Psychology, criminal justice, and English consistently rank among the easiest college majors, based on higher average GPAs and lighter weekly study loads compared to STEM and architecture programs. But “easy” is relative. What makes a major less demanding on paper can also shape your earning potential and career options after graduation, so the full picture matters more than a simple ranking.
How “Easy” Gets Measured
Most rankings define ease by looking at two things: average GPA and average hours spent studying per week. The logic, drawn from research at schools like Cornell, is that majors where students earn higher GPAs while logging fewer study hours require less raw effort to complete. Architecture students, for example, average about 23.7 hours of studying per week, while economics majors average around 14.4 hours. Humanities and social science majors generally fall on the lower end of that study-time spectrum.
Curriculum structure plays a role too. Majors that rely on essays, discussions, and project-based work tend to feel less grueling than those built around lab sessions, lengthy problem sets, and cumulative exams. You won’t find organic chemistry prerequisites or multi-hour lab blocks in a communications or sociology program. That doesn’t mean the coursework is simple, but the day-to-day workload is typically less intensive than what you’d face in biomedical engineering or applied mathematics.
One important caveat: a major can feel easier when you genuinely enjoy the subject. A student who loves writing will breeze through English assignments that feel painful to someone who’d rather be solving equations. Your own strengths and interests are a bigger factor than any ranking.
The Majors That Rank Easiest
Based on GPA data and study-hour comparisons, these ten majors are most frequently cited as the least demanding:
- Psychology
- Criminal Justice
- English
- Education
- Religious Studies
- Social Work
- Sociology
- Communications
- History
- Health
These majors share some common traits. Most are reading and writing-intensive rather than math-intensive. They rarely require sequential prerequisite chains where failing one course derails your entire timeline. And grading often involves subjective assessments like essays and presentations, where partial credit comes more naturally than on a physics exam with one right answer.
That said, difficulty varies by school. A history program at a university known for rigorous humanities departments can be far more demanding than the same major at a school with lighter expectations. The professor, the specific course load, and even the size of your classes all shift the experience.
What These Majors Pay
The trade-off with many of these majors shows up in salary data. Starting salaries for graduates aged 22 to 27 tend to cluster in the mid-$40,000s, well below what engineering or computer science graduates earn out of the gate. Here’s what 2023 Federal Reserve Bank of New York data shows for several of the most common “easy” majors:
Psychology graduates start around $45,000 and reach about $70,000 by mid-career (ages 35 to 45). English majors follow a similar path, starting at $45,000 and reaching $70,000. Communications graduates do somewhat better, starting at $52,000 and climbing to around $85,000 at mid-career. History majors start at $45,000 but can reach $77,000 by mid-career. Elementary education majors start lowest at $43,000 and top out around $53,000.
These numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. Education majors have one of the lowest underemployment rates at 16.1%, meaning most graduates land jobs that actually use their degree. Compare that to communications at 52.3% underemployment or history at 51.2%, where more than half of graduates end up in roles that don’t require a bachelor’s degree at all. English and psychology fall in a similar range, with underemployment rates near 49% and 45%.
When an “Easy” Major Makes Sense
Choosing a less demanding major isn’t automatically a bad decision. If you’re working part-time or full-time through college, a lighter course load gives you the flexibility to earn money and graduate without burning out. If your real goal is law school, medical school, or an MBA, your undergraduate major matters less than your GPA and test scores. A 3.8 in sociology looks better on a law school application than a 2.9 in chemical engineering.
Some of these majors also serve as direct pipelines into specific careers. Education leads to teaching. Social work leads to licensed social work positions. Criminal justice feeds into law enforcement, corrections, and court administration. In those cases, the major isn’t “easy” so much as focused, and the career path is clear from the start.
Where students run into trouble is choosing a major purely because it’s easy, without thinking about what comes next. A psychology degree, for instance, opens relatively few career doors without a graduate degree. History and English are intellectually rich fields, but they require graduates to actively build marketable skills (writing, research, data analysis) and pursue roles that value those skills, since employers rarely hire specifically for those majors.
A More Useful Way to Choose
Rather than searching for the easiest path, think about which major gives you the best combination of manageable workload, genuine interest, and a reasonable career outcome. A major you enjoy will feel easier than one you dread, regardless of where it falls on a difficulty ranking. And a major that connects to a career you actually want will pay off far more than one you chose just to avoid hard classes.
If you’re drawn to one of these majors, look into the specific job market it serves. Check whether the roles you’d want require a graduate degree, a certification, or just the bachelor’s. Look at underemployment rates, not just salary averages. A degree that leads to steady, relevant employment at $50,000 can be a better investment than one with a higher average salary but a coin-flip chance of landing in an unrelated job.