12/19/2006: "Final grades are in"

Got all my final grades back now. So, for your viewing pleasure (since we all know that you all wanted to see my grades because they're oh-so-important), I figured I'd upload a copy (with that 'unimportant' and/or 'semi-sensitive' information censored). The classes included Japanese pop culture, Japanese WWII literature, Chinese modern history (1850 to today), Japanese language, and Japanese linguistics (the difference being that language is to learn the language, linguistics is the study of how the language functions and how sentences/words are formed). Next semester, I'll be taking even more credits (aiming for 18.. dunno if I'm going to do the independent study class for 3 credits yet). Unfortunately, it actually takes some work to graduate in a timely manner.

On that note, I just have to mention something: I'm really tired of news articles discussing how students are now taking 5 years to graduate for a 4 year degree. These articles look at the hard details and then make rash judgements about why. Being that I am a student, I think it's fair to say I have some experience here. Often (though not all the time), it's not that students are just lazy, but rather that they're getting tossed around by the system and have few choices for pursuing their degree. With more and more students, universities are offering less and less classes. This means that certain classes fill up right away, and some others simply aren't even offered. This leaves students taking classes they don't even need just to fill up time. For example, if I wanted a Japanese linguistics major (which I considered), it'd be nearly impossible for me to do, as they only offer those classes in the fall when you're lucky. I had a friend who was doing this, and she had to change her major due to lack of classes in the spring. This is the only reason why I'm a Japanese history major: It's in the right field, I'm somewhat interested, and there are enough classes to make sure I can graduate in a timely manner. So, while the easy answer is that students are lazy now.. one should consider another side to the coin. As for me? I plan to get this done as soon as possible.

You can ignore this, actually. I'm just happy about the grades.