15 Unique Courses at UCLA

College is a great time to explore new and old interests. The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has requirements for GEs, diversity, and foreign language, giving you the perfect chance to satisfy your curiosity on various subjects. In this article, we’ve listed 15 unique courses at UCLA you might be interested in.

• Unique Arts and Humanities Courses at UCLA
• Unique Science and Technology Courses at UCLA
• Unique Social Sciences Courses at UCLA
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Takeaways

Unique Arts and Humanities Courses at UCLA

Want to look for classes that go beyond traditional lectures on Shakespeare or ancient civilizations? UCLA’s arts and humanities departments also offer courses that give you different perspectives on culture, storytelling, and belief systems that help you think differently about the world.

1. ART HIS C172B Art: Fakes, Forgeries, and Authenticity

Why have works of art like Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Young Woman and Van Gogh’s Sunset at Montmajour been thought of as fake then later determined as real after all? How are most experts so sure that da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the Louvre is real despite theories that it’s only an alternative version or interpretation?

In this unique UCLA course by the Department of Art History, you’ll learn to question what makes art real. The class covers connoisseurship, restoration, and scientific dating techniques across cultures, examining authenticity and how “fakes” arise in art.

You can look forward to feeling like a detective, analyzing forgery cases and debating the originality of different works from Renaissance paintings to African antiquities. You’ll sharpen your critical thinking about credibility in any field, which can also transfer to how narratives or data are trusted in other disciplines.

2. RELIGN 55 Spirit of Medicine

Religion and medicine aren’t separate topics—they’re actually deeply entwined. This unique course at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Religion will explore how faith and healthcare intersect. This is very different from a biology lab or a theology lecture alone since it makes you think about how culture shapes our understanding of healing.

You’ll trace how ancient and modern societies blend spiritual beliefs with healing, from faith healers to bioethics. For example, you can expect to study religious influences on medicine in Western antiquity and today’s holistic care debates. The course will also talk about how biomedicine combines science, technology, and capitalism as separate from religion today.

There will also be discussions on what holistic care really entails, what it means to be healed, and how you know you’re healed.

3. COM LIT 104 Art of Film Adaptation

Do you believe that the book is always better than the movie? COM LIT 104 might change your mind.

This unique UCLA course from the Department of Comparative Literature will show you how stories change when they move from page to screen. Professor Romy Sutherland, a specialist in film and literature, teaches the course, where you’ll look at theories behind adapting novels, plays, paintings, and more into movies.

Unlike a regular literature survey, this class teaches you to compare a book with its film version, analyzing what’s lost or gained. This unique cross-genre study can make you appreciate storytelling craft in both words and visuals. By linking literature to cinema (and even psychology or history), the course shows you how creative media can connect different fields.

4. ETHNMUS 21 Global Popular Musics I: Emergence of Recording Industries and Major Styles

What makes music “pop music”? This unique UCLA course by the Department of Ethnomusicology examines how recording technology shaped modern music around the world, tracing the rise of popular genres alongside the recording industry.

In this class, “pop music” is defined as more than just music with a wide audience base (hence being “popular”). It will also be discussed as music created through recording technologies, mass production, and mass distribution. You’ll study how industrialization of music (through vinyl, radio, and digital) changed musical styles globally.

Looking at the bigger picture of music culture and technology is great for connecting music history with globalization and media studies, offering fresh context beyond standard music appreciation classes.

5. ENGL 116A Experimental Fiction

In this unique UCLA course by the Department of English, you’ll focus on experimental, non-traditional fiction, reading novels and stories that play with the very idea of a “book.”

Instead of classic narratives, you’ll encounter texts with quirky language, odd formats (like images or unusual typography), or strange plots, highlighting innovation in how stories are told.

If you think you’d love seeing how else you can be creative in the literary world, this class will show you avant-garde literature, which can deepen your understanding of mainstream genres.

Unique Science and Technology Courses at UCLA

Not every science class at UCLA involves memorizing formulas or solving textbook problems. The courses below show you how scientific thinking applies to everyday life, the edge of space, and even your morning cup of coffee.

6. A&O SCI 3 Meteorology and Extreme Weather

Did you love shows like Storm Chasers and Tornado Hunters? This unique course by the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences also gets you a front-row seat to storms on Earth—although it’s through meteorology lectures that examine weather phenomena like global circulation, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

It’s more dynamic than a typical physics course because it connects theory to phenomena you might watch on the news. You’ll learn how clouds form, why fronts move, and what fuels cyclones, going into severe, record-breaking weather and climate mechanics.

7. ASTR 4 Black Holes and Cosmic Catastrophes

Study the most explosive events in the universe in this unique UCLA course by the Division of Astronomy & Astrophysics (no heavy math needed)! You’ll learn about white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts. You’ll cover stellar death and high-energy phenomena, like how supernovae and black hole formation power quasars and even the Big Bang.

If you’re deeply curious about astronomy, this cosmic view can be exciting for you, letting you apply basic science to the wildest celestial scenarios. It differs from normal science and astronomy classes by showing you dramatic, extreme examples of physics in action, rather than the basic astronomy classes that talk about just planets.

8. ENVIRON M125 Environmentalism: Past, Present, and Future

This unique UCLA course by the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability looks at how environmental movements have evolved and where they’re headed—from early conservation efforts to today’s climate activism. You’ll study major milestones like the Clean Air Act, Earth Day, and global summits, as well as the influence of Indigenous perspectives and grassroots campaigns.

This class is highly interdisciplinary, drawing from science, policy, ethics, and history. It also addresses current debates over green technology, environmental justice, and political resistance to climate policies.

9. CHEM 4B What’s Cooking Chemistry in the Kitchen

The kitchen is your laboratory! This unique course at UCLA by the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry will prove that you can definitely find chemistry in your cooking by using everyday food science questions to teach chemical principles.

For example, you could expect it to answer the question, “What’s the difference between baking soda and baking powder?” You’ll also learn molecular ideas while roasting marshmallows or mixing dough.

This course makes hard science accessible because it connects to something familiar, which is different from standard chemistry that sometimes hits you with abstract formulas. Instead, in this class, you’ll study how molecules cause flavors, textures, and reactions in recipes. It’s an engaging way to see science in action outside the lab.

10. ENGR 1CO Introduction to Engineering Design: Coffee

Yes, this class is as interesting as it sounds! This unique engineering school-wide course at UCLA uses coffee as its theme in teaching you design and problem-solving.

For example, you might prototype a better coffee filter or machine by testing how different physical and chemical processes can affect coffee’s sensory qualities. It’s a hands-on class where you can immediately apply concepts to everyday products.

The coffee theme is fun, but it also introduces engineering thinking through any simple system. It shows how engineering integrates math, physics, and creativity, making even a routine beverage a gateway to STEM innovation.

Unique Social Sciences Courses at UCLA

Go far beyond charts and theory at UCLA with social sciences classes that push you to examine belief systems, power structures, and human behavior with an eye toward relevance and impact in the real world.

11. WL ARTS 51W Aliens, Psychics, and Ghosts

Do you believe in the unbelievable? Rather than dismissing UFOs or spirits outright, this unique UCLA course by the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance explores why people share alien and ghost stories in the first place. You’ll learn to analyze narratives and societal factors behind these beliefs, using video and writing to critically examine pseudoscience and folklore.

This is a writing-intensive class that mixes discourse analysis with the scientific method to study odd beliefs. At the end of the course, you’ll have experienced an unusual combination of critical thinking and cultural study that can change how you interpret media and news stories.

12. SOCIOL 40 American Racism: Psychosocial Analysis

This unique UCLA course from the Department of Sociology looks at the history and psychology of racism in the U.S., from slavery through modern times. Rather than just listing events, you’ll learn how racist attitudes persist across generations and why, using literature and social science research to understand the human impact.

The class covers laws, Civil Rights, and even 21st-century issues like systemic bias. It combines sociology and psychology to reveal how prejudice is learned and can hopefully be unlearned.

13. PSYCH 119E Neurobiology of Fear

How does the brain encode fear and memory? This unique Department of Psychology course at UCLA explores how animals (including humans) adapt their behavior when faced with threats by connecting neuroscience to emotions. For example, you could study circuits that trigger anxiety or recall.

The class focuses on research about memory and fear responses. You can expect to read papers about rodent experiments that involve state-of-the-art methods with high temporal, genetic, and anatomical specificity to have a closer look at the circuits underlying defensive behaviors.

The course makes complex biology more relatable, such as learning why you forget or why phobias develop.

14. HIST 2C Religion, Occult, and Science: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in Western Tradition, 1000 to 1600

Are you drawn to topics of alchemy, witch trials, heresy, and mysticism? This unique UCLA course from the Department of History explores how religion, science, and the supernatural overlapped during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

It focuses on how European societies understood knowledge, power, and belief before modern science took hold. You’ll also see how figures once seen as threats to society were often reacting to political or religious tensions.

The course challenges the modern assumption that science completely replaced superstition, showing instead how both actually developed side by side. It also offers a closer look at how fear and control shaped intellectual life.

15. PUB AFF 30 Comparative Analysis of Wealth, Policy, and Power

Who decides and is involved in climate change negotiations, vaccine hesitancy, war and state-building, and trafficking? In this unique UCLA course by the School of Public Affairs, you’ll analyze big-picture social problems like a strategist.

Instead of theory in isolation, you study how policy solutions fare in reality, applying game theory and economics to global issues. Your goal will be to understand how different countries succeed or fail when tackling these issues.

The class is unique because it frames social challenges as strategic interactions, teaching you to think like a policymaker or an economist, focusing on practical outcomes and decision-making on a global scale.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the best thing to study at UCLA?

There isn’t objectively one “best” thing to study at UCLA since it depends on your interests. The school has over 130 majors spanning arts, sciences, engineering, business, and humanities, and no matter what you choose, UCLA has strong resources to support it.

2. What fields does UCLA specialize in?

UCLA is a major research university known for excellence across many areas. Some of its best majors include Sociology, Biology, Psychology, Mathematics, Economics, Linguistics, Computer Science, Political Science, Public Affairs, and Film, Television & Digital Media.

3. What are UCLA special programs?

UCLA special programs allow you to customize your education with an interdisciplinary focus, advanced projects, or community engagement. These include Honors programs, study-abroad and exchange programs, and intensive research opportunities through centers like the Undergraduate Research Center. There are also combined degree tracks and certificate programs.

Takeaways

• There are many unique courses at UCLA that can fulfill curriculum requirements. You can browse the school’s course descriptions to find subjects you might be interested in.
• There’s no “best” or “easiest” class, since that would depend on different factors—including your strengths, interests, and goals. We recommend taking what suits you best!
• Are you interested in any of the unique UCLA courses we talked about? Talk to a private consultant to help you build a strong college application that can boost your chances of getting into UCLA.