Colleges Spice Up Course Titles

College professors looking to drive up enrollment are taking a page from the advertising playbook, by jazzing up course catalogues with sexier names for dull-sounding classes.

At Boston College, "The Songs Of Walter Von Der Vogelweide" is now called "Passion, Politics, and Poetry in the Middle Ages." At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, "Biology 101" will soon be called “The Light Fantastic: Wonders Of Biology Under The Microscope.” And a class called “German Literature Of The High Middle Ages” has been transformed into “Knights, Castles, And Dragons.”

Professors are right to believe that course titles involving massacres, superheroes, and sin will draw students – enrollment in these classes has nearly tripled in response. Clever titles alone might not motivate students to hit the books in earnest, but a freshmen seminar titled "Dinosaur Tracks, Communes, Massacres and Poets" will undoubtedly get more sleepy-eyed students to class on time.

The Boston Globe: Colleges find juicy titles swell enrollment

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