Graduation

Our master and doctoral students here at NAIST are graduating today¹. They're leaving the warm, comforting womb of graduate school to brave the harsh seas of commerce and industry - or, in some cases, the cutthroat gladiatorial games that is a research career. I'm sure they'll do fine.

Big congratulations to everyone!

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#1 People all enter grad school at the same time and graduate at the same time here in Japan. Which is certainly different from the "You're done when you're done"-system in Sweden.

The bad part of the Japanese system is that you have to wait for the yearly deadline before you can leave. The good part is of course that you have a definite deadline to induce panic focus your mind - that alone would have shaved six months off my time. And when everyone graduates at the same time it's an excellent opportunity for a party.