Oof, group projects. While I totally agree that group projects are an amazing opportunity to train future work skills, I do think the educational establishment needs to do more to ensure conscientious students (like you) don’t shoulder all the stress while lazy group members get off scotch-free. Perhaps group projects shouldn’t account for an enormous part of the grade, students should be marked individually, and there should be an opportunity to “peer review” each other’s performance, confidentially of course.

I think the key difference between a university group project and a real-world group project is that colleagues are paid for their work so they at least have some incentive to do well. Working adults also choose their jobs. Meanwhile, an 18 year-old college freshman may not have really chosen their course (it was required, their parents pushed them into it, it was the only course left, etc.) and 18 year-olds are so distracted by other aspects of campus life.