Searching for the crazier electives at OUWant to take something out of the ordinary? Your options may be more limited than you think. 

It's that time of year, again. People are rushing to get advised, seniors are getting ready to flee Norman and freshmen still have no idea what they’re doing. While planning my schedule for next fall, I tried finding the most random class the University of Oklahoma has to offer because, I mean, why not take a class that is totally irrelevant to my major?

Coming to college, I had this notion that there were classes about everything. Want to learn more about math? Obviously, there is a class for that. Feel the need to expand your horizons and learn about how the ancient Buddhist monks live? There’s a class for that. Want to take a class about Harry Potter (because who wouldn’t)? There’s a class for that.

However, as a sophomore, reality has set in and these awesome classes about seemingly trivial subjects have a little bit more to them than previously communicated. The class Volcanoes and Earthquakes, for instance. It’s a three-hour science credit, however, you do not get to make a fake volcano and you actually have to know terms such as “pahoehoe” and “a’a”… so, if you aren’t fluent in Hawaiian, good luck.

The closest thing I’ve found to a Harry Potter class would be one of the expository writing classes offered. While a class like Modern Monsters sounds like an interesting way to satisfy your English credit, there is an obscene amount of writing to be done and there is only so much you can say about Godzilla. I learned this lesson the hard way. I took the Jane Austen Expo class based purely off the reason that we would be watching and studying the similarities that one of Austen’s books shared with the movie Clueless. Naturally, I thought we’d be watching Clueless. The entire semester we watched three clips from Clueless. Life’s not fair.

As I was digging to find some type of crazy class OU offers, I remembered that my old professor for Art Theory, Bob, mentioned that he taught a class purely about comic books. If you know, or have met Bob, you understand why his comic book class would be considered one of the crazier classes that the university has to offer. This class explores the comic book, specific heroes and villains and how they are depicted in their series. So, if comic books are kind of your thing, go forth and enroll.

While the University of Oklahoma is definitely lacking in some of those random classes you hear about, at least you can go to bed tonight assured that you are, in fact, getting a good education during your time at the university. And, if all else fails, I’m sure President David Boren would love to hear some of the suggestions his students have for new classes on campus.