Arizona State Is Offering A 3-Credit Advanced Course This Fall Titled "Psychology of Taylor Swift"

Well if you thought Arizona State was trying to shed the label of a party school for rich white girls, think again. Looks like the administration is fully leaning into it the stereotype by allowing students to receive credit for what is being described to the student population as a "What Would Taylor Swift Do?" course. This class is going to basically be the same clientele you would find at a Taylor Swift concert, except no boyfriends being dragged along to take photos. 

No offense, but what the fuck are we doing here? Listen, I'm not against the idea of coming up with new, fresh course topics to make learning fun. I do subscribe to the belief that kids only learn from people they like and about topics they enjoy. There's nothing wrong with a 4th grade Math teacher creating a fantasy football league for the kids to practice their math facts each Monday morning as they total up their scores, but this isn't a 4th grade classroom here. And this isn't some 1-credit blowoff course that you put on your schedule to stay a full-time student either. We've all taken Golf or Weight Lifting here and there. But nope, this is an advanced level Psychology course that is worth 3-credits and has prerequisite requirements. 

I hate to come off as an old man yelling at a cloud here, but is this really what college has become? I mean, I'm not trying to get political but we've got half the country saying their college debt should be repaid and the other half saying there were plenty of other pathways than spending $50,000 a year to go to Arizona State. I'm not sure that offering a few thousand dollar Taylor Swift Studies course that could probably be found on YouTube hurts the latter's argument.

But I will say this: common students at Arizona State may want to tread lightly. As someone who took History of Rock and Roll at Ohio State, this class will likely be unnecessarily difficult. You can bullshit general classes, but things this specific usually have very hyper-intense professors teaching them that want you to know EVERYTHING. And the professor has already made it clear: this isn't some fan club meeting.

Here's what the professor said when asked how T Swift connects to a Psych course:

"Taylor’s sixth album, 'Reputation,' is her comeback after disappearing from the spotlight due to conflicts with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. She enacts her revenge on them — and the broader media landscape — by dropping an incredibly successful album along with a stadium tour. The students know this — but do they know why we like revenge? Do they know how we enact revenge? Social psychology can tell us"

Yeah I'm going to pass on that one. Give me Psych 101 for 3 credits, I'll take my B+ without ever opening the book once, and I'll be on my way.