No, you’re not dreaming — this isn’t your 8 a.m. class. There really is a class on maple syrup. But who says every class can’t be as easy as enjoying a stack of lip-smacking waffles? With Office and SkyDrive, not only can you get your own work done easily, but you can even work with others on Office documents online, from wherever you want — including the café. Nom.
1. Maple Syrup: The Real Thing
Yes, yes, yes! This is literally a class about real maple syrup—and that’s it. Syrup. It being real. It’s also a course requirement that you eat lots of maple syrup, so there’s that.
2. Joy of Garbage
Santa Clara University saw trash and thought, “There is joy here.” You get to study why trash is so stinky and take field trips to landfills. This class is essentially a how-to on being a raccoon.
4. Tree Climbing
At Cornell University not only are you spending completely justified loan money on a class about climbing trees, but then you’re actually required to spend the night in one, which you’ve totally wanted to do… don’t lie.
5. Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse
Social work students at Michigan State University spend the semester surviving a hypothetical zombie attack. Failure to do so results in a bad grade and the destruction of the human race.
6. The Far Side Entomology
After the catastrophe of Garfield Astrophysics, professors thought they’d never see comics and science in the same classroom ever again. Fortunately, they were wrong.
7. Mad Men and Mad Women
A course at Middlebury College uses the AMC show to talk about masculinity and femininity in mid-20th century America. Unfortunately, you still can’t smoke or drink during lectures.
8. Wordplay: A Wry Plod from Babel to Scrabble
A course with serious priorities in mind—winning at Words with Friends.
9. Game Theory with Application in StarCraft
There will always be an appreciation for the classics, but higher education needs to get it together. This UC Berkeley class needs to be updated for the newest expansion.
10. Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond
Just another example of something more practical than Latin.
11. The American Vacation
“Act Like You’re Having Fun” and “Don’t Make Me Turn This Car Around” were alternates title for this University of Iowa class.
12. Harry Potter—Origins & Influences
In a perfect world, successfully registering for this course would be confirmed by an owl carrying a letter.
