by Brian from One More Dying Quail
It’s a long-standing joke that athletes in major college sports such as football and basketball choose easy academic majors that don’t require a whole lot of coursework and allow them to focus on the important things in life, such as nailing cheerleaders and figuring out what the hell “Trips LT Y-Zoom 219 H-Swing” means. With leisure activities like that, who can blame the player who chooses to study Golf Course Management? Priorities, people, priorities.
But is the old adage true? Do athletes really choose crappy majors? To answer those questions, I looked up the academic majors for every player on the current Final Four teams (Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State and UCLA). The sample size is small, but the results are interesting nonetheless: on all four rosters, there were at least a couple of questionable courses of study, many of which were repeated by a group of players. Three of Florida’s Big Four Juniors, for example, are planning to one day enter the field of Social & Behavioral Sciences (Joakim Noah is the lone holdout of the group; his degree will be in anthropology).
My personal favorite, however, is UCLA. What exactly is Global Studies, and why is it so popular?
Florida Gators
Most popular: Social & Behavioral Sciences
Jack Berry (junior) – Business
Corey Brewer (junior) – Social & Behavioral Sciences
Taurean Green (junior) – Social & Behavioral Sciences
Walter Hodge (sophomore) – Social & Behavioral Studies
Al Horford (junior) – Social & Behavioral Sciences
Lee Humphrey (senior) – Physical Education
Joakim Noah (junior) – Anthropology
Chris Richard (senior) – Social & Behavioral Sciences
Brett Swanson (senior) – Engineering/Digital Arts & Sciences
Garrett Tyler (junior) – Engineering
Jonathan Mitchell (freshman) – NA
Brandon Powell (freshman) – NA
Marreese Speights (freshman) – NA
Dan Werner (freshman) – NA
Georgetown Hoyas
Most popular: Sociology and Government
Sead Dizdarevic (senior) – Government
Kenny Izzo (senior) – Finance/Management
Tyler Crawford (junior) – Government
Jeff Green (junior) – Sociology
Roy Hibbert (junior) – Government
Jonathan Wallace (junior) – English
Marc Egerson (sophomore) – Sociology
Jessie Sapp (sophomore) – Sociology
Octavius Spann (sophomore) – Government
Josh Thornton (sophomore) – Government
Patrick Ewing (junior) – Sociology
Vernon Macklin (freshman) – Undecided
Jeremiah Rivers (freshman) – Undecided
DaJuan Summers (freshman) – Undecided
Ohio State Buckeyes
Most popular: Undeclared
Mike Conley, Jr. (freshman) – Undeclared
Ivan Harrison (senior) – African American & African Studies
Ron Lewis (senior) – Sociology
Danny Peters (sophomore) – Special Education
Jamar Butler (junior) – African American & African Studies
Kyle Madsen (sophomore) – Undeclared
Greg Oden (freshman) – Business Administration
David Lighty (freshman) – Undeclared
Daequan Cook (freshman) – Undeclared
Mark Titus (freshman) – Math
Matt Terwilliger (junior) – Family Resource Management/Consumer Affairs
Othello Hunter (junior) – Undeclared
UCLA Bruins
Most popular: Global Studies
Russell Westbrook (freshman) – Undeclared
Darren Collison (sophomore) – Undeclared
Josh Shipp (sophomore) – Sociology
Aaron Afflalo (junior) – Sociology
DeAndre Robinson (sophomore – RS) – History
Mustafa Abdul-Hamid (freshman) – Global Studies
Ryan Wright (sophomore) – Global Studies
Alfred Aboya (sophomore) – Political Science
James Keefe (freshman) – Pre-Business/Economics
Lorenzo Mata (junior) – History
Michael Roll (sophomore) – Global Studies
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (sophomore) – Global Studies
Joey Ellis (sophomore – RS) – Psychology
Nikola Dragovic (freshman) – Pre-Business/Economics
Matt Lee (junior) – Sociology
As usual, if anyone reading this feature went to any of these schools and actually has some experience of any of these unique majors, we’d love to recieve an email at theextrapolater (at) gmail (dot) com. Let us know what it was really like.
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Global studies is a unique major in that it is interdisciplinary and lets students choose different classes from 3 general fields of study. Is it an easy major? I do not think so but it does not require the same level of math as other majors and still has an emphasize on business aspects and economics without being an actual economics major and have to complete the higher level math courses. I personally think global studies is a great major and actually allows for directed research. It also has a minimum of level 4 language proficiency and requires you to take a study abroad summer session in one of three locations (I think china, new york, and some where else). Although many may view this as a soft major I think it really depends on what the person makes out of it. In many ways I see it far superior than some of the more conventional majors.
You are probably right, Jeff. Any time we get cavalier about a major, it’s all in fun. The interdisciplinary majors are becoming more and more popular these days, which is probably a good idea – too much specialization can make a person too rigid.
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