"Recent Japan" is a very interesting course and Professor McDonald is great at teaching it. There's quite a bit of reading to do though. If you're stuck, you can always ask questions during class discussions.

W prof she's very sweet and most grading is based off completion, just come to class cuz there's participation credit. Some of her readings were pretty dense and the content can get confusing at times but she's always available for office hours

Professor McDonald is great! She's understanding and does her best to make sure students understand the content, and throughout the quarter asks for feedback and ideas from students to make the class better. There's a good amount of reading and one essay a week, but they're incredibly easy! I would 100% take her again!

Super sweet and caring professor who wants all of her students to succeed! Easy A if you're willing to put in the work. However, there are a lot of readings and some of the work felt like busy work. Overall, still a good class and prof :)

Prof. McDonald is an amazing instructor with clear layout for the class structure. Decent amount of readings but McDonald really puts in lots of effort to help you succeed. TAs were also amazing. Course mostly made up of 3 papers that build up onto each other and no final! Lectures and material was pretty interesting. Overall a great class!

She has an in-class response for every lecture, with unclear questions. There are three papers: one short and two long, plus two easy quizzes. Grading follows a points system out of 100 leaving little room for error. If you want an easy GE, consider other options. Professor McDonald knows people expect an easy A but this class is more challenging.