Proud parents, sending their kids off to play video games for $50,000 a year

It's the university of reading, writing and "Guitar Hero."

NYU undergrads coughing up $50,000 a year to attend the Greenwich Village institution can earn college credit for playing air guitar and kickboxing this fall.

Psychology prof Gary Marcus is offering a freshman seminar on video games and human cognition called "Guitar Heroes (and Heroines): Music, Video Games and the Nature of Human Cognition."

"Video games are an understudied area," said Marcus. "People dismiss them unfairly, but 'Guitar Hero' is a good tool for teaching and I'm interested in the nature of learning."

The course will tackle questions such as: "Why are human beings so easily sucked in by video games?" The class, which Marcus capped at 16 students, had a waiting list, he said.