Remember that time in college when your parents, at the prospect of your somewhat-less-than-stellar GPA one semester, asked you just what the hell you were majoring in, booze?!
Well, now students of Midway University, a liberal arts institution in Woodford County, Kentucky, can answer that question with an earnest and emphatic yes. Officially the new degree the university is offering is an MBA in Kentucky Tourism and Event Management, but with bourbon such a driving force behind the state’s tourism industry the degree has been translated into, and popularly known as, an MBA in Bourbon.
Bourbon apprentices, who must be at least 21 years of age at the term’s commencement, can opt amongst delightful course offerings like “History and Evolution of Bourbon”, “Kentucky Bourbon Tourism and Distilleries”, and “Bourbon Hospitality”.
Students also have the opportunity for whimsical-sounding academic milestones like a “Bourbon Capstone Experience” (we’re picturing Maker’s Mark-stained key note speeches and thesis presentations punctuated with slurred value statements) or a semester abroad in Scotland following the Malt Whisky Trail. For those unwilling or unable to relocate to the Bluegrass State, the full coursework for Midway’s Bourbon MBA is also available online—the only (heaving sigh) requirement being that you physically attend tastings at local distilleries.
So you can now get a degree in booze, only attend three classes the whole semester which happen to be in the form of field trips to bourbon distilleries, and complete a semester abroad sipping whisky in its Scotland home and earning credit for it? We went to college in the wrong decade.
