McBrandeis: Offering Junk Food Education Since 2004
AT THE ONCE ESTEEMED BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY, the sum of around $50,000 a year will buy your child the chance to take mind-numbing courses such as: 21st-Century American Fiction -- McSweeney's. Taught by the otherwise unemployable Dr. Caren Irr who touts this exercise in wasted youth as:
"In recent years, new media have helped to revive the literary manifesto and magazine in the US. This course will focus on a few of the young writers associated with the increasingly notorious "internet tendency" called McSweeney's. Readings will include a novel, short fiction, cultural criticism, and a memoir. "The "requirements" are 1) Attending class -- 25%; 2) One 15 minute "presentation" of which the world will have "Almost No Memory"; and 3) One 3,000 word essay which is probably best described as "A Supposedly Fun Think I'll Never Do Again."
Any conscious undergrad would take one look at a course like this and score it: Difficulty Level - 0, Suck Up Required + 8 and sign right up.
Any parent reviewing the course description would think: "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss $50,000 good-bye."
But Brandeis has an answer for them. It has a heartwarming section of its web site devoted to the subject of Home Equity Loans.
Posted by Vanderleun at May 27, 2004 12:23 AM