The 6 different types of students you deal with while doing group projects in college.

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The 6 different types of students you deal with while doing group projects in college.

I recently had to work on a project for a marketing class in a group totaling 8 members, 8 members!!! (seven girls and myself.) A lucky man? I wish I could agree. I tried to get my-good for nothing but a waste of time, power point-a-day professor to allow me to work in less numbers so the quality of the content would be great but she refused and told me “that’s life.” As furious as I was (considering I pay about $18,000 a year for some one to teach me something) I bit the bullet and did the project with the Victoria Secret army I was grouped with to do so. After the presentation, the professor gave the project a “C-“ with the remark, “Not enough content.”

Let’s take a look on why working in such great numbers is such an issue.

First, there is the overachiever. this girl will take in more than she can handle and eventually complain that she was the only one working on the project.

Secondly, you have the good student. This is the girl (usually a misguided “business” student who can’t place her finger on what she wants to do with her life other than being successful and avoiding using a Mac for the rest of her time on earth.) who will do the project word for word to the “professors satisfaction” (or meet the requirements on the project proposal exactly) but within this, she will first make it harder for herself and for the group, will bore the classroom during the presentation, avoid the main idea of presenting (to communicate and idea to an audience) and the outcome of the project will lack all creativity, originality, and will ultimately look terrible and unprofessional.

Third, come your casual slackers, These kids (usually male) are nothing to worry about. They will be a part of every project you do for the rest of your life but they are never going to do anything. Best thing to do about the slackers is to act like their not their, don’t include them, they’ll eventually dig their own grave to nowhere and any college professor worth anything will see that.

The fourth is the quiet girl. She won’t be any harm and will do probably C to B level work but come time for the presentation, she’s going to stare at the terrible power point that the “good student” created, avoid facing the audience and confuse the shit out of everybody in the class.

Fifth; the Cutthroat individual. This is usually the person who ends up pulling it all together. They will start from day one and say, I want to know what sections you all are going to do, what you want me to do, and how long. Through his/her eyes, If there is a piece of the project missing, they have dated information as to who to blame and they’ll fight for a good individual grade, regardless of the group grade. Sometimes this person will not pull it all together, and that’s when the “overachiever student” will begin to A) Panic or B) get angry and/or sarcastic toward the rest of the group but will ultimately do nothing to help the final product.

The Sixth and final type of person in a group actually makes up 1/3 of any 8 member group. They are… we’ll no one really knows who they are. Because they never ever show up or do anything for the project at all. They are worse than the slackers because when the “cutthroat individual” is blogging about it in the near future he/she doesn’t know what to call them.

Thank you to everyone who read, and to everyone who has worked on group projects with me for the inspiration to be better than them.

Cheers’

Jeremiah