Should You Go to University and Do An Easy Major?

When it comes to the world of university and all its different subjects and courses, not everything is created equal.

It’s true that some majors are inherently higher paying than others, while some are also notoriously more difficult to pass than others.

However, there’s a certain group of majors out there that sometimes gets looked down upon by other students, yet remain as pretty popular choices among new students coming into the higher education space.

That is, of course, the ‘easy majors’.

These majors are typically the easier majors that don’t require a lot of complex-level thinking, typically have the highest pass rates and are easiest to achieve good scores in.

However, just because they’re easy to do well in; doesn’t mean that you should immediately pick one of them either, as these easy options don’t always create an easy pathway into the job market either.

Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything you need to know about these ‘easy’ majors in this article, so that you can make educated decisions on whether or not it’ll be worth it for you to pick one of these majors.

Let’s get into it.

What Are the Easy Majors?

Firstly, let’s clear up what the easy majors even are, so that we can minimize any potential confusion that might pop up.

There’s no clear-cut, definitive list of majors that will get classified as ‘easy’, because obviously that’s subjective.

However, if you were to take a look at the key metric of the average GPA of each major, it’s pretty easy to tell.

I mean, the average GPA of a special education (commonly regarded to be ‘easy’) major was 3.8!

Meanwhile, the average GPA for a chemistry (undoubtedly a more difficult major) was 2.78.

Well below the average GPA across all subjects.

So, if you just do a quick online search, you’ll come to the general consensus that the following tend to be considered easy majors:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Criminal Justice
• English
• Religious Studies
• Health
• History
• Communications
• Sports Management
• Journalism
• Hospitality
• Anthropology
• Business Administration

Should You Pick an Easy Major?

For the majority of people watching this, the answer is likely to be no.

There are a few main reasons for this.

If a major is easy, it’s likely going to mean one of three things.

• The field will be oversaturated as lots of people will hold your degree.
• It will lead to poor career prospects in the future with below-average pay.
• You’re going to need to get an advanced degree just to be able to land a job.

Or, it’s likely that all of these will be true.

Read more:

You’ll Face Lots of Competition

You see, if a major is easy, that means most people are going to be able to pass it, and therefore you’ll be competing against a huge pool of applicants in the industry who all hold the same degree as you.

You’ll face huge competition just to be able to land a job, and often for a small, extremely limited number of available positions too.

Limited Job Positions Available

The major is easy because it doesn’t require you to go into deep, complex-level thinking.

Therefore, once you do graduate with your undergraduate degree, employers aren’t going to view you are a credible applicant, as they’ll look at your major and think that you won’t have the necessary skills or experience to be able to perform well; at least not when compared against someone with a more difficult degree.

Therefore, you’ll find that often, even when you’re applying for jobs in the field you studied, you’ll be competing against other applicants with more difficult degrees that are somewhat related to your field, and that you’ll lose to them in the application process.

Poor Pay

As for the jobs that you WILL be able to land, they likely won’t be the most in-demand roles, and you’ll earn an average salary at best.

Just search up the average communications or psychology major’s salary out of school.

It’s pretty disappointing, considering that in certain parts of the world, obtaining even a bachelor’s degree in these fields can cost tens, or even hundreds of thousands of student loans and debts.

Think about it.

High paying jobs are lucrative because they’re hard to do, and because not everyone can do them, right?

There’s a reason checkout operators don’t get paid a lot; it’s because anyone could do it.

So if you’re constantly being beaten out of applying for jobs, and keep getting pushed back until you reach the easiest jobs that a lot of people could do, well, your pay isn’t going to be great.

Of course, there are communications or criminal majors out there who make $200,000 a year.

I’m sure there are.

However, just by looking at statistics, that’s likely not going to be you if you were to pick these majors.

You’re Likely Going to Need an Advanced Degree

Often times, in order to be able to land a decent-paying job that actually allows you to put your degree to use, you’ll need to go and pursue and advanced degree from university.

Often, you’ll need a masters or doctorate degree just to be able to compete with applicants holding undergraduate degrees from other fields.

Obviously, this is going to mean more time in school, and more student loan debt as well, causing you to dig yourself into a deeper and deeper hole.

So Does This Mean You Should Never Pick These Majors?

Well, you could, but I’d say only if you really, really don’t care about money at all.

Your career and pay prospects simply aren’t going to be that great, and according to statistics, you’re likely going to end up regretting taking your degree, unless it’s genuinely your passion to do what you love, and you genuinely don’t care if it doesn’t pay you well.

So that’s why I said that for the majority of people reading this, it’s likely not going to be a good idea to choose to study one of these easy majors.

Most people do care about money, and most people wouldn’t be content or satisfied working in a career that they might somewhat enjoy, but barely pays them enough for them to be able to afford their rent.

It’s important to note that a lot of the time, these easy majors are the ones that end up being regretted the most by graduates, and it’s because they lead to such poor career prospects that people end up miserable in their careers, living paycheck to paycheck and never being able to prosper financially.

So, the choice is ultimately yours.

You certainly can pick one of these easy majors and enjoy what you do, but chances are, you’re not going to make a good amount of money to justify your student loans and time investment to obtaining your degree.

Pick an easy major if it’s genuinely what you want to do, and you genuinely don’t care about the poor pay that is likely to come with it.

Otherwise, stay away from these majors, and choose something that’s going to allow you to earn a good income.

If you’d like to learn more about which majors allow you to earn good money, check out this article below:

And if you’d like to learn more about excelling as a student and making the most out of university, check out the rest of the Medium publication, Grad Excel!