so I’m in my final year of university and we have this group project to submit in January. My group consists of **5 people** including myself.
From the very beginning they have contributed basically nothing, and another group member and I had had to pick up the work of 3 people *( lets call them Adam, Sam and Jake)*. so now that submission is near I’m thinking if i should submit the group project early without letting them know *(we all have to submit individually)* which would result in their fail if they don’t submit at the same time.
throughout the assignment timeframe, i have emailed lecturers and had talks with the group multiple times, but nothing has come out of it. no work has been done on their end.
what’s worst is, in that timeframe, we have had **WEEKLY** stand-up presentations, where we would present our progress on the group work we have done to the rest of the class.
Sam and Jake had turn up to the presentations about once or twice, keep in mind, this project started in October of 2025 and we are now in January.
They probably used every excuse under the sun; family issues, fever, cold, face infection *(I wish i was joking)*, being out of town. I even caught one of them playing GTA on their discord status after they said they were on a train home from London.
While I will say they haven’t done completely nothing, what they have contributed can also barely be considered anything at all.
So now I’m wondering if I should submit the presentation for myself and not tell them which would cause them to either get a capped grade or fail the assignment all together, which might cause them to be unable to graduate. I’m truly at a lost for what to do.
Am I the asshole?
Edit: i have talked to the professors before already and have emailed them a few times about the issue. the reply was that they will take individual contributions into account and that was it.
Does your professor know that you’re doing all the work? (usually they do.) if not, maybe you should speak to the professor and mention that there’s been an unequal amount of contribution and what the prof suggest you do for submission?
If your partners haven’t helped you, you really don’t owe them anything, but you can follow protocol.
I have emailed and spoke with them, they have said to not worry as much since they take individual contributions into account, but the project itself is worth 50% of overall grade (which is quite a lot), and its frustrating to try and create a decent project when more than half the group isnt doing anything.
What happens if you wait til the deadline to submit, or would their lack of work just drag your grade down?
I mean, yes, you would *definitely* be an AH but they are also AH for not putting in their share of the work.
I think you have to decide what you can live with, and think long and hard about what your actual motivations are. Are you pissy about them not helping out in equal measure, and therefore want to punish them; or are you actually concerned with their behavior and how it affects others around them, as well their own working future? You can be mad at someone and still see what would be beneficial for them to learn even though the lesson might be a harsh one.
I myself would probably find a middle ground and email them all, CC the Professor and tell them plainly that since you and your other classmate have now completed the work that they put almost no energy into, and that you now intend to hand in said work, they have X amount of days to finish before you post. That way you give them a hard deadline and it is all on record with your Professor. This assumes you have given them plenty of warnings, which it seems you have.
that’s true, maybe it would be better to let them know that if i dont see any difference i will submit the project with or without them.
I was in a similar situation in college (University)🙈 it was maybe 6 of us in the group. The slacker came in at like 11 PM with their sloppyily written portion. I was the leader of the group, and editor and had no time to edit it. It was so poorly written and I was exhausted before they even showed up. Pulled an all nighter naturally and handed the group assignment in on time….but without their name on it. It was my idea, I owned it and the group agreed with me. Of course I got yelled at but it worked out. The 5 of us got A+ ( we did the best in the class) and the slacker got like a B- or a something. Their portion was factored into our strong work so they still came out on top.
Someone did this to me in college because they didn’t like my part of the group project and thought I half-assed it last minute.
I did, in fact, half ass it last minute, but it wasn’t bad work.
When I found out it was left out intentionally, I went to the professor, who took my side since I was able to prove with date stamps that my part was completed on time to submit. My “bad” part of the project scored way higher than theirs and was not included in their group score, but was in mine, to the extent I got a full letter grade more than them.
If they had complained about me procrastinating before they used underhanded means, he probably wouldn’t have been so sympathetic to me.
It sucks that they are not helping. It’s frustrating that they’re procrastinating. But sabotaging them may come back to bite you in a bad way, is what I’m saying.
Either go to your professor about your concerns now or just do your best with what you’ve got.
Talk to your prof together with the other contributor.
Tell them clearly that after many attempts to have the three losers participate, they have only contributed a,b, and c.
Tell the prof that you want to understand how grades in this project will be distributed considering the lack of effort by the other 3.
Get it in writing.
NTA. Graduating from college generally implies that you actually worked to achieve a degree. You did the work, so you and your other classmate should focus on your own grades. Their lack of effort is not your responsibility and you shouldn’t have to suffer for it.
You really just need to reach out to your prof and get their advice on how to continue. I see when you’ve discussed it with them before they said not to worry, they’ll have a portion of their grade be based on their individual contribution, but that doesn’t seem to be comforting for you at all.
Are you planning on just doing it all, submitting it, and hoping your professor counts it as you having done things correctly and failing them? I don’t think that’s realistic. Group projects, for better or worse, are typically there to teach you how to deal with the fact that people can be useless. Your work still needs done, but in a professional setting, throwing your team under the bus like that would be most likely to get *you* fired, not them. If, as group leader, you honestly cannot figure out any way to get your group to do the work they’re supposed to, that’s a partial failure on your part.
Your professor has essentially told you to just do the work with the members who are working, turn it in as expected, and let him handle it via the grade itself. You should take that advice. YWBTA if you ignore the instructions you’ve been given.
I had a group member who told his thesis supervisor he was assuming “this hardcore chick in group” would do the group assignment for him in a coursework class. She told me because she was also my thesis supervisor and I had already complained about him being lazy. End of day, I told our lecturer that he repeated this to others and was slacking off, and I did no work for him on his part. When I submitted I got the highest grade in class and he failed. The others in the group also got graded very highly. It’s all about talking to the right people.
Just tell them you are submitting, and that they’re on their own, since they’ve not done their share of the work. Submitting early without telling them is petty. Let them screw themselves over – don’t do it for them.
Yes, you would be the asshole but it’s also a *fuck around and find out* situation for them. If you do submit early, they’re just living the consequences of their actions.
You’re in final year of university, it’s crazy to me how they haven’t locked in, and act like that for education *they* pay for, especially in group work where your actions affect other people.
Talk to your professor and be guided by what they say.
The core of your question – the bit that the “asshole or not?” verdict hinges on – is “*without them knowing*”. You have told us you want to submit the work you have done **without them knowing**.
Don’t do that. It’s sneaky.
Even when people behave badly – and they have – and you decide to take a certain course of action which will be to their detriment, you should be transparent with them about what you’re doing unless there’s a compelling reason not to be.
Your reason seems to be “because I want to make sure they get into trouble and suffer the worst possible penalty”. That’s vengeful, and beneath you.
As long as you keep the professor informed about what’s going on, and you trust the professor to be fair, then whatever penalty the others suffer is between the professor and them. It’s not your business.
There’s also the fact that if you’re sneaky about how you handle this situation, you risk it coming back to bite you, and making you look less than honest. It’s important to be able to put your hand on your heart and say “I acted honestly and transparently at all times. I worked hard, and earned my grade. I gave my group members every opportunity to earn theirs. They failed to take it. That’s on them. They’ve now failed the course? That’s on them. It’s not my doing, because they were never in doubt about what I was going to do.”
Then if this situation turns serious – for example, if the others lodge an objection or make a complaint about YOU, and it ends up in front of an academic board – you would come out of it looking spotless.
Because of the way you have framed the question in your subject line (“*AITA for screwing my group without them knowing…*”, then I have to give a verdict of YTA. That verdict is for the lack of honesty and the vengefulness.
Be transparent at every step of the way, follow the professor’s instructions, and you will not be the asshole.