[Rant] How do these people get into/survive in college? Update: Group from hell

[AreaCode707]

Group projects, the scourge of the earth. Picture a group project, one with a 10 page paper and additional visual aid, and an entire quarter to do it. Now, picture me and four "college" students.

Now, picture me trying to collect research to write the darn paper, and them giving me the entirely wrong type of research, although the teacher specified what she meant when she said she wanted 12 PRIMARY resources and I repeated her requirements three times to them.

Picture me emailing them and talking to them in class about the messed up research. Also, picture me trying to get this group together for more than one forty-five minute meeting on the project we're supposed to spend roughly 20 hours on.

Finished the paper, research and all. Sent it out to the group to review and make corrections. No response.

Today in class, showed group the paper. They mark corrections during class. Afterwards, "college student one", who made most of the corrections, which display common spelling errors and inconsistent grammar in the sentences where he suggests corrections, says, "we really should get together and go over this project." Me: "The freakin' project is due in two days! We've had a whole quarter to work on it! I have other stuff to do and I'm not shoving my whole schedule aside to do this project when we've had all quarter to do it!"

I don't get frustrated at people very often, it usually serves no purpose, but when they sit up and beg for it... I'm gonna get back to correcting "our" paper. [/Rant]

[Updated Rant] So, today is the day it was due. Apparently the brilliant guy who wanted to get together thought my display of frustration meant that I wasn't going to turn in the paper, so he and his roommate, also part of the group, stayed up that night and wrote their own version - without the proper references and without the proper focus. Then we had an in-class show down about which to turn in, with the other two group members eventually siding with my paper. GAH! Don't want to participate all quarter, then want to rush it in the last two days, then do their own and expect it to be the one turned in (which would mean that the other three of us from the group would have had no input whatsoever). The only good thing about these people being in college is that they're not out destroying some helpless organization or government somewhere. [/Updated Rant]

 

[Aves]

I am very anti-group when it comes to schoolwork but the only exception is the group I worked with in my Cisco Networking classes.

I was lucky to find a group of 3 other guys who were willing to work just as hard as me to get things done.

We are really good friends now.



If I were you I would definitely make it a point to inform the teacher of the problems you had with the other students.

 

[Adul]

uggh stuff to dread

 

[AreaCode707]

If I were you I would definitely make it a point to inform the teacher of the problems you had with the other students.

I emailed her about it and got myself a nice note of condolance. It's too late in the quarter (obviously) to do anything about it now. I just wish this weren't worth about a third of our grade

 

[Chooco]

i HATE working with groups because they can't get their sh!t together. when the teacher says to get in groups then ask each student "who is your partner" i always say "can i work alone on this?"

i value my work very highly and usualy nobody thinks as much of their work as me. the problem with groups is that they never get together and they try to break it into pieces then place it together at the end, the product is usualy sh!t. find a good set of nerds to hang out with and you'll bet set

 

[AreaCode707]

Thanks guys, I needed to get it out of my system. The commiseration helps.

 

[Nefrodite]

unless your lucky, a group requires a bitch ass leader to smack all members into line

more work, but i guess some people get off on power trips. course too much and everyone gets resentful

 

[HamSupLo]

what college is this?

 

[ValsalvaYourHeartOut]

Originally posted by: HotChic
Group projects, the scourge of the earth. Picture a group project, one with a 10 page paper and additional visual aid, and an entire quarter to do it. Now, picture me and four "college" students.

Now, picture me trying to collect research to write the darn paper, and them giving me the entirely wrong type of research, although the teacher specified what she meant when she said she wanted 12 PRIMARY resources and I repeated her requirements three times to them.

Picture me emailing them and talking to them in class about the messed up research. Also, picture me trying to get this group together for more than one forty-five minute meeting on the project we're supposed to spend roughly 20 hours on.

Finished the paper, research and all. Sent it out to the group to review and make corrections. No response.

Today in class, showed group the paper. They mark corrections during class. Afterwards, "college student one", who made most of the corrections, which display common spelling errors and inconsistent grammar in the sentences where he suggests corrections, says, "we really should get together and go over this project." Me: "The freakin' project is due in two days! We've had a whole quarter to work on it! I have other stuff to do and I'm not shoving my whole schedule aside to do this project when we've had all quarter to do it!"

I don't get frustrated at people very often, it usually serves no purpose, but when they sit up and beg for it... I'm gonna get back to correcting "our" paper. [/Rant]

Wohhhhh....do you go to UC Riverside or something???

Valsalva

 

[AreaCode707]

UCDavis, and the few other group projects I've participated in haven't been this bad.

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

i hate group projects too. the only thing that goes well is group studying, as long as your group isn't filled with flakes. even a study group filled with morons is good because you learn when you have to explain stuff to them.

 

[trmiv]

I DETEST group projects. None of them end up going as planned, and I HATE depending on other people for my grade. And, since my school is such a commuter college (San Jose State University), it's next to impossible to get people together to meet. Most people live off campus, so it's hard to get together, and then you throw in the fact that most people are working 30+ hours week, it's almost impossible.

 

[yakko]

That sucks but here's hoping you do well on the project.

 

[joohang]

I hate to say this but you should've been more bitchy.

At the first signs of things going wrong, you should've challenged them. You should've made it clear throughout that this is a group project and that you feel like you are getting in sh*t because those lazy asses aren't getting their job done. Make them explicitly commit to their tasks with a deadline for each task. Challenge each member who fails to do so. Keep a good record of who does what. You do all your tasks responsibly yourself. If things still don't work out, consult the instructor EARLY.

Group projects suck, especially in college. In high school, projects were small enough to tackle through individually and get them over with, but in college they just suck. And I hate most average college kids. </rant>

Take it as a lesson and move on. I feel sorry for you, though.

 

[AreaCode707]

joohang, if I felt like that would have worked, perhaps I would have been more of a pain. Anything that I said though, in the earlier portions of the quarter, was countered with, "oh, I'm going out of town that weekend" or "we have plenty of time." Being pushy with one or two people, I think, would have produced results, but with all four saying they couldn't make it to group meetings and that we'd get it done, what's the rush, there wasn't much I could do. It took them a week longer than it was supposed to to get the research to me, and that was starting to edge the due date a little. But whatever, the project is pretty much done now.

 

[rgwalt]

They survive on the good graces of people like you. A lot of people cruise through group work by unloading on others. When ever we did group work, I always put in my fair share. However, there were always some people who didn't pull their weight, and others who were go getters and went nuts doing their work.

Ryan

 

[joohang]

Originally posted by: HotChic
joohang, if I felt like that would have worked, perhaps I would have been more of a pain. Anything that I said though, in the earlier portions of the quarter, was countered with, "oh, I'm going out of town that weekend" or "we have plenty of time." Being pushy with one or two people, I think, would have produced results, but with all four saying they couldn't make it to group meetings and that we'd get it done, what's the rush, there wasn't much I could do. It took them a week longer than it was supposed to to get the research to me, and that was starting to edge the due date a little. But whatever, the project is pretty much done now.

That's true.

Fortunately, I personally never encountered group projects in my courses yet, but I would consider such professors a moron. There are sometimes good reasons to assign group projects, but the professor should know better and put in a factor where those who slack off get penalized.

 

[datalink7]

[Rant] How do these people get into/survive in college?

We get people like you to do all the work


But seriously, I hate those kind of people as well.

 

[joohang]

Originally posted by: datalink7

[Rant] How do these people get into/survive in college?

We get people like you to do all the work


But seriously, I hate those kind of people as well.

It can be worse. They could've not only researched the WRONG sh*t but also INSIST that their pathetic arguments and sh*tty research materials are absolutely perfect.

<-- ranting on people who should just shut the fsck up

 

[PrincessGuard]

One of the reasons profs assign group projects is that it means there's 2-4 times fewer projects to grade versus individual assignments. At least, that's what the CS department does (due to class sizes). My digital design class of 100 students had only 1 TA...

The only time I felt I did more work than I should have was because my partner was studying for her GRE

 

[SubZeroX]

whenever there was a group project that means I'll be doing all the work. I've already accepted the fact that getting together is a complete waste of time and effort.

 

[kranky]

Man, you know things are bad when HotChic is on a rant!

Too many people looking for someone else to carry the load. I hated group projects!

 

[Nemesis77]

Am I the only one who was instantly remind of the Calvin & Hobbest strip, where Calvin and Susie are doing the essay on planet Mercury ?

 

[Koing]

Group work is only good if you do it with friends that work hard. If they slack off or anyone slacks off it really bothers me. I work really hard and am always proud of my work because I put a lot of effort in to 'every' piece of work. I have always said if I am going to do some work I might as well do it to the best that I can do it.

Some people are born slackers and don't care. They are DEFINATLEY not free loading any work on to me if they are not putting in their fair share.

I had a problem like that over the weekend. I had produced 11 pages of work; my friend did one page. I thought fvck this and did everything myself. We were in a group of 4 so instead of just doing one task I did 4 tasks.

I had a really good group of friends in my English class. We had the best project work. Everyone worked hard and we met up often and finished everything. DAM that was a good group of friends in that class.

ps I am a mofo of a b!tching leader but i organise people to work and it works.

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Definitely been there done that. I feel for you. Did you even had a say about the makeup of the group?? That's what I fear most whenever there were group projects (and there were many of them). Its not what I do, but who I do it with. A good team can mean the difference between hell and heaven, literally speaking. I always make comments to the teacher at the end of each project, providing opinion on myself and others performance.

Hope you didn't get screwed too badly on the project.
Plucky