I've posted before about some frustrations I have working with some of our tiny MA program students. I posted here about some students I had who were rushing to finish after getting extension, and here about a student whose work didn't quite have a thesis. That last was back in December, and now suddenly, after relatively little contact, only one revised chapter (which still wasn't quite a chapter), the student has sent forward a complete thesis, expecting the faculty folks to read and approve it really quickly.
I really did my best to explain to this student that zie needed to be in regular contact and working along, but I've pretty much had to initiate contact and ask for thesis stuff. I did that earlier this week, sending information about the last dates to do what needs to be done this term, and a day later zie expects us to take this on.
Every time this sort of thing happens, I want to never work with another MA student. And yet, I didn't turn this one down when zie asked. And I try not to take out my frustrations with one student on other students. But right now, I'm really irritated.
Ugh. It really, REALLY is hard with students who can go away to work on their essays or theses. If they stay in regular contact, great things often happen. If they fall out of the loop, even for three weeks, disaster more often results.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me glad that we don't have a master's program. We already deal with enough flaky students with their senior portfolios. I wouldn't want to have to chase down master's theses too.
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