10 Easy Classes

If you're looking for an easy class to round out your course load, search no further.

1. Drama 110: "Beginning Acting"

Looking for something a little different to put on your schedule? "Beginning Acting" has less than three hours of work per week and a high Q-score of 4.75. Forty-five percent of participants found the class to be "very easy." Unfortunately, you must audition for the class, so the hardest part may be just getting in.

2. Astronomy 301hf: "Journal Club"

"Journal Club" was ranked "very easy" or "easy" by 73 percent of participants, and of the 15 students who filled out the Q Guide, only one student reported that the workload was over three hours a week. You can't go wrong with a class that exclaims, "This will be fun!" on its syllabus.

3. Anthropology 1165: "Digging the Glyphs: Adventures in Decipherment" [2013]

Only one of the 185 people who evaluated this course found it to be difficult last year.  Requiring just over three hours of work per week, "Digging the Glyphs" is an easy way to fulfill the Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding Gen Ed while learning how to decipher extinct languages.

4. Science of Living Systems 25: "Trees, Forests, and Global Change"

This small class offers a stress-free way to fulfill the Science of Living Systems requirement. Last year, less than 10 people took this Gen Ed, and they all found it to be "easy" or "very easy." As a bonus, the class includes fun laboratory assignments like campus tree tours and fieldtrips to the Glass Flower Museum and the Harvard Forest.

5. United States in the World 30: "Tangible Things: Harvard Collections in World History" [2013]

"Mostly we want you to look," the syllabus for "Tangible Things" says, and the class gives you an opportunity to explore Harvard's libraries and archives for credit. Last year, two-thirds of the class found the course "easy" or "very easy."

6. Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning 11: "Making Sense: Language, Logic, and Communication" [2013]

For students who like words better than numbers, this class provides a pain-free way to fulfill the Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning Gen Ed, as it examines language as an algorithm. Even better, the course has a lower workload rating than other Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning classes.

7. History of Science 138: "Sex, Gender, and Evolution"

From a quick scan of HarvardFML, it seems that Harvard students are thinking and writing about sex and gender quite often. This History of Science class gives you a chance to do that for credit without the fear of too challenging a course; only one student out of 36 rated the course "difficult" last semester.

8. Mind, Brain, and Behavior 96: "The Science of Happiness"

As the title implies, this class gives you the opportunity to study happiness with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that a third of the students last year found the course "very easy."

9. Sociology 43: "Social Interaction"

For those who enjoy people watching, this class is a perfect elective. "Social Interaction" has a workload of under six hours a week, and some of that time is spent observing people interact in various settings and journaling about the experience.

10. TWI A: "Elementary Twi"

Want to learn a new language that most of your friends won't have heard of? Try Twi, an African language spoken in Ghana. This easy, introductory class has less than three hours of work per week and was rated "easy," according to the only student who evaluated it.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: January 24, 2012.

Three of the courses, "Digging the Glyphs," "Tangible Things," and "Making Sense," were incorrectly marked as being offered this year. In fact, they are available in 2013.