we shared math lectures with physics students.
Depending on your specialization you had to deal with fancy mathematics like higher-dimensional integral calculus, tensor calculus or nonlinear partial differential equations and sometimes even special math notations that are only used for a certain type of problem (i.e. matrix to the power of matrix).
We also shared some physics lectures with the physics students, for example nuclear physics and experimental physics.
It is pretty The same here in Brasil. There was even calculus with complex variables. In The field of microwaves The math required is even more difficult.
Electronics is basically semiconductor physics.
I'm in your spot right now. Specializing in communications. The physics and maths needed are beyond healthy ...
@@ProGamer-hg4rf I also specialized in communications. Sometimes I thought: ‚Welcome to just another math lecture!‘. I like mathematics so it was fine.
Here in Norway we ranked these by the grades needed to get into the university program, and by the level of math needed for the degree.
EE and Physics tied for the top level in math, requiring the full calculus set (differential equations and partial/algebraic integration) while all the other degrees got away with a bit less.
In reality, most of calculus have been replaced by numeric methods over my 40+ year career as an MSEE/CS guy.
Hello. Could you please clarify what you mean by numeric methods please?
I have personally just started an electrical engineering degree (later on will take one the BEng). We use C language for programming classes. Will that be good for job world? I've read it's a good beginner language, and you can use it as a good base to learn more complex programming languages later on.
Also, my lecturer said that things change very quickly in the electronics world, and we by the time we leave uni, our knowledge will be of little use. We have to stay up to date.
Could you please give me any advice from the experience you have built over years? For example, what to expect in the job world, what tools to learn using from early on, uni advice, study and work ethics, internships, and/or other things that you would know.
@@uz.f1746 numerical methods involves the use of various techniques(euler and rk methods to name a few) to find roots of equations, solve differential eqns , boundary value problems etc
@@uz.f1746 The hardest part of calculus is to generate exact solutions for integrals, right? While differentiation can be done more or less by rote, combining relatively simple rules for partial differentiation, integrals seems to be solved with a bunch of semi-magic transformations. 🙂
This is where numeric solutions typically gets you a "good enough" answer with much less effort.
I am under the impression that just about all complex math problems nowadays will be fed into a computer and taken care of in seconds. No engineers can afford to spend a week with pencil and paper on it.
Awesome 👌🏾 video - I think 🤔 you got it correct!
Thanks! Glad you liked it
Nice roadmap, I will try
I think computer engineering difficulty largely depends on the program. That's true for all degrees on this list, but each school decides the proportion of software and electrical education required.
I would like to add in my humble opinion as a Nanotechnology student that nanotechnology engineering could occupy a place between materials engineering and chemistry engineering, the difficulty lies in the fact that it mainly covers a multidisciplinary degree and not a single focus like other careers.
Thanks for this
Nuclear is gonna grow a LOT when fusion becomes viable. It will be the only energy source we use for all time.
There is now a "fever" for small nuclear reactor (SMR and AMR), so no it is not fusion, but ''classic'' fission water reactors, made smaller, that are driving the growth in the nuclear sector.
@@ro14851 Fusion is ridiculously efficient and productive compared to even the theoretical limit of fission. That’s what I’m talking about; when fusion becomes reliable, nobody will ever build a fission plant, wind turbine, or oil drill ever again.
@@samuelking4723fusion has been “40 years away” from being scalable to commercial use for as long as I can remember. I want it to take over but in the meantime we have a solution ready and waiting in fission.
Only problem is the roi has such a long timeline and investors are turned off by that. It’s economic and public perception issues that are in its way
@@samuelking4723Exactly. The oil industry will practically die overnight. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why it’s taking so long. I can imagine a bunch of billionaire oil brokers throwing money into to seeing how far they can push development back.
@@apricotmadness4850 To the contrary, I think some of those companies are investing heavily into alternative energy sources precisely because they don’t want to be left in the dust when piles of inevitably loses all market share.
I started studying Aerospace...then switched and finished my batchelor's degree in Mechanical...then went to work in Metallurgical...and now I'm going to school part time for my master's in Materials (still a full time metallurgist). It's been a wild ride! It's all fascinating to me. I think I do much better as a working engineer than an engineering student, though...all the degrees are difficult!
You learn way more when you are working as oppose to when you were studying, right?
I’m electrical engineer (control) and my brother is mechanical engineer. My college roommate was chemical engineer and my cousin is civil engineer. That being said, chemical engineering is the hardest. Then I rank electrical/ computer engineering, mechanical/ aerospace engineering and lastly civil engineering is the easiest.
This makes the most sense to me
Goddamn that one hell of a friend group
In my experience, electrical followed my chemical/mechanical and lastly computer/civil is in order of hardest to easiest.
Honestly, depends on your interests, which ultimately affects what you take as difficult and easy.
@@Seriouslyfunny1Electrical and Computer Engineering are like brothers, you cannot possibly put electrical at the top and computer at the bottom. They literally, at least at my university, take almost every class together with the exception of about 18 credits
@@zenrhys589 actually it's very subjective, because different institutions offer a very wide variety of courses depending on the outcome that they are targeting. For example my institution is research oriented and in Computer Sc. department, they focus more on algorithm development. Apart from calculus 1 and Linear algebra, they mostly study abstract algebra and discreet maths.
But in electrical engineering, they do calculus 1 and 2, partial DE, Complex analysis, multivariate analysis and optimization along with some fundamentals of abstract algebra. The math syllabus alone is more diverse than in comp sc. Even mechanical engineering students like me have to do same courses, but I personally find designing complex electronic architecture more difficult, so I kept it as the most difficult.
However, if you look at some other electrical engg. programs, you'll find much of what I mentioned missing which makes it significantly easier than computer science.
I know some German institutes whose mechanical engg. course is considered most brutal.
I am a degreed Industrial Engineer and I agree with your assessment. If you are an Electrical Engineer, you are smarter than me. Still, I contribute. I'm value-added.
Good video, gave you a like. My experience as an Electrical Engineer (EE) focused in High Speed Digital is that were are the most versatile. We are called upon to design circuits, code programmable logic, write software from low level drivers up to abstract applications, computer engineering, networks, some mechical, some RF, IR, UV, X-ray, some analog, some systems, some manufacturing, some environmental, a little chemical, componets, materials, from deep sea to deep space, tech writing, purchasing/procurement, program management, task management, marketing, R&D, and a tiny bit of nuclear (I have touched all of these and more). We tend to lead the design that brings together all of these disciplines and can follow a design from concept to end of life.
Electrical Engineers in Aerospace and Defense (like me) usually require Calculus 3, Thermodynamics, Chemistry, Physics, and more.
Your should break down Electrical Engineering by disciplines: Hardware, software, firmware, digital, analog, RF, power supplies, systems, optics, acoustics, and more.
I graduated in chemE. Definitely was really difficult for me and many of my classmates. My concentration was organic. So I had to take two semesters of organic, one semester of physical chemistry, and also the engineering labs which involve lots of data analysis, error propagation, and learning to use lots of different equipment.
Sounds so incredibly challenging. I hated physical chemistry. The course was so theoretical that it had almost no practical value to anything that I was interested in at the time
I guess I'm just the crazy one haha. I studied chemical engineering in college and my current job is working in nuclear engineering. I found this tier list pretty accurate from my experience in school and the other data I've seen from universities and the US bureau of labor statistics.
at GMI, we used to say, those who couldn't hack EE went ME, those who couldn't hack ME went IE, if you couldn't hack IE, you went into teaching.
Hi, where would you rank Physics Engineering on your tier list? Also, great video. Keep up with the good work!
hey thanks! i will add it the next video i do on this topic. but i would probably rank it in the top 6
I would definitely place Chemical Engineering as #1, and I would put EE as #2. Aerospace is very similar to Mechanical, I would call them sister degrees, so I don't understand why they are rated so differently. I think the reason Nuclear Engineering placed so high on your chart is just because it has become something of an orphan degree here in the states, which has probably influenced both the teaching and the student population. I know that I was initially interested in Nuclear when I enrolled in college in 1978, but the Three Mile Island happened. I saw the writing on the wall and chose Mechanical instead. As did many of my peers.
Should've gone nuclear instead looking back on it probably. Aero is a lot harder than Mech in senior year classes. EE is just very different not necessarily harder than anything else. It's all just subject in my opinion.
@@tasmayshah5539The curricula are nearly identical at most universities except for technical electives generally. So if you think that three classes related to propulsion or aircraft specific structures is that much more difficult on the whole than CFD or FEA courses on a more general level, then sure?
It is often said that Aerpsace and Mechanical are sister degrees, but in Aerospace you basically trade a little thermodynamics for a whole bunch of fluid mechanics and structures. The topics are similar, but the levels of specialization are entirely different.
@@1Podri Weird that Aero trades “a little thermo for a whole bunch of fluid mechanics and structures” when they both have the same course credit requirements. I would agree on the increase in fluid mechanics specialization part being swapped for some thermo and machine design, and that it is generally more specialized vs MechE being broader, but they are by and large very similar in most coursework and you could really seek employment interchangeably with the degrees.
@@1Podri Well, yes, but when I got my MSME in Turbomachinery, all of my thermo and fluid dynamics courses were ME courses. I did not take any Aero E courses. Perhaps things have changed?
Interesting. I got my undergrad degree in ChemE in 1980, and at that time it had the reputation of being one of the hardest degrees.
cool analysis ..i like it
Freshly graduated Mechatronics Engineer - sad we got left out but I understand with how new it is! Certainly a cool field with tons of expected growth!
ChE here - this tier was pretty much exactly what I expected. All of the top engineering specialties fall under the ChE/ME umbrella (metallurgy, materials, aerospace, etc.). All the bottom engineerings fall under the Civil or Industrial engineering umbrella. Nuclear engineering is essentially an intense hybrid of ME and ChE plus nuclear physics, so it's no wonder it's the most difficult.
I will add: engineering is a discipline that you really have to have the aptitude. If you don't have interest in the field you're thinking of studying, it's going to be much more difficult - for this reason, I would rank software engineering at a higher difficulty. But, in terms of the metrics used to determine difficulty, its placement on this list makes perfect sense. (Many of my friends who went into the field were already coding for a few years, so it's not surprising that they finish with higher GPAs in a shorter timespan.)
Edit: I saw another engineer post that Work Experience is much more valuable than Academics, and that is 100% true. I would also add that real world experience is ultimately what made me love my field. When I went into chemical engineering, I really didn't know what to expect - just that it was considered one of the most difficult degrees to achieve, it pays good money, and that I enjoyed math and science. It couldn't have worked out better for me. However, I might be the exception, not the rule.
Basically everything you said I completely agree with except that I think software engineering isn’t more difficult 😂 just cause I have a background in programming.
I noticed the first year of engineering school sorted people into disciplines. Many people started in EE and ME, and ended up moving to a less complicated degrees (there was a definite pecking order). I think EE had a 70% dropout rate the first year at my college. And, some discovered degrees they'd never heard of, like Materials / Chemical engineering and thus moved towards their desire, some moved completely out of engineering.
Engineers with a broad understanding of all disciplines are needed, and are destine to become a systems project design lead. If you like software, consider getting a EE degree bent towards computer/embedded design, and minor in software. Straddle two worlds.
Whatever you do, pick something you enjoy and can make a living at. Nothing worse than hating your job.
nobody is dropping out of EE and taking ChemE
@@nealinnc I don't know, I know people that didn't even know what ChemE was, and signed up for EE, because that's the cool degree. I actually considered it myself. ChemE would have been an interesting degree. Nothing like EE 101 Circuits at 7AM with the weed-out king, to change a lot of people's opinion about their chosen degree.
As an EE, I learned partial differential equations for electromagnetics. I think it is pretty similar to the ME's math needed for fluid dynamics.
Funny, I never needed to solve any differential equations after I learned to transform differential equations into the frequency domain using Laplace and Fourier transformation.
Yeah, yeah, you EEs and your nice well-behaved linear differential equations. Look at you living up the easy life. :)
Signed, a guy who did a ME Ph.D. in computational fluid mechanics, where non-linearity is everything and frequency-domain transforms just make the problem different, not easier.
@BrooksMoses yeah guess so. I'm lucky 🥳 Dynamic systems (I do robotics) are easy when you linearize modelling around an sensible operating point and dont force the real system into saturation.
Interesting video. My personal experience is from the 70's, when I was getting a PhD in mathematics. I encountered quite a few PhD students in engineering, physics, CS, and materials science (they were either PhD students taking math classes, or the students in other fields where I was auditing classes, to learn about the subjects). My experience was ME's were the best, followed by physicists, then EE, Aero-Astro, and materials people; however, 'best', mostly means 'best at math', since that was all I knew about. And my sample was too small to be meaningful.
On another metric, the Chem E's had the best food at the colloquia, and it was all free. EE's and Aero-Astro people had free food, but it wasn't much good, and I don't recall the food from any other departments.
Finally, the CS doctoral students seemed to have the least trouble getting jobs, but this was at Stanford in the late 70's, when the software boom was really getting going, so if you could count to 10 and program, you could get a job (and the CS students I knew were very, very good). The people who had the most trouble getting jobs, at the time, were math students.