It hurts to break up



  • Some master's thesis students are less than independent. Here's an e-mail conversation I had with one recently. I include the timestamps of the e-mails just so you can see the emotional escalation that the student undergoes.

    From: me
    To: Msc Student
    Time: 15:10

    Hi,
    I have corresponded with your thesis partner, and he would like to break your group and continue with a different thesis partner. As support for his argument I have also seen a couple of ...disturbing... e-mails from you where you seem to be more interested in that your partner should do the work rather than that you should be equal partners in the thesis project.

    I would like to hear your views on the matter before I go any further.

    From: MSc Student
    Time: 16:13

    Hi
    I would continue my thesis with my current thesis partner.
    I do not want to break this group.
    I want to present thesis in jan or march.
    It is a big big shock for me and wastage of time.
    My thesis partner never mentioned about this with me.
    and he is supporting me from one year.
    It is a big big shock for me.
    I want to continue with my current thesis partner.
    It is wastage of time for me.
    huge wastage of time.
    I wan tto present it in jan or march.

    Time: 16:14

    How he can leave me after a long time.
    If he wanted to leave me why he did not leave me from very first day.
    He wants to waste my time as well.
    I want to continue with him.

    Time: 16:15

    He never mentined this early and supportign me as well.
    It is big big shock for me at once.
    He cannot leave me.
    I wan tto continue with him.

    Time: 16:21

    In very first meeting he told me thesis will finish very soon.
    In very first meeting i told him we can chhose a simple topic and can complete it with 7 months and can present.
    It is my thesis partner topic.
    and he told me thesis will complete very soon.
    He should complete my thesis now.
    He is responsible for wastage of my time.

    Time: 16:23

    Respected Sir,
    He has wastage of my time.
    Kindly say him complete my theis now.
    Why he did not leave me very first day.

    Time: 16:24

    I want to continue with him.
    He is ersponsible for my thesis.
    and for wastage of my time .
    Sir,
    1 year is not a small duration and he is now suddenly thinking to break about the group.
    He is responsible for wastage of my time.

    Time: 16:30

    Respected Sir it is a big big shock for me at once.
    I want to work with him.

    Time: 16:32

    Respected Sir,
    my partner was big big claiming at very start that thesis will finish very soon.
    Now he is responsible for my loss.

    Time: 16:33

    He should work with me and complete my thesis.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    .. and? Did the workhorse get a different partner, and what happened/is happening to the sponger?



  • Partly. When our resources allowed us to we revised the format of the thesis so it is no longer allowed to work in pairs.

    None of them were really workhorses, so they are both still around. This particular student is trying to get some supervisor to accept his new thesis proposal. So far no luck, wich just goes to show that sometimes -- just sometimes -- the system works.

    Frankly, TRWTF is that they apply to a master's program in Sweden, offered in english, without being able to read and understand a basic english text. TRRWTF is that we have no means by which to detect this (the government have in the interest of fairness stripped us of all possible ways of spotting these cases) and so we accept them to an education which they really have no chance at all to pass.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    None of them were really workhorses,

    I meant within the context of this relationship and completing the thesis - the partner seemed to be doing all the work from what you said:

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    where you seem to be more interested in that your partner should do the work rather than that you should be equal partners in the thesis project.



  • @PJH said:

    I meant within the context of this relationship and completing the thesis - the partner seemed to be doing all the work from what you said:

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    where you seem to be more interested in that your partner should do the work rather than that you should be equal partners in the thesis project.

    Yes, well: Equal partners towards failure, but I cannot really tell them that, can I?



  • I'm guessing this guy wasn't educated in Sweden since you guys speak better English than British or Americans.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    The real kicker would have been if the thesis was a 1 person thing all along and the students name was Smeargol....
    Honestly, try reading it in a gollum voice it all starts to make sense that way!

    Filed Under: Frodos Master Thesis was throwing a ring into an active vulcano...



  • Indeed. And that's why we cannot filter them properly on entry; If they can claim a CS/SE Bachelor and that their primary language in school was english, we waive the usual language requirements.

    Since anyone can start a univ. in e.g. Pakistan, we get students from "Funny-University of Islamabad" with a BSc in CS where the programming courses were taught on paper.

    ... You do see some funny courses when reviewing applications, though:

    • "Penetration Techniques" (which makes sense in a geology exam)
    • "A Complete Introduction to the History of African Technological Development" This course was the equivalent of two weeks full time studies.
    • "Physical Education" Common with our Chinese students; sometimes they have more credits on this than on CS/SE.


  • @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    "Penetration Techniques" (which makes sense in a geology exam)

    Taught by the @algorythmics school of IT, obviously.


  • kills Dumbledore

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    "A Complete Introduction to the History of African Technological Development" This course was the equivalent of two weeks full time studies

    Racist!



  • @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    Indeed. And that's why we cannot filter them properly on entry; If they can claim a CS/SE Bachelor and that their primary language in school was english, we waive the usual language requirements.

    Since anyone can start a univ. in e.g. Pakistan, we get students from "Funny-University of Islamabad" with a BSc in CS where the programming courses were taught on paper.

    Yeah, I remember the trouble that this caused for a first year MSc-level course in network stuff. The prerequisites for that programme are pretty well stated (and include stuff like systems level programming and whatnot).

    First lab is something making two processes talk to each other via TCP. Most students that attended the BSc programme blaze through it - hell, most students from EU-based universities(*) you only ever see when handing in their solutions. Then there's that guy who's only ever written some code in matlab. He's not going to have a good time.

    (*) Most exchange students were from EU or India/Pakistan/..., and a few from China and Russia. Almost nobody from the US/Canada/Australia.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @cvi said:

    Most exchange students were from EU or India/Pakistan/..., and a few from China and Russia. Almost nobody from the US/Canada/Australia.

    You don't tend to see that many US/Canada/Australia students in the EU doing sciences and technology until PhD level. Up to Masters level, they've got excellent domestic alternatives and it's cheaper for them to not travel. (At PhD level, you go to where the person is you want to study under, which could be almost anywhere.)



  • People on this site love telling like 2/3rds of the story and just stopping as if they're done. They tell stories the way open source developers release products.





  • It's agile, man! Don't tell more than you think the customer wants to hear.

    I also did not think there was more to the story after that; One wanted to break up, the other didn't but rather than strenghtening his case for why they shouldn't he ended up proving why they really ought to. End of story. I did not expect the audience to want a happy ending...



  • I didn't want a happy ending, just a ending. You told the The Talented Mr. Ripley of forum stories.



  • With master students like these, it never ends!



  • Just like The Talented Mr. Ripley never ended!!! ... that fucking movie!!!!!



  • @Mikael_Svahnberg said:

    Penetration Techniques (which makes sense in a geology exam)

    Obligatory:


  • :belt_onion:

    i can't tell if he's actually leeching off the other guy's work and expects the other guy to finish it for him, or if he's just too incompetent at English to communicate properly what the real situation is.



  • @darkmatter said:

    leeching ... or ... incompetent

    That's not an XOR.


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