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fleabag

Banned
Oct 1, 2007
2,450
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Do I qualify?

So I recently went back to grad school and we have those dread group projects . I didn't really know anybody because I just started in the spring semester, so I just joined up a group that was looking for members. I figured it was easier than starting my own group and there weren't very many project choices left anyway...

Not to get into everything, but the group doesn't even start planning to work on the project until the week before it is due. It's a doable in a week project, but really should be two weeks. It was honestly less than week because we have class on Thursdays and the first meeting with the project group was the Sunday before it was due.

The group consists of
A: The guy who started the group and who I considered the "leader". He didn't really seem to do anything without me prompting him. I initially kind of thought that he was going to take care of things and didn't want a newbie like me getting in the way. I was like yay I'm going to be able to coast through a project for once.

B: Some other guy who I don't know and only ever showed up for one meeting.

C: A girl that joined at the last minute through me. Sort of helps.

Another girl that joined, presumably though guy A. Sort of helps, but just seems like what they do has tons of errors.

So basically we get started on the project Sunday, I have to leave early because of work stuff. I ask them to email me what they get done and that I'll be finishing up the summary (I already started it before the meeting). I don't get an email until the next day and there are just errors abound in the Excel spreadsheet they came up with. So I make a new spreadsheet, correcting things and showing how it should be done, I email it back to the group telling the error and the corrections I made. I hint at they might as well use my new spreadsheet since it has the corrected stuff. For some reason, they attempt to use their old spreadsheet.

This seems to be a continuing theme until the night before the project. Their spreadsheet is super lacking, by that I mean it only contains 5 years of data when the project we were analyzing were both 10+ years. The more I look at their spreadsheet, the more errors I find. I mean stuff like using static values instead of referencing a cell and transposed numbers. It was just utter fail, I couldn't even begin to fix it, so I just went fixing up things in the spreadsheet I had making the whole time. Earlier that day, I had begun the powerpoint because we had to present our findings to the class. Girl D sort of added some things to it, but because of the incorrect data she was using from the spreadsheet, it was wrong....

Anyways, I am fixing up the spreadsheet and powerpoint until just hours before class. I email it to my professor and CC it to the group, asking if this was in the realm of being right. Professor approves and replies all to the group. Since I'm super tired at this point, I reply to the group to help add in some charts or stuff into the powerpoint from the updated correct spreadsheet. Anyway, 2 hours before class and no one has done anything except Girl C added a sheet into Excel that made no sense. I couldn't get any sleep because I kept on checking my email to see if anyone else did anything. Oh and did I mention I had come down with a cold or something because all their project meetings screwed up my sleep schedule?

I try to fix up the project the best I can before class. We give our presentation, it was probably OK at best. I wasn't exactly proud of work (even though it basically ended up being all my work), but I couldn't really do more with the time I had and being sick.

At this point, there is still a written paper that needs to be turned in. Since I did all the work so far and the other two girls sort of helped or at least kind of tried, it was agreed that Guy A would write the paper. Guy B scampered off right at the end of class. I asked Guy A to have it done this weekend so I could review it and make changes if needed. I emailed him yesterday asking for the paper or just his progress of it. So far nothing, . It's stressing me out, I feel like he either hasn't done it or it will just be bad. I don't want to wait until the last minute to fix things like last time..
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Cliffs: My graduate level class group seems like a bunch of retards. They don't know what they are doing. I took their initial indifference to the project to mean that they knew what they were doing and didn't want me in the way of things, since I'm a new student who just joined this semester after being out of school for a few years. I should of stepped in and been a leader, but at the time I was thinking I'm new to grad level work and I didn't want to be a tyrant demanding things be done my way and stuff (but their work was clearly wrong).

There is still a paper due, I'm waiting on it from the group since I did all the other work.

I'm edging on writing it myself, so I can stop stressing about the situation. I don't want to wait until the last minute to do it, I have other classes and work full time, so it's not that easy to pull an all nighter.
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Should I just write the damn paper or not?

The group seems to already know they have done bad at this point, so I don't feel there is much to gain to by talking to them. I hate to have hostility, because I still have to work with them for the rest of the semester on another project..

Should I go whine to the professor about the situation? There doesn't seem to be a peer performance evaluation for this project. I don't really expect him to do anything, it's already been done at this point. However, the project seems like crap for a 5 person group (groups are only suppose to be like 3-4, see we can't even count!). I would like to explain how I had to fix everything while being sick. As proof, I can show him the horrible excel spreadsheet they kept working with and compare with my spreadsheet.
 
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