The answer to college’s most-debated question.

*Responses have been edited for brevity and grammatical clarity. The responses published are subjective and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Clarion.

Exams, papers, projects, presentations — the struggle of academia is relentless. No matter the major, it takes a lot of work to walk out with a four-year degree. Nonetheless, it is a staple of college culture to compare majors and workloads, and Bethel is no exception. The hot-topic question to be answered is, “Which major is the easiest?” 

To explore this proposition, posters with a QR code that linked to a survey were placed all around campus to give Bethel a chance to anonymously voice their opinions. The responses from 23 different majors were nothing less than interesting, as well as dogmatic. 

1. Business

The clear winner with 34.3% of the votes is the notoriously labeled “easy” major, business. When asked why, Bethel students said: 

“The material is not challenging and business majors rarely do homework.” 

“Everyone I know in business is an idiot. No one in business is challenging any major ideologies, or capitalism.”

“It’s the go-to for athletes and they have full-time jobs with their sport, so they need to take a major they can handle easily.”

“It’s basically high school-level math, and business majors don’t even have big papers or projects like communications majors and such. They also seem to have the most free time.”

Business majors are aware of the reputation of their major. Among STEM students, it is not uncommon to overhear a threat to switch over to business as a last resort. However, business majors are quick to argue that this is simply naivety. 

“Business has a lot of variety. You have to be good at math for finance and good with people for management,” one business major said.

Freshman business major Ben Wheeldreyer added, “I feel like business is unique compared to other majors. The economy, stocks, financial stuff, it’s not something you normally learn in school. It’s much more practical.”

2. Communications

With 22.9% of the votes, communications was voted the second easiest major. However, there were no specific comments about why. 

Junior communications major Grace Pust, unsurprised by the results, explained, “Most people have no idea what communications is. There is a demand for people in communications. Business majors are the ones that usually say our major is the easiest because we don’t have to ‘work with numbers.’ We still have to perform statistical analysis like they do, just not the same kind. Just because we are not memorizing all the bones in the body does not mean our major isn’t hard.”

Senior Carissa Falkenberg echoed these thoughts, saying, “Sure, the business bros can sit and crunch their numbers all day long, but have they sat down and critically analyzed what’s happening in their dysfunctioning team? Communication majors, in my opinion, are simply the humanitarian caretakers of the business world. It’s a lot of work, but we support people with our big brains and hearts.”

3. Elementary Education

Elementary education takes bronze with 14.3% of the votes.

“The workload is less and the assignments for elementary education are low level compared to engineering classes.”

“Elementary education is literally just coming up with activities. The content isn’t hard either.”

“I have elementary education roommates, and I have never seen them do homework.”

“Elementary education might be the easiest major content-wise, but the amount of time that elementary education requires each semester should definitely take it out of the top easiest major list,” senior elementary education major and student teacher Emily Olson said. “Depending on the semester, we are required to be in the classroom between 12 to 16 hours each week teaching prepared lessons, on top of taking 15 to 18 credits of classes. And then when you are student teaching, you are teaching school from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. five days a week for the whole semester.”

Olson, after submitting her reaction to the Clarion, asked for comments from a group chat of student teachers. Each sent in their own response for why elementary education does not deserve to be in the top three. “Children randomly start projectile vomiting,” one student teacher said. Another wrote, “Just send them the link to Minnesota state standards.”

4. Art

Taking fourth place with 11.4% of votes, and the simplest and most subjective responses, is art. 

“Just look at Picasso’s work. It’s not hard at all. I could be an art major and pass with a 4.0 without even trying.”

Other responses simply were, “Dude, it’s art,” and “It’s art.”

“[It’s] hard to say because everyone thinks differently,” one art student responded. “Personally, art comes super easy to me, but I have talked to people who have said art is almost impossible to them.”

Junior art major Josh Vana, the man responsible for the massive dragon that spent the majority of the semester watching over students in the library, was quick to rebut. 

“Other coursework has an answer. Art is personalized to have no answer,” he said. “You can’t – pardon my French – B.S. an assignment if you need a physical object and have to put in hours to create it.”

Three out of four of the majors listed above, art being the exception, are listed in Bethel’s top five most popular majors – the other two being psychology and nursing. Nursing and psychology were two majors that made it into the “other” category in Clarion survey results. Further honorable mentions in the “other” category were leadership studies, philosophy, journalism, graphic design and music. While the temporary surmise is that business is the easiest major, the question will always remain an inconclusive one, especially as new areas of study are added.