15 Wacky College Courses to Take

Universities and colleges are the last places on earth to be flippant about life. Countless people, in fact, depend on these institutions to give them skills for migration.

So how do you explain institutionsthat offer courses with seemingly no value in the real world at all?

Sometimes the higher education system can be such jokesters. Want to learn Elvish? Fancy getting philosophy credits through Simpsons episodes? How about studying the phallus? Real, active courses exist around these subjects.

Here are some of the strangest classes to ever land on someone’s transcript of records:

1. The Amazing World of Bubbles

Now there’s a course that teaches you nothing. Nothing as in vapour—bubbles. No less than Cal-Tech offers this course, which is actually about the energy potential of bubbles.

2. Philosophy and Star Trek

You might not realise it but Star Trek throws a treasure trove of philosophical questions at viewers. A course at Georgetown University in Washington DC tries to flesh out the answers. As the prospectus asks: “What better way to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class?” The course is essentially an introduction to metaphysics and epistemology, but really it is one whole Starfleet-sized opportunity for Trekkies to revisit the most futuristic episodes and reconcile them with the works of philosophers, ancient and present. Mining material from where no man has gone before, these classes are sure to test the limits of human philosophising.

3. How to Win a Beauty Pageant: Race, Gender, Culture, and US National Identity

Your name is Jane and you represent the beautiful island of—you know the drill. But do you know the deeper specifics of it all? Professors at Oberlin College can not only teach you ‘How to Win a Beauty Pageant’ but also take you on an eye-opening trip through history, all the way back to the 1920s when the phenomenon began. Sadly there will be no classes on how to walk the line or strike a pose, but you do get sociological skills for life. Also, you get to attend a real-life beauty pageant in Ohio. Just don’t expect your professor to be your proxy momager.

4. Maple Syrup: The Real Thing

At Alfred University, you can actually study the production process behind everyone’s favourite breakfast condiment. Offered as an honours seminar, the program lets you sample a hodgepodge of sticky and sweet dishes as well as go on field trips to syrup-makers across New York. This is surely the tastiest pathway to a successful career in the pancake industry.

5. Zombies in Popular Media

There is no denying that zombies are enjoying a watershed cultural moment.Plus, with incessant talk about the impending zombie apocalypse (that never really arrives), never has a college course been more practical than Columbia College’s Zombies in Popular Media or the University of Baltimore’s Media Genres: Zombies. Both offer the perfect scapegoat to watch zombie movies for days on end and tackle such books as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. As the course creators would have you believe, zombies shore up issues of capitalism, consumerism, groupthink, and xenophobia.

6. The Art of Walking

For something so mundane, a course on walking has never been this exciting or life-affirming. In Kentucky’s Centre College, The Art of Walking frames this most trifling of human activities as an art, a mode of transport that has been rendered two steps behind times.

7. Underwater Basket Weaving

Whether or not you can weave a career out of basketry is a topicof loose ends, but for sure you can take this course at two schools, Reed College in Oregon and the University of California – San Diego. Just don’t expect to immerse your whole body for this course, only your hands at most.

8. The Science of Superheroes

Ah, superheroes. They’re everywhere these days, in the box office, in bookstores, on your boyfriend’s posters. Now they’re also in your physics modules.Apparently Wonder Woman has a lot to teach you about invisible jets, Spiderman about the strength of webs, Superman about flight dynamics, etc.

9. Arguing with Judge Judy: Popular ‘Logic’ on TV Judge Shows

It’s not illogical to see that watching reruns of Judge Judy is a good foundation for a career in law. In fact, the University of California has a course devoted to scrutinising plaintiffs’ use of logic on courtroom reality shows like Judge Judy and The People’s Court.Jury is out on who’s the greater fool though, the professor teaching this course or the student taking it up.

10. Street-Fighting Mathematics

Count on the math whizzes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conjure a course like this. “This course teaches the art of guessing results and solving problems without doing a proof or an exact calculation,” the prospectus says. True story: There are mathematical patterns and dimensional analytics to be gleaned from fisticuffs. Flunking this course would be a sucker punch indeed.

11. The Sociology of Miley Cyrus

Miss Cyrus has truly twerked her way to the zeitgeist thanks to her cop-a-feel moves at the 2013 VMAs. Skidmore College in New York was certainly not the first to recognise this but they are certainly the first to offer a course on the “Wrecking Ball” songstress. Creator and course lecturer Carolyn Chernoff defended it as a “creative and rigorous way of looking at what’s relevant about sociology and sociology theory.”

12. Learning from YouTube

YouTube is one of the greatest time sucks ever, and you could watch videos to last all your academic life. A course at Pitzer College in Los Angeles, described as a “pedagogic experiment focusing on the potentials and limits of digital-media culture,” is basically an excuse to indulge in the channel. The education takes place, fittingly, online. Professor Alexandra Juhasz hands out lectures, assignments and classwork on YouTube, and students are expected to reciprocate virtually.

13. The Science of Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling didn’t just write a YA novel; she unwittingly wrote an entire science book, judging by the number of colleges and universities that offer Harry Potter-themed courses. While magic and science don’t really mix, the wizards at Frostburg State University in Maryland have figured out that technology is, indeed, magic. In that thought they created an honours course called The Science of Harry Potter, where Quidditch is considered antigravity research, and apparating is demystified as teleportation. Professors are known to dress up as Hogwarts teachers such as Albus Dumbledore.

Alternative: If you want a fun way to get chemistry credits, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln offers—what else—but ‘potions’ classes under Chem 192H. Durham University offers credit on ‘Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion,’ while Oregon State University has a course on finding your Patronus charm. Fifty points to Hufflepuff!

14. Daytime Serials: Family and Social Roles

If you know your Marlena Evans from Sheila Carters, then you will breeze through this course with flying colours (and sullied tissues). Soap operas are supposedly loaded with philosophical treatises on gender roles, workplace rights, and family life. Conducted as part of the University of Wisconsin’s women’s studies course, this course justifies whiling the day away watching melodramas.

15. The Joy of Garbage

You may have called a class ‘garbage’ out of frustration at some point but at Santa Clara University, there really is such a thing as a garbage class. An environmental science course, The Joy of Garbage, examines the journey of waste as it goes from the house to the landfill, and back as recycled products. More than just shedding light on ecological problems, the course highlights sustainable measures for managing garbage, which, as humankind’s biggest product, actually needs an entire master’s degree around it. This course will surely not be a waste of time.

Serious Classes

When you think about it, some of the most traditional courses today, such as film studies, started out as objects of derision for their sheer novelty. So by being close-minded, you may risk dismissing classes that are less about, say, Star Wars than astrophysics. Truth be told, many of the ‘crazy courses’ on offer today are actually very serious classes masquerading as trifles. The over-the-top titles are made on purpose, baiting students who would otherwise see little value in formal education.

In any case, a reflective decision process behind the pursuit of higher education which could provide you with skills of migration still applies. Remember that a course may take up to four years of your life. Be sure your passion about the subject matter lasts at least as long.