Is it hard to study for criminology?

I am graduating high school next year and I plan to attend community college for two years and then transfer to a four year university. I want to study criminology. I tell others what I want to do and they act as if it's impossible to do. One of my teachers said that I shouldn't study for that, and one of my friends thought I wasn't serious about it. I know I have to get a bachelors in sociology to be a criminologist. Is it a hard career to study for? I know it's completely different from the way it is portrayed in television shows.