I should have figured something would have appeared to get in the way of my plans. Just as I was getting all ready to tackle the lengthy application process to go study abroad next year, I hit a few snags...well, more like mountains, but I suppose either will put a damper on a good plan.

The first snafu appeared when I tried to find replacement/equivalent courses that I could take while studying abroad that would give me the same credit as the classes I would take if I studied here next year. The Education Abroad Program (EAP) site has a "course finder" that you're supposed to use to plan out your tentative classes. After playing around with it for a while, it appeared that the university I would be attending (Kyoto University) lacked in some of the fundamental science classes that I needed to take during my Sophomore year. I was all prepared to talk to my EAP adviser about what to do, but first I figured I'd run all this information past my academic adviser, to see if she had any objections.

The talk with my academic adviser didn't go as well as I had hoped. From our meeting, I learned that with my major it was nearly impossible to travel abroad and just as impossible to take a minor in a foreign language. All 180 units I need to graduate from college (regardless of major) are rigidly structured for ANY engineering major; if I were to miss one of the classes I was supposed to take for a particular quarter, my entire schedule would be pushed out into a fifth year because that one class would be a prerequisite for another class a year later.

Basically, I'm crushed. I started college with two goals in mind: 1. to travel abroad, and 2. to minor in a foreign language. Here I am, now, in a major that allows for neither. There's a problem with this picture, and it took the better part of three days to figure out some kind of alternate game plan. It was a hard decision to make, but what I've decided to do is switch to Business major. I've held a business major as my backup-plan-major, and pictured myself as getting into international business (an ambassador of sorts) if I did switch into the business program. I went over the requirements for the first two years of the Pre-Business program, and not only does it allow for a more flexible sophomore year, when I'd want to travel abroad, but it also PLANS OUT three quarters of foreign language.

There's still a lot of people to talk to, papers to fill out, and schedules to set up, but by next quarter I should be all set to start the pre-business program and get back on track to accomplishing both of my goals. I suppose now I'm a statistic of people who changed majors away from engineering. For the record, though, those things never divulge whether people moved on because the curriculum was too difficult for them, or if they moved majors because of the inflexibility of the schedule. I'd say I fall into the latter group.