“Knights of Old & Harry Potter.” “Philosophy and Star Trek.” “Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z.” No, these undergraduate courses aren’t academic lite. In fact, they could transform your academic journey at Georgetown.

As pre-registration looms yet again, students should consider expanding their horizons by signing up for at least one course unrelated to their academic program.

All students are required to take 120 credits and 38 to 43 classes in order to graduate. But that hardly means that each of those classes needs to fall inside a student’s major, minor or certificate. Across each of the undergraduate schools, the core curriculum retains its foundation in the liberal arts. That doesn’t mean just taking classic English and philosophy requirements, though, for the true value of a liberal arts education is that students are exposed to a rich variety of ideas, discussions and dialogues.

Perhaps students need to box themselves in order to fulfill requirements, but if given the chance, the government major should check out a computer science class or the finance major a sociology course, for example.

It goes without saying that our university boasts an impressive lineup of undergraduate, pre-professionally oriented schools. It’s natural to want to take advantage of classes in the McDonough School of Business, the School of Foreign Service and School of Nursing and Health Studies. There is a time and a place to learn skills distinctly associated with certain career paths, but for now, students should sample from the vast course offerings and escape from their ambition-driven comfort zones.

Students concern themselves so fully with assembling the picture-perfect transcript that they inhibit their personal intellectual growth and overlook potentially life-changing courses in the registration process. Much of the appeal of a Georgetown education is the opportunity to take unique classes. It is not uncommon at Georgetown to find students who stumble upon double majors, minors, certificates and other interests by accident because of the flexibility built into schedules and gentle nudges of guidance from their advisers or mentors.

With an abundance of fascinating courses in the directory this pre-registration season, we encourage all students to branch out and take a class: It may be your favorite class at Georgetown, or it may even inspire a minor you hadn’t thought of before. If nothing else, it will provide a welcome diversion from the slew of career-focused courses we typically flock to.

And who knows, it might inspire you to chart a new life path of your own.