There is nothing that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck like a professor delivering the news that we will have a group project due at the end of the term.
No matter your grade or major you will have to go through the experience of having a group project at least once throughout your college years. Professors want students to gain the understanding of how to work with other people, but trying to split work up between a couple of lazy twenty-somethings is not always effective.
Professors will often give less guidelines and restrictions on a group project because they want students to lead and make their own decisions. Every group needs a leader, but it is not always that someone wants to step up. By choosing not to be the leader you could end up doing less work, but also end up having your grade suffer for it. If you do choose to take a leadership role then you may end up getting angry with a few classmates and losing some sleep, but have more control over what your group’s final grade will be.
For some group projects you get to pick your group members, but for many, the teams get chosen for you. No matter how good of a leader you are or how hard you try, the members in your group can have serious implications on your grade.
Samantha Twardoch, senior accounting major, often has to work with groups on projects in the Lundquist College of Business Honors program. “Group projects are fun, but in a lot of cases it honestly comes down to having to pull the weight of your teammates,” Twardoch said. “I would rather just know from the get-go what the project details are and take it on myself.”
College students’ schedules are so different every day of the week, groups try to plan ahead and schedule out times to work together, but the majority of the time you can expect a text from a group member 10 minutes before you are supposed to be there saying they need to reschedule. I can’t even comprehend how difficult some group projects would be without the amazing invention of Google Docs.
While many people, myself included, like to wait until the last possible second to get our work done, that mentality does not always work for group projects. As group meetings continue to get rescheduled and the due date is approaching quickly, I find myself freaking out while it seems that my other group members are completely fine being half way done with only a few days to finish.
Sometimes the hardest part is that group members don’t realize that they aren’t doing nearly as much work as others. During the times when we actually can make time to meet up they are on their phone texting, complaining nonstop about other classes or doing something else just to waste time.
But that is the glory of group projects, right? When doing a final project on your own, you know going into it that you are going to have to do every bit of work yourself. While having all the control is nice, everyone likes to lessen their workload if they have the chance.
In a study from The Journal of Higher Education, interviews with students showed that participating in group projects, “improved communication, conflict management, and problem solving skills even when they received minimal guidance about how to work together.”
While there may be actual benefits for working in groups, it is hard for me to say that I have ever experienced them. Allison Burk, junior public relations major, has seen the benefits of working with groups first hand.
“Group projects give students a chance to understand team dynamics and how to overcome obstacles that arise when working in a group,” Burk said. “It’s also important to acknowledge the strengths that you can bring to a group and to understand how to have confidence in decision-making.”
“For what it’s worth, I want my group members to be pallbearers at my funeral so as they lower me into my grave they can let me down one last time.”

That’s not my quote. I don’t know where it came from (nobody does). But it’s how we all feel about group projects. Admit it.
Follow Tanner Owens on Twitter @T_Owens21