A LOOK INSIDE TOUGHEST PROGRAMS AT BARRY

By Camryn Tyrrell

Daijah Bain wakes with the sunrise. As a nursing student, she has to learn how to triage — a clinical term that means to prioritize tasks in order of urgency.

“Usually, I get up at 7 a.m. to get ready for my 9 a.m. class,” she said, “and leave my dorm by 8:15 so that I am ready, zen, and prepare my mind for class.”

First up, her essentials of nursing class, a math test, and then an APA learning seminar with the Writing Center. Next, she’s off to her on-campus job at the Students' Organization Council. After her 4-hour shift at work, she heads to her study lab at the library, then takes the late afternoon to prepare for another math exam. Once she’s finished studying, she attends a Caribbean Students Association meeting, for which she is the secretary. Her jam-packed day finally ends around 9 p.m.

Barry University is home to a plethora of majors and minors — some more difficult than others. Though earning a degree is never simple, for some, it is just a means to an end, a way to get a quick credential. For others, their program of choice is tough, demands long hours, relentless focus and quickly becomes their way of life. Let’s dive deeper into some of the toughest programs at Barry. What makes them tough? And do students have the ability to make it through?

"Nursing students in lab" Photo Credit to Barry University

Let’s start with the most well-known major Barry has to offer: nursing. Nursing is one of the most popular majors at Barry. If you walk around campus for five minutes, you will encounter many students in their bright blue scrubs. The class of 2025 had a completion rate of 51%, making it one of the most difficult programs to complete at the university.

Photo Credit to Pexels

To get accepted to the program, students must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and fewer than five withdrawals, Ds, or Fs combined. They also need a grade C or higher in all of their general education courses, like the art requirement and the theology requirement; and grade C or higher in all of their nursing and science prerequisite courses, like human anatomy and human physiology, with their respective labs. Finally, students must also interview with the admissions committee, take the standardized nursing program admission exam and receive a minimum score of 62%.

Though nursing seems like the hardest and most grueling major, there are others at Barry that require laser focus.

Photo Credit to Pexels

The Barry University School of Business is accredited by the AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), which is also known as the “gold standard of accreditation” for business schools across the world. Students are held to higher standards, like rigorous and quality academic coursework in classes like financial accounting, managerial accounting, microeconomics and business law. They also have continuous assessments and evaluations, internship experience and work to be prepared for the highest caliber of businesses worldwide.

Alumni have gone on to work for companies like FortisTCI, The Related Group, Zimmerman Advertising, and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. With accounting and finance being amongst the most challenging majors to have, students say that the math classes are the toughest part of being a business major.

Another tough major at Barry is criminology. Here, students dive into the world of forensics and law while taking various sociology and psychology classes. And to make it more challenging, you can also take part in Barry’s “3 to Degree,” where students can stack up on 18 credits per semester, plus summers, and finish their criminology program a year early. Freshman Skyy Rivera is a criminology major on an accelerated track.

“The scariest part of being on the accelerated program is that I don’t know what classes I need to take, my CASA advisor can’t help me, and that I might not be able to reach my needed credits in the three years,” she said.

Then, there’s pre-professional biology where you not only have to take 40 biology credits, but you also must take credits in math, chemistry and physics. What makes this major so tough for students is the heavy and intense workload consisting of various exams, projects, and homework assignments, and of course, the time commitment to lab and lab hours, which students sometimes must complete on their own —away from class.

Last on our list of tough majors here at Barry is the physician’s assistant program. The PA program may be the toughest program that Barry has to offer. Students dive deep into anatomy, pharmacology, psychiatry and even medical Spanish. If that doesn’t seem challenging enough, in their second year, PA students must complete supervised clinicals in various disciplines like pediatrics, general surgery, emergency medicine and more. The workload is known to be extremely time-consuming, and students are discouraged from having a job throughout the school year to ease the load.

Barry University offers no shortage of opportunities for students to pursue their passions, but those opportunities come with challenges that test determination, focus and resilience. From nursing to business, criminology to pre-professional biology, and, of course, the demanding physician’s assistant program, these majors push students to their limits while preparing them for demanding careers.