8 College Classes Begging To Be Skipped

One of the great joys of college is that you can (usually) skip any class you want without fear of detention or a phone call to your parents. Of course, that missed class might cost you a grade. And it certainly costs a few hundred bucks worth of forfeited learning. But some classes, by their descriptions alone, are just begging to be skipped. Here are 8 that practically require truancy on the syllabus.

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Sleep And Behavior -- Holy Cross

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One of the assigned readings is subtitled “Excessive Daytime Sleepiness.” Jackpot. There’s probably never been a professor more sympathetic to the problem of over-sleeping.

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One of the assigned readings is subtitled “Excessive Daytime Sleepiness.” Jackpot. There’s probably never been a professor more sympathetic to the problem of over-sleeping.

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Comments

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

12:16 PM on 11/14/2010

The list omitted my Freshman Composition class, scheduled at 6:30 a.m. Several of the students in the course attend classes during the day and work until deep into the night. One closes out a fast food place at midnight and then must be fresh and ready to learn by early morning. Of course, attendance is high, due, no doubt, to our stimulating discussions of rhetoric and paragraph technique, so appealing to most 18 year olds before they have even had breakfast.....

[carolinemmoos]

05:45 PM on 11/03/2010

"Our Existential Predicament: Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety And Death" is not offered at the University of MN unfortunately--I don't know if it ever was. The guy who came up in my Google search as the author of a book with this same name is alumni of the U of M, but not any sort of professor here. I'm a little bummed! I totally would have taken it!

[billstewart]

02:35 PM on 10/22/2010

Any 8am class is just begging to be skipped.

But "The Dark Ages"? Lots of interesting history in Europe and North Africa then, and it's hard to find good sources so you'd be using literature and archaeology - sounds cool.

And "Walk, Jog, Run"? That's called "gym class", and my college required four semesters of it. Fencing was cool, volleyball was fun, folk dancing was great (and my girlfriend, now wife, was in the class), but I also did jogging one year because I needed a total no-brainer, show up and run around for an hour and you'll pass.

[LivewithFlair]

09:45 PM on 10/19/2010

The paranormal class would be well attended for sure! My students love to talk about ghosts. We had this one week where, no matter what the subject matter, we found a way to make it about zombies. Welcome to college writing class. http://livewithflair.blogspot.com/

[AxelDC]

02:45 PM on 10/19/2010

I took several courses on the Middle Ages in college and loved them. Historians do not call them "The Dark Ages". A lot happened in that 600 year period, or else we wouldn't have so many movies about the Middle Ages.

[dsws]

03:31 PM on 10/19/2010

Lots of interesting stuff in the Middle Ages all right. But really, using movies as an authority?

[billstewart]

02:37 PM on 10/22/2010

Any American computer scientist can quote lots of scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail... it was part of our standard training, along with Spinal Tap and Star Wars, even for people who weren't born when those movies came out.

[TeacupKitten]

10:59 AM on 10/19/2010

Most of the courses listed have big names and words on them, so they are perceived as boring by people who don't want to learn.

[TeacupKitten]

10:59 AM on 10/19/2010

The class at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris is very interesting.

[kv3854]

09:27 AM on 10/19/2010

Apathy, Alienation, And Activism: American Culture And The Depoliticization Of Youth -- The University Of Michigan- This Class, sounds AWESOME! I have read a lot of Putnam, the decline of civil society is fascinating!

[diannaa]

08:41 AM on 10/19/2010

Most of these look like fun to me, especially the nihilism one. Heck, I discovered a lot of my areas of interest by taking random electives like these. I took a whole class on banned books in young adult literature when I was an undergrad, and it was one of the best classes I ever took. Don't knock the electives - there's someone who would be interested and it might be the class that gives them a good direction to pursue in study.

[Ddorsey]

12:49 AM on 10/23/2010

I agree, as an undergrad I would love to try these classes out. These are 8 classes to be skipped if you want a quick degree, but they're all on very interesting and rarely talked about topics.

[dwill123]

08:26 AM on 10/19/2010

You forgot to list the class offered by the University of Virginia on Lady Gaga called “GaGa for Gaga: Sex, Gender, and Identity.” You wouldn't have to beg me to skip it.

[nightwind928]

06:30 AM on 10/19/2010

Your dad worked two jobs and your mom went without buying a nice dress for years so you could get into that spiffy college to study these great subjects and someday make yourself successful.....They must be so proud of your choices....especially the "Zen of Surfing".

[chumt1]

06:52 PM on 10/24/2010

Yeah, because taking classes that interest you will upset your parents.

[BrownWayneNewtonSaudi]

05:43 AM on 10/19/2010

I got your Dark Ages right here.

[LazarusDurden]

03:47 AM on 10/19/2010

I would take every single one of these classes... In the same semester. They sound kind of kick ass! General Studies degree here I come!

[ellwort]

02:17 AM on 10/19/2010

OK - Some people may find these course titles intimidating, but it seems unlikely that first-year undergraduates (who allegedly still perceive themselves as 13th-graders) will have to deal with almost any of these courses as requirements - with the possible exceptions of "Zen of Surfing" and, if it's a college that depends on recruiting semiprofessional athletes, "Walk, Jog, Run." But let's not drain kinesthetic fun down away from learning. The other titles don't represent the courses as "guts."
Funny - no Ivy League courses listed here. The author should check the catalogues: she may deem some of the Ivy courses more abstruse and impenetrable - and even bleaker - than some of the titles listed here.
- Drivel.

[chumt1]

06:54 PM on 10/24/2010

A lot of courses require X number of courses from X department. At my school, you can get your requirements out of the way with some really interesting courses.

[Encomendero]

12:27 AM on 10/19/2010

Remember when HP used to be a news and information site? Ever since the 2008 election cycle ended we get this crap or that "Game Changers" nonsense. Leave the silly lists out and give us legitimate news concerning college campuses and the student experience.