<p>Recent thread by a parent who disapproved of “fluffy” courses got me reminiscing about my own college years. . .
and I came up with these:
Undergrad: Beginning Figure Skating. Taught by a hockey coach. Extra credit for attending hockey games.<br>
Graduate: Decadence in Literature. (Real literary stuff. Not porn. Honest.)</p>
<p>What about the rest of you?</p>
<p>History of Rock and Roll to fulfill a social science requirement.</p>
<p>For P.E. requirement, I was able to take canoeing, as a fairly fast flowing river ran through campus.</p>
<p>meteorology 101- taken by the football team at Penn State, and me. </p>
<p>I took some kind of comedy in film class for my first degree where we got to go to bunches of cool old comedy films like Bringing up Baby, Some Like It Hot, old Charlie Chaplin films, etc. </p>
<p>When I was working on my MA, I also got certified in secondary ed. I’m sorry to say that every course I took at the UIC College of Education was pure fluff. Even worse, they were all at the graduate level.</p>
<p>I took golf one semester for P.E. </p>
<p>Music 101 (an intro survey course) might have been fluff – no papers that I recall, but lots of time in the music listening room with scores (boy does that show my age!)
But I always say that that course had an impact/affected my life more than any other that I took in college. I can still see where I was sitting over four decades ago when listening to certain classical music pieces. Whenever I attend a performance of Handel’s “Messiah” I recall the prof explaining how the musical notation reflected the meaning of the text (“every valley shall be exalted,” etc.) Because I became introduced to opera through that class, I ended up studying Italian so that I could follow the librettos of Italian operas in the original. </p>
<p>IMO that class proved the value of a liberal arts education and distribution requirements. It truly enriched my life.</p>
<p>Badminton. No kidding. I have absolutely no athletic skill. When the teacher told me I had potential to compete, I dropped the course.</p>
<p>Then I took bowling.</p>
<p>I loved that history of comedy in film class I took. It wasn’t necessarily a total blow off as we had to write several papers. But it was very fun-the films were all showing at the Student Union theater and we’d often hang around afterwards socializing and eating pizza or burgers or whatever.</p>
<p>UW-Madison has a music appreciation course commonly referred to as ‘Clap for Credit’.</p>
<p>I took jewelry making, bowling, and snorkeling, all in different terms. A took sailing and building a stereo speaker, in the same term. :-)</p>
<p>Gosh looking back at my transcript I don’t recall any fluff courses. On campus we did have a class called Art in the Dark which was supposed to be easy in that it was looking at artwork but you still had to learn your stuff. </p>
<p>Probably one class that was easier was when I was a TA for credit. That just took up time but wasn’t as difficult. </p>
<p>No PE requirement. </p>
<p>-Folklore in Video and Film–we got to watch movies on everything from ghosts to witches to conspiracy theories
-Fencing</p>
<p>Other fluff classes offered at my university: a class on Harry Potter, History of Rock and Roll, a class on Bob Dylan, a class on the Beatles, History of Hip Hop (online only), etc. etc.</p>
<p>“Clap for Credit” – that’s what they called the Human Sexuality course at my school ;)</p>
<p>^^^OMG, same for the Human Sexuality course at Syracuse in the early 80s. Thanks, @atomom I haven’t thought of that in years… 
</p>
<p>There were no gut academic courses at Wellesley. Seriously. I suppose the closest thing was a studio art class I took, but I did have to spend a lot of time drawing. And IIRC one only got credit for it if one had taken the yearlong art history class, Art 100. That was a great course, and definitely not fluff.</p>
<p>We did have a phys ed requirement. I took sailing, crew, and fencing. All very enjoyable. Actually learned to sail, row, fence. I was on the fencing team, briefly.</p>
<p>Belly Dancing (to fill a PE requirement.) </p>
<p>Unfortunately not enough people signed up and it was cancelled, so I took Biking instead.</p>
<p>oh, gad, I was in my 4th year of pharmacy (out of 5 back then) and took Health. LOL!!! The jocks in the class thought I was SO smart! Bahahahaha!
The most fun semester was a P.E. fulfillment and I took bowling and trampoline. Not at the same time. :)) </p>
<p>Introductory Ecology. It was a total gut course, and everybody knew it.</p>
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<p>Bowling is a great choice for PE. I took it as often as possible. You don’t have to waste time changing your clothes, and it’s actually fun. I had a 150 average for a while.</p>
<p>I really did enjoy the jewelrymaking couse and feel it taught me a lot about how to work with metal–made copper bowls as well as tried working on jewelry. Wasn’t very good at it. I also took tumblng/gymnastics pass/no pass in law school (at the U where the law school was located) or maybe I audited it. It helped me keep from stressing out with the “type A” people who surrounded us at law school. It was a very helpful course for helping me stay flexible and get some regular exercise. It took a LOT of upper body strength for gymnastics.</p>
<p>Photography and intro to music. I’ve heard everybody joked about the sex class but I took organic chemistry instead.</p>