Though she only switched her minor once, Erika took 6 1/2 years to finish her undergraduate degree in English literature with a minor in creative writing at the U of A.

Many students enter university with one objective: graduation. But, if you stop to smell the roses on the way, you’ll find courses that are more fun than work.

In my final year, I wrote a paper for a senior-level class on CSI, the TV show. In the same year, one friend got an A for a presentation on voodoo, another made a movie about zombies for an English credit.

The beauty of an arts degree is that anything is open to investigation in the name of social understanding. Thus, every year each department in the arts faculty has a couple of courses that make you read the description in the course book twice.

English, for example, offers a rotating set of pop culture classes that might look at Harry Potter one year and Lord of the Rings the next. Last year, it offered a vampire literature class in which students took a serious look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The CSI paper was for a class in the comparative literature department, which is always full of "no prerequisite" gems. They also offer a couple science fiction classes, one of which (Science and Literature) fills one of those torturous science credits without an actual lab.

The voodoo presentation was part of Religion 276: Witchcraft and the Occult, which is always in high demand.

Film classes are also a fun choice — last year I took a class where we watched Rocky and Terminator 2: Judgment Day and formulated arguments about whether the Matrix is really as anti-establishment as it seems. The cultural commentator in me quivered joyfully the whole semester.

If pop culture isn’t your thing, there’s a modern dance class offered by the Physical Education faculty that’s open to everyone. My group’s final presentation was inspired by bubbles.

Rather than exercises in frivolity, these classes teach you to view the world with a critical eye, to question the meaning behind the signs that populate our everyday world. And sometimes, as in the case of that dance class, they just give grown-ups-in-training a chance to be goofballs during a time in our lives when we’re trying to be terribly serious.

The trick is to register early — fun classes fill up first. If you can’t get in right away, keep an eye open until the second day of classes. At least one slot always opens up when someone realizes, as I did, that they just don’t like Vampire Lit enough to spend an entire semester on it.

So do a bit of research and fulfill the original purpose of higher education and leave the institute of your choice as an interesting, well-rounded person.