Underwater basket weaving

In a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times in 1956, a correspondent bemoaned an alleged decline in academic standards among college football programs and mentioned "majoring in underwater basket weaving, or the preparation and serving of smorgasbord, or, particularly at Berkeley, the combined course of anatomy and panty-raiding".

[8] An article in the Daily Collegian at Penn State University in 1961 refers to a parody in which "a typical Miami coed majoring in underwater basket weaving was interviewed".

Some of the courses offered in these subjects have drawn criticism; for instance, an op-ed expressed concern over the lack of rigor and scientific relevancy in coursework at the University of Minnesota.

[13] Dave Ramsey, American personal finance writer and radio host, has used the self-invented term "German Polka History" to describe university degree programs that are unlikely to result in a career and which he thus advises people against pursuing.

[14][15] Some of the boys she knew from college were trying to dodge the draft by taking graduate courses, "underwater basket weaving and things like that," as Vonda contemptuously put it.This is no surprise, as normal office job functions generally require little knowledge of underwater basket-weaving, 19th century Hungarian clog art, or other things of academic interest.The phrase was used during the Vietnam War era to describe the sort of major that many young men who would otherwise not have entered college undertook to escape the draft.

[26][27] Underwater Basket Weaving is a trademark of the US Scuba Center Inc.,[28] which offers a specialty class designed to improve or more fully enjoy diving skills from which participants can "take home a memorable souvenir.