As you talk to people about degree choices, you will soon encounter a variety of popular myths. Let’s take a look at the accuracy of these.

It is reasonably common for students to intend to major in a subject with no prior exposure. Every year students enrol in degrees like computer science or electrical engineering due to the perceived good career prospects, yet some of those students have never tried to write a computer program or design a simple circuit. By utilising some of the many free or low cost online courses, it is easier than ever to experience what a degree will be like. There is no reason not to try a subject first before enrolling.

If you enrol at university and find you don’t like the subject, it isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. Changing majors within a given bachelor’s degree like arts, science, or commerce, is often relatively straightforward. Moreover, degrees like engineering often have a common first year for all specialisations, which allows trying out various areas before making a final decision.

While changing majors within a degree is normally pretty easy, changing from one degree to another could be much harder, especially if the degree is in high demand. Only limited places may be available for transfer students. In addition, a high GPA in your current programme may be required before a change is possible. For students that have done poorly, this can shut the door on transferring in some cases. This is another reason to learn as much about a degree as possible before enrolling.

Due to changes in economic conditions and government policy, the job market can change quickly. It’s common for students trying to decide on a degree to ask what the employment market will be in three or four years. Nobody knows that for certain. Some degrees like engineering that may offer relatively good prospects in the long term can be badly impacted by the business cycle. There are times when the government and private sector severely cut back spending on projects resulting in decreased hiring and mass layoffs. A good example of boom and bust is the mining industry. Students have flocked to degrees in mining, geology, and extractive metallurgy only to graduate to a weak job market. Be aware that the industry can be highly cyclical, over a career you might have to ride out many troughs. They are still good options for many students but consider possible downsides.

Nursing is a prime example of how changes to government policy can badly impact students. In New Zealand there was a highly publicised shortage of nurses and students flocked to nursing degrees. Then changes in government policy resulted in both cuts to health care spending and a boost to the supply of migrant nurses. As a consequence some graduating nurses were unable to find a position. In 2025 just 45% of midyear graduates were offered a hospital job [5]. In previous years, 80 - 90% of graduates were hired. This doesn’t mean crossing nursing off the list of potential degrees, as in the long term the job market is expected to be relatively good, simply that the market can change rapidly.

Technological change is another big factor that can impact the job market. Nobody can say for certain what the impact of artificial intelligence will be on the job market over the coming decades. Some jobs may be relatively safe, other areas are already seeing the impact on hiring.

An important approach for choosing a degree is to investigate possible careers and then once the list is narrowed down work backwards to make a short list of degrees. University goes by relatively quickly as opposed to 40 or more years in the workforce. Too many students skip over considering careers and simply pick a degree that looks interesting. Neglecting the consideration of careers in favour of just looking at the degrees on offer is a big mistake.

This error of just picking the most interesting looking degree is related to the mistake of choosing a subject at university simply because you liked it or did well at it in school. This can lead students to study a degree like history, english literature, or theatre which while educational and interesting may not deliver the hoped for career outcome.

Many students are curious about which degrees are most difficulty. Some want to avoid anything too difficult since they just want to get a degree with the least effort possible. Others are interested in how tough their degree is relative to their friend’s, or whether if they do choose a particular degree they will be able to handle it.

In reality comparing the difficulty of a degree isn’t that easy and a comprehensive analysis isn’t available. Especially not in the Australian and New Zealand context. In addition the difficulty of a given subject varies by university. Prestigious universities typically cover more material and have tougher assignments and exams than other universities. Studying at the top law school in Australia is going to be more challenging than at the bottom ranked school. Some universities may emphasise the theoretical aspects of a subject more than others. Even the relative difficulty of subjects can change from university to university.

There are different types of difficulty. For example there is conceptual difficulty meaning you can read a page ten times and still not understand it. Subjects like Maths or Physics are well known for their abstractness and the difficulty in grasping a concept. Alternatively there is difficulty that can arise from a high workload. No single concept is that difficult, but so much material is covered that it is extremely tough to keep up. Subjects like medicine, law and even architecture are thought to fall into this category.

If we ask students to rate the difficulty of their courses (units), many students will find a course somewhat challenging and will rate it highly for difficulty, yet someone doing an arts degree isn’t going to be rating science courses in any great quantities. It might therefore be harder to do comparisons between faculties like arts versus science.

We can also ask students to report how many hours they spend studying each week. Spending more time studying is also suggestive of a more difficult course. But also not perfect as students of different academic ability are limited to certain degrees based on their high school results. They also self-select into different courses based on how they perceive their own abilities. Someone who is not strong academically might spend a lot of time studying even though the course isn’t that difficult relative to others.

Unfortunately it is hard to find data from Australia or New Zealand regarding degree difficulty. Instead we use a number of data sources from the US and the UK aggregated in an attempt to give a rough estimate of the relative difficulty. This data should be somewhat applicable to Australia and New Zealand since the syllabuses of courses are similar across English speaking countries.

In the US data there are some anomalies, for example those taking accounting rate the course as difficult, but then don’t invest the number of hours of study commensurate with that difficulty. This suggests that the difficulty rating may be somewhat inflated. There are some other subjects that have similar inconsistencies between rated difficulty and time invested. We attempt to adjust for these inconsistencies.

On the other hand a subject like psychology can be considered easy by most measures. In the UK academic experience survey it had the lowest amount of time invested per week out of all subjects at 26 hours per week. Similarly in the US data on course difficulty psychology is located at around the bottom quartile (75% of subjects are perceived as more difficult).

Obviously this data isn’t perfect and one could quibble over the exact ranking.

A general observation is that the more maths and/or equations are involved in a course the tougher it is going to be. Similarly professional degrees are normally tougher on average than non-professional degrees.

Many universities offer the opportunity to complete two degrees simultaneously in less time than it takes to complete them separately. This is because the electives in one degree are used to complete the core units of another. Sometimes students think a double degree must be a huge workload compared to just completing a single degree, but mostly this isn’t true. Usually double degrees involve doing the standard number of courses per semester. Note that not all degree combinations are available as a double degree. Sometimes ambitious students want to hedge their bets and do something like law AND medicine, but as far as I know, those combinations aren’t offered by any university since medicine doesn’t have free electives.

A double degree often makes sense in situations like arts / commerce or similar combinations where both degrees have plenty of room for electives and a student wants to combine a subject of personal interest with another subject with good employment prospects.

On occasion, an overachieving student wants to do something like engineering / law when really they would be better picking just one area or the other. There aren’t many careers that truly need a degree in both. The University of Auckland used to offer this combination as a conjoint degree which took a massive seven years, but ceased offering it apparently due to low completion rates.

It may seem like a double degree will really put a graduate ahead of the pack in a competitive job market, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Employers frequently only care about the particular degree that they need, and any extra degree is irrelevant. Double degrees are sometimes heavily marketed by universities and made to look really desirable, but in reality, universities are motivated by the extra income. The actual experience of studying can quickly become punishing. For this reason, it can be better to just pick one degree and get it finished. If you then want to study something different, there are a range of graduate diplomas and other programmes available like a Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Juris Doctor (JD).

One of the primary factors when choosing a degree is that it should be something you genuinely wish to pursue. If you aren’t really interested in the career, then no amount of money will really make the job appealing. Of course, financial considerations are important too so shouldn’t be disregarded. Instead, try and identify a career that offers a good chance of a decent lifestyle, and aligns with your interests.

It’s common to underestimate how important choice of degree is, but it can have a huge impact on life’s trajectory. Rather than making a choice without adequate research, devote the amount of time that the decision deserves. If you later change your mind, it’s possible to switch degrees or do a post-graduate conversion course. On the other hand, it is better to make the right choice initially and not only avoid wasting money but also the risk of burnout.

[1] careers.govt.nz. Aug. 2025, [Online]. Available: https://www.careers.govt.nz/tools/compare-study-options/.

[2] QILT. [Online]. Available: https://qilt.edu.au/surveys/graduate-outcomes-survey—longitudinal-(gos-l).

[3] J. Britton, L. Dearden, L. van der Erve, and B. Waltmann, “Undergraduate degrees: lifetime labour market returns.” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/undergraduate-degrees-lifetime-labour-market-returns , 2020.

[4] M. A. Killingsworth, “Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 4, p. e2016976118, 2021.

[5] “Nursing students, graduates say they are being ’failed’ by Health NZ.” https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/568036/nursing-students-graduates-say-they-are-being-failed-by-health-nz .

[6] V. Novik, “The role of learning in returns to college major: evidence from 2.8 million reviews of 150,000 professors,” Available at SSRN 4275668, 2022.

[7] “Researchers have worked out which majors work the hardest in college.” https://archive.thetab.com/us/2017/02/06/ranked-majors-work-hardest-59673 .

[8] J. Neves, J. Freeman, R. Stephenson, and A. Rowan, Student academic experience survey 2025. Advance HE, 2025.