With the tantalizing possibility of guaranteed, unlimited student loans the past 20 years, colleges have gotten silly about some of the options they offer - Columbia's $89,000, two-year Environmental Journalism program comes to mind - but MIT at least has one that sounds cool: piracy.
Unofficially, for at least 20 years any MIT student who completes courses in pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing is considered a pirate. More recently it became official.
As of this school year, the physical education department is formally conferring pirate status on students, printing certificates on faux parchment with diploma-esque calligraphy. Each paper, authorized by the “swashbucklin’ ’’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, certifies that the named “salty dog’’ is entitled to a Pirate Certificate “with all its privileges and obligations thereof.’’
It is not a stand-alone certificate and "life experience" does not count, nor does it give the recipient license to engage in piracy or any pirate activities.
What does it take? Getting up at 8AM to register, no easy thing for a college student. Credit: Boston Globe.
