Business majors: College's worst slackers?

COMMENTARY. Ever wonder why business is the most popular college major in the United States?

Maybe it's because business majors have the most fun.

Plenty of research has suggested that business majors are the slackers of the higher-ed world and a national study released today certainly confirms that they aren't trying as hard as other students.

That's the conclusion that you can draw after reading the annual report of the National Survey of Student Engagement, which explores the habits and experiences of students as it attempts to measure what academic practices are working on the nation's college campuses. Students from 683 American and 68 Canadian schools participated in this year's survey, which is commonly referred to as Nessie.

Business majors, according to the survey, studied the least among college students. The average business student studied just 14 hours a week. In contrast, engineering students, the hardest workers on college campuses, studied 19 hours a week.

Weekly time spent studying by major

• Business -- 14 hours
• Social sciences -- 14 hours
• Education -- 15 hours
• Arts & humanities -- 17 hours
• Biological sciences -- 17 hours
• Physical sciences -- 18 hours
• Engineering -- 19 hours

Social science majors, which includes such disciplines as psychology, sociology and political science, also studied an average of just 14 hours a week, but a greater percentage of social science students (23%) studied more than 20 hours a week.

Only 19% of seniors pursuing a business degree studied more than 20 hours a week. In comparison, 42% of engineering majors and 36% of majors in physical science -- such as physics and chemistry -- studied more than 20 hours a week.

Percentage of seniors who spent more than 20 hours a week studying

• Business -- 19%
• Social sciences -- 23%
• Education -- 26%
• Arts & humanities -- 31%
• Biological sciences -- 34%
• Physical sciences -- 36%
• Engineering -- 42%

Higher-ed slackers

Why are business majors the slackers of higher education?

I'd suggest because they can get away with it. Business is an easy major that requires little meaningful writing and there's a lot of group work.

No wonder that more than one out of four college students graduates with a bachelor's degree in business.

More on MoneyWatch:

• 8 reasons not to get a business degree
• The perils of majoring in business
• 20 best paying college degrees

[efost7873]

I hate reading articles about business majors who are "slackers". Every major has students that slack off in college. As a business major myself, I rarely find other students who work harder than I do. I'm enrolled full-time in 20 semester hours while raising my family. I take courses in calculus, statistics, accounting, economics, etc... which I have never found someone say that those courses are easy. I study at least 30 to 40 hours a week outside of school. I'll make you a deal, i'll do your job for a week if you take my courses for a week. Let's so who works harder?

[credibility2]

Many majoring in social sciences require longer hours of study because they're generally inept and need more time reading the language, understanding it, phonating the words correctly and then looking them up in a dictionary to try and figure out what the words mean.

[scherer13]

This is funny, a journalist criticizing business majors.
-Information Systems Security Engineer

[somaspecialist]

What do you got against people with business degrees? I'm one of those Gen-Y or Gen XY'ers. Adults ages 21-35 where the government crushed all our hopes of finding a job and moving us back to mom and dad's house. I graduated 5 years ago with a degree in Finance and yes, I have a job. For 5 years now. If you don't think my degree was all that helpful then go talk to to my friend who still works in the mall who graduated with a degree in Chemistry. I know in the job-seeking and career planning process or in life in general, it takes initiation and determination. That's something I learned in working and studying in finance. Please don't discourage people from taking a degree that they know that's better for them because here's the reality with all these degrees.........it's just a piece a paper that helps you get into the door.

[CacicaYve]

I don't know which business majors you polled, all I can tell you is that I don't believe that taking four statistics/calculus for business and finance classes, three economics classes, four finance classes and three accounting classes in addition to regular math - are in any way considered easy! And yes, I did have several writing intensive course to boot. I got my degree at Temple University.