There are many preconceptions about the difficulty of different study programs. Which is the hardest? What is considered to be easy? Well, these can be, of course, very subjective and different for each student. But let’s try to answer the big question here: is studying engineering hard? Let’s see the facts:
1. Engineering requires good Math & Physics skills
This is indeed a big factor. Especially in the first few semesters of your studies, these two disciplines are going to be heavily represented in your curriculum. So for students, who absolutely hate Math and Physics- yes, studying engineering is hard. However, if you don’t completely despise these two subjects, hence you are willing to learn them, it’s actually not so bad. Math and Physics are both really learnable subjects, so with a little bit of preparation, you can study engineering comfortably.
2. Learning theoretical material
The good news is, engineering is not extremely theory- based. Unlike Medicine or Law, where you need to learn and remember a large chunk of study material for every subject, engineering is much more practice-based. It relies more on calculations and processes than pure memorization. So from this point of view- studying engineering is not that hard.
3. Practice is the name of the game
As we mentioned, practical learning is super important when studying engineering- laboratory work, calculations, modeling, experimenting, machinery are all important parts of any engineering discipline. If you are a hands-on person, enjoying practice and real-life learning, engineering is going to be really enjoyable for you.
4. Compared to other fields
Due to the high Math and Physics criteria, engineering might seem harder compared to fields that have lower requirements of these subjects, such as Business & Management, Communication, Sociology, Arts etc. However, while this high level might be true for these easily quantifiable hard skills, it’s not true for every single skill. Communication and Sociology for example both require excellent communication, presentation and public speaking skills. History, Literature, Arts in general require endless hours of research and writing. Medicine, Law, Arts all require a lot of intense studying and memorization… So it’s not true that engineering is harder, just simply because of Math and Physics. It all depends what your strenghts are and what you’d like to develop. Engineering-though hard, of course- is perfectly suitable for everyone who enjoys analytical thinking and is curious about the workings of the World.
