Thursday, March 16, 2006

IQ in Different Fields

The number are converted from graduate students' general GRE scores. From Steve Hsu's blog:

    The results are:
  1. 130.0 Physics
  2. 129.0 Mathematics
  3. 128.5 Computer Science
  4. 128.0 Economics
  5. 127.5 Chemical engineering
  6. 127.0 Material science
  7. 126.0 Electrical engineering
  8. 125.5 Mechanical engineering
  9. 125.0 Philosophy
  10. 124.0 Chemistry
  11. 123.0 Earth sciences
  12. 122.0 Industrial engineering
  13. 122.0 Civil engineering
  14. 121.5 Biology
  15. 120.1 English/literature
  16. 120.0 Religion/theology
  17. 119.8 Political science
  18. 119.7 History
  19. 118.0 Art history
  20. 117.7 Anthropology/archeology
  21. 116.5 Architecture
  22. 116.0 Business
  23. 115.0 Sociology
  24. 114.0 Psychology
  25. 114.0 Medicine
  26. 112.0 Communication
  27. 109.0 Education
  28. 106.0 Public administration

If you trust these numbers, one of the conclusions is that the economists are the brightest among the social scientists (rank 4) who are only followed by philosophers (rank 9). The philosophers are still brighter than political scientists (rank 17) who are smarter than the sociologists (rank 23). This list may confirm virtually all of your preconceptions about all these fields, at least it was my case. The only exception was medicine that I expected to appear in the upper half.

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