top of page

Learn to be happy

What's the newest trend in college? Based on enrollment, it may just beYale's class on happiness.

Administrators at Yale say that their most popular lectures usually hold 600 students, while Professor Laurie Santos's Psychology and the Good Life class has almost 1,200 students enrolled. The class focuses on how to be happy with your life. Dr. Santos says that students learn to show more gratitude, make better social connections, and procrastinate less. She attributes the popularity of her lecture series to the high-pressure environment in high school, where students are pushed so hard to gain admission to a highly competitive college lead them to dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

Harvard's Positive Psychology class has 900 students enrolled. University of Pennsylvania has a Positive Psychology Center that offers an online series through Coursera. The University of Missouri offers a similar online series. Colleges and universities have embraced the latest research that proves our happiness comes from internal attitudes and connections, not from high-paying jobs, powerful careers, or pushing ourselves past our limits into stressful environments. Want to look good for your dream college? The message from exclusive schools is, be happy.

bottom of page