Labs kill you in Engineering!
classes start at 9:30 AM finish at 6:20!

lol. Other programs have labs too, and very long days. That doesn't make engineering harder.

Originally Posted by herBs

I chose Mac Comp Sci over Waterloo.

same /12chars

For me, it's not. I'd have a much harder time in arts courses, mostly because I don't like inherently subjective ideas being treated as objective just so they can fit into a preexisting framework. More workload? It's probably above average, but I don't think it's meaningful to pick an absolute hardest faculty, since plenty of courses are close enough in terms of volume that the discussion gets really subjective.

Conceptually, it's probably a lot harder than most degrees. Most science/engineering students, even if it's not their strong suit, would understand a history/english/arts course, whereas humanities students are a lot less likely to understand physics, math, comp sci and that sort of thing. I know counterexamples of each, so I definitely don't intend to generalize, it's just a trend that I've noticed.

And for the record, I was accepted to Waterloo too. I picked Mac because it's an accredited program either way, Mac is a fantastic engineering school, we don't have to choose our stream first year, Mac has deals with major companies (like IBM and HATCH), and because I enjoyed the environment a lot more. Waterloo gets hyped up a lot, and I'm sure it's a great program too, but I wouldn't say the difference is as great or as clear as you're making it out to be. Besides, are you really going to put down the quality of your own school just to win a petty faculty war?

Who's this moderator that deleted posts from this thread? I'd like an explanation...

Sorry to everyone else for taking up space with this...I'm not sure where else this should be posted.

Originally Posted by tyrant

Why do engineers feel the need to justify themselves as the best faculty at mac? I think it's because they are still sad and angry that their average wasn't good enough to get them into Waterloo (which coincidentally I got accepted into for electrical but chose mac instead)
t

Not quite, myself and others i know rejected UW for Mac. Your logic is flawed.

Originally Posted by AmyLia

Who's this moderator that deleted posts from this thread? I'd like an explanation...

This entire thread, by its very existence, was bound to break Rules #2, 5, 6 and 8 at some point. It only antagonizes people. Anyone with half a brain could tell you that engineering's "course load" is heavier, considering that they're being forced to overload.

Does that mean that it's the hard knock life for engineers exclusively? Hell no. I know various people in the humanities and social sciences (some with diagnosed learning disorders) who have to work their ass off for what they want. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge these people needs to pull their head out of their ass and stop being such an elitist prick.

you also have to factor in that in eng we dont have any bird courses really(except maybe graphics), and hardly any electives, whereas ive seen faculties such as health sci where they have pretty much half electives, and most of the students just take the easiest electives(water, natural disasters, linguistics, etc.). I think the courses in engineering are conceptually harder(same with the hard biochem courses, math courses, physics courses etc.) when compared to other faculties. i have also talked to some engineers who have taken some of the courses that students in other faculties say are hard(organic chem, anatomy), and they still say the core engineering courses are much harder.

and never compare the difficulty of engineering and BA/BSW again, i dont even know if that is supposed to be taken seriously or not.

Originally Posted by harris3

you also have to factor in that in eng we dont have any bird courses really(except maybe graphics), and hardly any electives, whereas ive seen faculties such as health sci where they have pretty much half electives, and most of the students just take the easiest electives(water, natural disasters, linguistics, etc.). I think the courses in engineering are conceptually harder(same with the hard biochem courses, math courses, physics courses etc.) when compared to other faculties. i have also talked to some engineers who have taken some of the courses that students in other faculties say are hard(organic chem, anatomy), and they still say the core engineering courses are much harder.

and never compare the difficulty of engineering and BA/BSW again, i dont even know if that is supposed to be taken seriously or not.

Lack of electives doesn't make a program hard.
Personally, I tend to do best in my program courses and worse in my electives (with a few exceptions).

Most students don't just take the easiest electives. Some do, many don't. I have issues with people who refuse to take any elective that "sounds hard" because they're terrified of getting anything below a 12, so I'm not going to defend them, but there are also people who take hard courses and focus on learning and getting value out of their education (there are even people like this in health sci).

If you think the courses in your program are harder (and this isn't directed at any one person individually), then you're probably in the wrong program. Either that, or you've just taken intro courses in all other subject areas.

Also, engineers don't take the orgo that people complain about...so there's really no comparison, since it's not the same course. And saying that a course is "hard" is relative. The people saying anatomy is hard are people used to getting 12's, so if they end up with a 10 in it, it was brutal. Engineers tend to be used to getting lower marks, so if they end up with a 10, it was easy, even though both theoretically reached the same level of mastery of the subject. It's all relative.

For the BA/BSW thing, number of units =/= difficulty. Difficulty is subjective. I think the point was, that engineers aren't the only people who take >30 units, contrary to popular opinion. Until you've actually been in both programs, you can't even begin to compare their difficulty levels.

Originally Posted by nerual

but there are also people who take hard courses and focus on learning and getting value out of their education (there are even people like this in health sci).

Imagine that >.<



Anyway, I'm going to make my judgment purely anecdotal. Sue me.
After living with people from most faculties, the ones that had the most amount of work/were stuck studying/doing work the most were (in random order):
the social work student, the engineers and the nurses.

I've never lived with other health scis, so I can't actually judge that one beyond myself so no comment on that front.

Originally Posted by nerual

Most students don't just take the easiest electives. Some do, many don't. I have issues with people who refuse to take any elective that "sounds hard" because they're terrified of getting anything below a 12, so I'm not going to defend them, but there are also people who take hard courses and focus on learning and getting value out of their education (there are even people like this in health sci).

/jk (or am I?)

Originally Posted by harris3

you also have to factor in that in eng we dont have any bird courses really(except maybe graphics), and hardly any electives, whereas ive seen faculties such as health sci where they have pretty much half electives, and most of the students just take the easiest electives(water, natural disasters, linguistics, etc.). I think the courses in engineering are conceptually harder(same with the hard biochem courses, math courses, physics courses etc.) when compared to other faculties. i have also talked to some engineers who have taken some of the courses that students in other faculties say are hard(organic chem, anatomy), and they still say the core engineering courses are much harder.

and never compare the difficulty of engineering and BA/BSW again, i dont even know if that is supposed to be taken seriously or not.

I have zero electives. What's your point?

Why is this thread still going? its worse then an apple vs. android thread

I think the only measure of difficulty is the course material. Engineers have if not the most course material (hours of class/labs), tied for the most course material. This material I would say is the hardest as it is comprised almost entirely of maths and sciences, which a far lower percentage of people are capable of handling then the percentage of people who are capable of taking something like an english course.

This and what I mentioned previously is why I'd agree with engineers that say they are in the hardest faculty. It's not necessarily a superiority thing as a lot of people here seem to be taking it as, its not like they are taking anything away from your program or saying that you couldn't handle what they are doing.

Engineering isn't the only program that has to overload, music does also, yeah we may not have as many of hours of class, but a lot of us have much more independent study, for example we have private lessons, it is only one hour of class a week but we are supposed to spend 3-5 hours a day practising each of our instrument. I know I am tired of engineers thinking they are better then everyone else. Each program is hard in its own way, and most of us choose programs that we enjoy and fit our strengths, so as much as I may not be able to go into and engineering course and do well, I highly doubt they could get through most of music classes either. And also we have have next to no electives either, we all have our challenges so get over it!