As you look over your course list for the fall and start to dread having to read the 500-page textbook you just got in the mail for your Econ class, you might be fearing going back to school this fall. Let’s face it: after countless hours trying to figure out how many Gen Eds you need to take to enroll in your major-based classes, you could really use a break.
Her Campus has done the digging, and we’ve found the solution. One of these unique classes for the fall semester is just the thing we need for a refreshing breath of fresh air! Collegiettes, these are the courses of your dreams. From Harry Potter to the study of the hipster, these classes are real and will help further your academic career, not to mention they are extremely fun!
It’s not too late to enroll! Check out our list of the craziest classes of Fall 2015.
1. Brewing with Food Science
The University of Maine offers a course where students can learn all about making beer.
The class was designed to get students interested in the “biology, chemistry and processing aspects of the foods they consume.” The course focuses on the process of making beer, ingredients that go into beer, and their functions. Students will learn about the history and styles of beer, and even get to hear from a beer judge.
Our only question is, do students need to be 21 to sign up?
2. Vegetable Gardening
If veggies are more your thing, the University of Florida offers students the chance to earn college credit while growing (and eating!) vegetables.
“I took it just to broaden my horizons, and I ended up getting a pretty good workout every class by pulling out weeds!” says Ashby, a junior studying journalism at UF.
Each student gets a plot of land to garden. Hopefully students who have a green thumb get an A!
3. Superheroes Across Media
If fighting crime is your idea of the perfect nightlife, then this class is for you.
Examine the cultural and technical history of the superhero genre and superhero storytelling at the University of South Carolina. The class will explore heroes like Wonder Woman and the X-men in comics, television, film, radio and new media.
4. Chemistry of Cooking
American University offers a course where students can learn the chemistry behind making ice cream, mac ’n cheese, and chocolate. Make perfectly balanced mozzarella cheese, learn about eggs as an emulsifier in cakes, and more in the Chemistry of Cooking lab!
At the end of the year, in addition to a final paper, students get to participate in a lab modeled after the Food Network‘s Chopped TV series. The only downside? You can’t eat anything, since other chem classes mix dangerous chemicals in the same test tubes used to measure the olive oil!
5. Kanye Versus Everybody: Black Poetry and Poetics from Hughes to Hip-Hop
Yeah, well, we’re gonna let you finish reading this list, but we just have to say that this Georgia State University professor is teaching one of the best classes of all time.
Kanye Versus Everybody focuses on Kanye as an artist and public figure and will educate students on his beginnings as an outsider.
“I can already tell the conversation topics will be great,” says Ashley, a senior print journalism major, and Art and English double minor, who enrolled in the class for this fall. “I also love African American poetry (Langston Hughes is my favorite), and I’m excited to see how the professor correlates the Harlem Renaissance era to Kanye West.”
6. Movie Stars and Stardom: A Cultural History
Tufts University offers a look into movie stars and stardom ranging from silent films to recent flicks. Movie stars gain the attention of the media daily, and stars have become household names.
The class will follow “the rise and fall of the cinematic celebrity” and through lectures, discussions, readings, and film clips, will educate students on a “critical understanding of celebrity discourse deeper than the standard pop culture hierarchy laid out by magazines, websites, cable TV and the gossip blogosphere.”
Bring popcorn!
7. Gender and Pop Culture
Another neat class at Occidental College, Gender and Pop Culture will examine how gender is constructed and contested in the 21st century through pop culture. From Beyoncé and Caitlyn Jenner to Mad Men and Girls, the class will explore how pop culture is shaping our understanding of what it means to be human in today’s society.
We think it’s ***flawless.
8. Introduction to Personality
An interesting class if you want to learn more about… yourself!
Cornell University offers a course on how personality is a culmination of each person’s genetic makeup and biology—nature versus nurture, essentially. Think you’re a considerate person because you spent your childhood learning to share from Sesame Street? The class will explore how life experiences and culture affect a person’s entire personality.
9. Death (and Rebirth?) of the Hippie
You might have heard many times before that the ’60s were the greatest decade of all time. Millennials didn’t have the opportunity to witness it firsthand, but now they can examine Hippie culture through this Appalachian State University course.
Students will study The Vietnam War, the civil rights struggle, the political climate of the time, societal and political repression, and major events leading up to the birth of the Hippie generation.
10. Preparing for the Primaries
Feel like talking politics? Enroll in this class in the Nation’s capital for a crash course on the presidential campaign.
This American University course will get you ready for the 2016 presidential election and help refresh your memory on previous political campaigns. Students will examine candidates, compare their campaign strategies, and observe how the media is portraying them.
11. Hip & Cool: A Study Of Distinction & Exclusion
What is a hipster? Is it someone who wears vintage tees and the biggest glasses they can find? Or is it an individual who knows what is cool before it becomes trendy? Take this class to find out! This course will take you through the “future of hip and cool,” and examine hipsters past and present.
Would taking this unique class make us a hipster?
12. Math Origami
As if math isn’t hard enough, throw in an extra element and make something beautiful out of your recycled graph paper at Elon University. At least, that’s what we imagine this class to be. In reality, the course will investigate the relationship between mathematics and art in the forms of origami.
13. Knights of Old & Harry Potter
Looking to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Keep a sharp eye on Georgetown University, where you can take a class on the Knights of Old & Harry Potter.
The class will look into the medievalism of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and students will look to medieval antecedents from the 12th to 15th centuries to “contrast and compare the old and the new.”
Students will read French, English, and Latin medieval literature and will also get to break out their favorite Harry Potter novels for required reading.
Fingers crossed we get sorted into houses (or at least seats) on the first day!
Okay, so maybe it’s too late to enroll in Chemistry of Cooking for this fall, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look into it for the spring semester!
Are you enrolled in one of these classes or wish you could take one of these this fall? Let us know which of these unique classes you’d gladly trade in your Physics course for!