Rebranding College Courses with Sexy Names

Roger_Dooley · 09-09-2009, 09:57 AM

Got a problem with attracting students to courses in your department? Try renaming the class with an intriguing name. Who wouldn't find their curiousity piqued by The Economics of Sin, for example?

Quote:

Boston College German studies professor Michael Resler went searching for a way to boost flagging interest in his “German Literature of the High Middle Ages’’ class a few years ago, and settled on the idea of simply giving the course a sexier name. The resulting “Knights, Castles, and Dragons’’ nearly tripled enrollment.

Colleges find juicy course titles swell enrollment - The Boston Globe by Peter Schworm.

europegrad · 09-09-2009, 10:06 AM

I don't like this trend. Students should stop being lazy and checking syllabus and/or course description! For Dean's sake: you're in college choosing courses, not in the Movie Teather picking a movie to watch!

comiclover · 09-09-2009, 11:23 AM

I always check the descriptions of classes to see what the course is about but it's the name that gets me to look at it in the first place.

KMad · 09-09-2009, 11:43 AM

If that's what it takes, then by all means, do it. As long as they're not watering down the actual content of the course.

willmingtonwave · 09-09-2009, 12:58 PM

I have taken classes like that. A class on religious dissension/witchcraft in the Atlantic World was called: HST 311: Witchcraft, Demons, and Divination. I had visions of Hogwarts and Harry Potter in my head. Obviously I was thwarted in that respect, but it still was my favorite class of college.

emeraldkity4 · 09-09-2009, 04:06 PM

I don't have a problem with it. As long as it doesnt devolve into doublespeak- ie private contractors or mercenaries in Iraq, if a sexy sounding name makes it more attractive ( would you pay to see a burlesque show given by Bertha Hudpucker?), then it will attract a more diverse group of students.
That sounds like an advantage for any class.

I don't however appreciate things like " Rocks for Jocks", when it is assumed that athletes aren't intelligent enough for a regular lab course, but there aren't any similar literature classes for those who less than literary.

rxhu123 · 09-09-2009, 05:33 PM

I think it is very important to the boys. My son chose the class "how to stage a revolution". Anything with war, riot will keep his interest.

oasis · 09-09-2009, 06:24 PM

^ Haha that's at MIT! (:

It's by far the most popular course in the History department here...lol

ZFanatic · 09-09-2009, 06:39 PM

My writing class is about Blasphemy and Religion, God, Sex, and the Human Body (something like that) and that's why I signed up for it.

It's writing about literature which I hate, but I've enjoyed it very much thus far. So I think the title did a good job in getting someone who otherwise would've avoided the class to enroll and enjoy it.

mrego · 09-09-2009, 07:40 PM

Yes, but... how will these 'sexy' class names look on a college transcript which may follow you for decades after graduation?

ZFanatic · 09-09-2009, 08:06 PM

Like you actually had an interesting education?

It's not like the titles are "Blowjobs 101" and "Advanced Sex Seminar 369"

kryptonsa36 · 09-09-2009, 09:27 PM

^^^ Actually, I was expecting something like that after seeing the thread title.

See? Naming IS everything.

aluminum_boat · 09-09-2009, 09:29 PM

Hmmm... Gun Shooting courses should be called wiggas with triggas...

.02

Reddune · 09-09-2009, 11:13 PM

“Knights, Castles, and Dragons’’

NOOOOO!!! How could I miss that class after four years at BC. *Hang shelf*

somebodynew · 09-10-2009, 11:17 AM

I took a class named: "Love, Sex, and Poetry in the Long 19th Century"...we studied poetry about love and sex from the 19th century.