If you didn’t go to Harvard or Yale, now’s your shot.
With online lectures, quizzes,and discussion boards, these courses are the perfect opportunity for high-school students looking to peruse possible majors, college students who want to learn more in their field of interest, and even those who simply want to broaden their horizons. From American government to artificial intelligence– there’s a class for everybody.
Here are 10 of our favorites that you could sign up for right now:
Yale University
Taught by Robert Shiller, 2013 Nobel Prize winner in economic sciences, this course will discuss corporate stocks, banks and monetary policy, the theory of debt, regulation and efficient markets — to name just a few topics. Each week students will hear from business icons including David Swensen (chief investment officer at Yale University), Carl Icahn (founder and majority shareholder of Icahn Enterprises) and Larry Summers (secretary of the Treasury for President Bill Clinton and director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama). Yale University
Novice listeners will explore the wonders of classical music, beginning with some of the basic elements of musical composition: rhythm, melody and texture. Students will learn how classical composers used these elements in some of their most famous works, beginning in the Baroque era, and how modern artists are using them today. Yale University
How can we explain kindness and cruelty? Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? This course will touch on big debates in the field of moral psychology and culminate to answer one crucial question: if our actions are determined by our brains, genes, and situations, how can we truly define our moral responsibility? Harvard University
Drawing on political science and current cases — such as the Iraq invasion and health-care reform — this class will explain how the U.S. government system works. By the end of the course students will be understand the foundations of the political system; America’s economic, social and foreign policies; and how the presidency and Congress operate. They will also learn where public opinion, political parties, groups and the media fit in. This is a beginner class, so there’s no need to have previously studied American politics. 5. Deliberations for Social Change Harvard University
What does it mean to be a citizen? It means to participate in your society. In this course, students will first learn the best practices for engaging in thoughtful deliberation, as well as a brief history of the jury system, and then serve as a member of a virtual jury for a mock criminal case. As a final segment, students will view a live social issue unfolding in real time — the Massachusetts referendum for the “Legalization, Regulation, and Taxation of Marijuana” — and deliberate with their online peers through Google Hangout. 6. Entrepreneurship 1: Developing the Opportunity University of Pennsylvania
For those of us looking to turn our creative ideas into a tangible product, the crucial question is: How does a good idea become a viable business opportunity? Students will learn proven techniques for identifying, developing and assessing opportunities so they can choose one that has the best potential for success. By the end of this course, they’ll know how to test, validate and prototype their idea, which will set them up for the next stage: Entrepreneurship II: Launching the Start-Up. Princeton University
Combining the core concepts in astronomy, biology, and planetary science, this class will allow participants to speculate scientifically about the question: Are we alone? Students will learn about the enormity of the universe and all of its planets, and by the end of the course, will be able to invent their own solar system. 8. Buddhism & Modern Psychology Princeton University
This course will introduce some of the basic Buddhist claims regarding the human mind — the idea that the self doesn’t exist and that much of perceived reality is in some sense unreal — and break them apart under the lens of modern psychology. 9. Freedom of Expression in the Age of Globalization Columbia University
Taught with the support of journalists, human rights defenders and press freedom activists from around the world, this course will explore political expression, press freedom and freedom of expression, and how it is protected both on and off-line. Columbia University
Students will learn basic techniques for building intelligent computer systems and discusses how artificial intelligence is being used for self-driving cars, face recognition, web search, industrial robots, missile guidance, and tumor detection. They will also learn about the history of artificial intelligence and gain hands on experience by building a basic search agent. To search for other classes you might be interested in, go to class-central.com
10 Free Ivy League courses you could be taking right now
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