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Most people who go to college major in a fairly typical subject like English, communications, or biology. But some colleges offer majors that are a bit more unusual. These off-the-beaten-path academic options provide students with the chance to gain some slightly more specialized knowledge about very specific fields. Here are a few majors your college might not have offered:
1. Bowling Industry Management
Being a pin monkey may have been Homer Simpson’s dream, but you can make it your reality if you attend Vincennes University. The Indiana school offers the country’s only program in Bowling Industry Management and Technology, where students learn topics like pinsetter mechanics and lane care. The program’s site proudly touts its equipment, including a number of pinsetters and a Vacu-Jig drill machine.
2. Piano Pedagogy
Belmont University offers an Associate of Applied Science in Piano Pedagogy, as does Harper College. The University of Oregon offers advanced graduate degrees in the discipline. It may seem odd at first since so many folks probably took their childhood piano lessons from someone who didn’t have collegiate training, but it doesn’t sound like a bad career move. After all, no matter what’s happening with the economy, moms are still going to force kids to take piano lessons.
3. Family & Consumer Sciences
This degree path at Liberty University, a school that was founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1971, sounds an awful lot like home economics. According to the school’s website, “The purpose of the Family and Consumer Sciences department is to prepare the student to acquire the values, knowledge, and skills necessary to be proactive to strengthen the function of the contemporary family from a Biblical perspective.” Classes like “Balancing Work and Family” and “Family Economic Decisions” sound like helpful bits of life advice but aren’t quite what we’re used to thinking about in the classroom.
4. EcoGastronomy
Last year the University of New Hampshire launched a dual major in ecogastronomy, a program that will educate students on how food gets from farms to their plates. With an eye towards sustainability, students study food at a number of steps along the road to their mouth to gauge the ecological impact of what they eat. Ecogastronomy students will also pick up knowledge about the hospitality industry, nutrition, and agriculture in this major. We’re also guessing they’ll get to try some really tasty fresh foods.
5. Turf and Golf Course Management
Golf courses take a lot of upkeep, so the University of Maryland offers a plant science degree in Turf and Golf Course Management to help train the greenskeepers of tomorrow. The program requires quite a bit of biology and chemistry, but there are also more enticing classes like “Weed Science” and “Pest Management Strategies for Turfgrass.” Anyone want to make bets on whether the latter class includes a viewing of Caddyshack?
6. Packaging
Michigan State University’s School of Packaging offers a Bachelor of Science degree. What does the School of Packaging study? Exactly what it sounds like it would. The school studies all sorts of packaging in an effort to improve functionality and environmental impact. Since we’re unlikely to revert to a system in which goods are sold loose without packages any time soon, this major might lead to a steady career.
7. Equine Studies
If you like horses, why not major in them? Several colleges offer degree programs in studying horses, each with its own focus. Some programs, like the one at Becker College, offer students the choice of concentrating in riding instruction so that they can eventually teach lessons. Other programs, like the one at the University of Maryland, forgo saddling up in favor of preparing students for scientific horse study or working on the business side of the equine industry.
8. Jazz Studies
For whatever reason, jazz seems to inspire college music departments to start majors more than its fellow musical genres. A number of colleges around the country, including the University of North Texas, East Carolina, and the University of Louisville, offer degree programs in jazz studies. These programs usually include both playing jazz and studying its history, cultural significance, and major figures.
9. Canadian Studies
Canada looms large and expansive just north of the United States, but most of us are pretty uneducated about what Canadian culture is like. Interested students who want to learn more, though, can absorb the culture, politics, and history of Canada through a Canadian Studies major. Duke, Johns Hopkins, SUNY Plattsburgh, and the University of Vermont all offer programs in Canadian Studies. This sounds like possibly the only major in which there’s even a slight chance you’ll have to watch Strange Brew as part of your coursework, unless you design your own Rick Moranis Studies major.
10. Bakery Science
Smelling like fresh-baked bread can’t be a bad way to meet people at college, so maybe bakery science is a brilliant choice of major. Modern commercial baking relies pretty heavily on science to achieve consistency and efficiency, and this major teaches prospective bakers and managers the cereal science, microbiology, and milling expertise they’ll need to run a successful bakery. You can pick up a bakery science degree at Kansas State, Hesston College, and other schools.
11. Blacksmithing
Many colleges offer metalsmithing as part of their design schools; the ability to manipulate metal is crucial to artistic endeavors like jewelry making. Southern Illinois University, though, offers a program in blacksmithing. Students make jewelry and work in precious metals, but they also learn how to shape iron and more utilitarian metals.
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What out of the ordinary majors did your college offer?
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Comments (29)
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“For whatever reason, jazz seems to inspire college music departments to start majors more than its fellow musical genres.”
Not surprising at all. As a musician, I can vouch that jazz is an extremely difficult genre to master. It involves many aspects of musical theory, and requires loads of thinking.
posted by Henry Gifford on 3-2-2009 at 11:19 pm
The University of Nebraska also offers a major in Professional Golf Management. It is one of 20 places in the country that offers the major in conjunction with the PGA. Turfgrass and Landscape Management is also offered, although as a separate major.
posted by kate on 3-2-2009 at 11:44 pm
Carnegie Mellon University offers the only bagpipe major in the US. There used to be only one student pursuing the major, but now there are several.
posted by Kelsey on 3-3-2009 at 12:01 am
Middle Tennessee State University has an engineering program called Concrete Industry Management. I heard about it in high school last year when the recruiters came to talk to the senior class.
posted by Clara Smith on 3-3-2009 at 12:07 am
Hey! I attend Vincennes University and we do have a totally awesome bowling alley. I didn’t know that it was the only college in the country with that major though. Huh, guess you learn something new everyday…
posted by Megan on 3-3-2009 at 1:11 am
At my university (in New Zealand) we have American Studies.
I think it’s in the process of being phased out though, along with Gender Studies.
posted by Acacia on 3-3-2009 at 2:38 am
My University (Portland State University) Offered a degree in Music Therapy, using music and phychology together to help patients let out their emotions, confront fears and emotional scars only with the power of focus and music. One of my close friends volunteered for the class on several occasions and said that it was really interesting how a song could bring her to tears and make her forgive so easily.
posted by Kate on 3-3-2009 at 7:14 am
At my university, Florida State, we have the only circus on campus in the nation!!! the cast is primarily students and its quite good, degree in clown college!!
posted by Andrew on 3-3-2009 at 8:28 am
Penn State University has Turf Grass Management as well.
posted by Liiz on 3-3-2009 at 8:45 am
I went to Clemson University and actually earned my BS in Packaging Science. We also have the golf course management degree as well, plus turfgrass
posted by Hook on 3-3-2009 at 11:51 am
Andrew-not true. My alma mater, Illinois re, also has a circus.
posted by adrienne on 3-3-2009 at 11:54 am
University of Wisconsin – Stout has Bowling, golf, packaging, Fam & cons majors as well as Casino and gaming management.
Not to mention on a Wisconsin campus, the parties are usually top-notch.
posted by Luke on 3-3-2009 at 2:30 pm
As a graduate of North Texas, I never had any idea that Jazz Studies was an unusual major. I just thought it was a way bigger deal at our school than others.
Makes for excellent entertainment in the union building, that’s for sure.
posted by Sarah on 3-3-2009 at 3:22 pm
Oddly enough, my father-in-law has a degree in both Bakery Science (he used to work for Wonder bread, before they took off for Mexico), and a degree in Turf Management. He’s currently a golf course superintendent, which means when I can arrange my schedule right, I play for free! Some people marry for love, others marry for money, I like to joke that I married for free GOLF!
posted by Jonathan on 3-3-2009 at 4:22 pm
I’m actually finishing up my B.S. in Equestrian Science at William Woods University (the first school to offer a 4 year degree in horse). I get a lot of strange looks when I tell people that. I joke that I don’t go to a real college since half of my classes are in a barn.
posted by Katie on 3-3-2009 at 4:36 pm
Music major chimin’ in: is it really weird to not have jazz studies or piano pedagogy majors? My roommate just finished auditioning for grad school, wanting to pursue clarinet pedagogy. I think my major (ethnomusicology) is much more obscure than jazz or piano pedagogy.
posted by uh huh on 3-3-2009 at 4:39 pm
8. Interesting that you consider jazz studies unusual. Among colleges and universities with music departments or conservatories, many offer the program as an existing major, and plenty of others offer classes that can be combined with classical training for a BA or BM (bachelor of music) with a concentration in jazz.
Kate- Music therapy is a really popular major for music schools these days. About 10% of schools now offer the program, and it’s still on the rise.
posted by Claire on 3-3-2009 at 4:46 pm
My grandpa definitely got a bowling lane management degree when he retired from the military! When I show up to bowling parties with my own equipment and people ask me if I come from a big bowling family, I say, “yeah, my grandpa majored in it!”
posted by Kdbug on 3-3-2009 at 5:01 pm
I actually majored in Family and Consumer Sciences from the University of Memphis. It used to be more of a home ec. major, but it has branched out with concentrations in Fashion Merchandising (what I studied), Home Furnishings, and Family and Consumer Studies. While we did have to take dumb classes on budgeting, the concentration classes were great.
posted by Rachel on 3-3-2009 at 5:18 pm
This might not count, since it’s not a steady major, but Will Shortz is the only person to graduate with a degree in Enigmatology as far as I know, since Indiana University allows you to create your own major. So he has a degree in puzzling!
posted by K.C. on 3-3-2009 at 5:44 pm
Piano pedagogy isn’t that unusual a field. It is just teaching, and pedagogy can be a fundamental aspect of undergraduate or graduate studies in music, depending on the concentration.
posted by Anna on 3-3-2009 at 6:18 pm
ENOUGH!!! Is it just me, or have you guys been running with this for far too long?!
posted by Pilar on 3-3-2009 at 6:55 pm
I don’t know. Look around. I’d say quite a lot of people could benefit from a “dumb budget class.” Most people don’t have one, nor do most live within their means.
posted by Karen on 3-3-2009 at 7:52 pm
Apparently microscopy is an unusual major. I am taking classes in SEM, TEM, confocal, and light microscopy, along with all of the other biology major stuff. It is one of the only cool things here at Central Michigan University.
posted by KT on 3-4-2009 at 12:26 am
How about Hamburger Unviersity from McDonalds?! True! Google it.
posted by Ramona on 3-4-2009 at 2:45 pm
I’m the only person I know that majored in Customer Service.
posted by misha on 3-4-2009 at 11:24 pm
App State in Boone, NC offers a Sustainable Development course and has for some years now. The degree plan is becoming more popular around the nation, although it often depends on the school’s location; such a program wasn’t available at my alma mater in south Mississippi five years ago.
posted by Kristy on 3-9-2009 at 3:32 pm
My college, College of the Ozarks (see “8 Tuition-Free Colleges”) also offers Family and Consumer Science as a degree.
And actually, Equine Science is a program that’s been doing really well. I’m going to graduate school to get my degree in equine science, and I hope to become a professor at one of the schools that offers it in a few years!
posted by Kate on 3-10-2009 at 6:06 pm
Correction regarding Piano Pedagogy. Belmont University offers a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy. Belmont does not offer any associate degrees.
posted by Anne on 6-11-2009 at 8:48 am