Projects and Impending Doom (Graduate school)

[cssmall]

Hi there everyone. As you can tell from the title, I'm under a deadline. That deadline arrives in 1.5 hours and it's going to pass. Currently, I'm in an interdisciplinary class with three professors, one of whom is my graduate adviser. The project I am doing for this class is based off my thesis data (imagine a light version of a MA thesis). All the data is in; all the data looks good, except for the most important thing which allows me to scientifically verify whether my model is successful or not!

Of course, I'd worked on this for a month and a half and then finally went to my adviser. We talked about it and he gave me a good methodology to use for my work; however, it's slow going (GLO 1850s plat maps + USGS Topo Maps + GLO Survey Field Notes to locate sites it like pulling teeth). I told him at that moment that I probably will have to turn in the first draft of my paper late because this was going to be labor intensive and the like. He said: "Sure, just don't go too long, maybe next Tuesday at the latest."

Since speaking with him, the project is back on track and working well. But, I've never missed a deadline before and am stressing on it a little bit. I don't want to turn in crap, do I? I mean, seriously, I have an acceptable level of work standards that I like to follow! Should I stress or no? I totally got a great job offer over the weekend and am so stoked that I've got a job in my field that I go into so easily in January! :D

[cssmall]

1. Bump for advice (nt)

[Dora]

2. Can you clarify?

When your advisor said "Tuesday is okay," that meant today, right?

You said the project is back on track and working well. Surely you can turn something in.

What is your "acceptable level of work standards" that you say you like to follow? Do they preclude course/instructor requirements for completion of work?

Choosing whether to meet or miss a course deadline is simple. Compare the benefit/reward for turning the work in on time versus the benefit/reward for turning it in late.

If your question is, "should I stress," my answer is, NO. However, it is in your best interest to communicate with your instructor/advisor about what you've completed to date and also turn something in (the first draft) - even if it's incomplete because it's a draft after all - at least to demonstrate your level of commitment to the work.

[cssmall]

3. Ah, sorry

Tuesday of next week. Eh... I can turn in a poorly written draft because of the time devoted to basically bang my head against my keyboard heavily for basically a month and a half. Acceptable level of work is something that means that, even if not fully done or completed, I can feel as if I've done the work and can explain it fully, even if the data is not wholly present. My standards were trained by my advisor and mirror those of the course.

By first draft for this course, they mean completed without their comments, our rewrites and tabular/graphical data presentation in draft form. I'm not at that stage, but am very close and the instructor/advisor has been notified and it was through him that I worked with this. If I were to turn in what I had at this time, I would achieve a lesser mark than by turning it in by Tuesday of next week.

[Dora]

4. So, your deadline is actually next week.

And that's meetable, or no?

If you can write two mostly-coherent paragraphs in ten minutes, like you just did here, you should have no problem!

[cssmall]

5. Yep

I'll have it done by next Tuesday definitely, especially with all the time I'll be devoting to it over this weekend. The writing part is the easy part. The processing part just takes a lot of time. Ah well... I've worked my tail off on this and I want a good grade, but this isn't the be all, end all of everything.

But, the deadline next week is so I can present my data and findings to my peers in the class, take their questions and comments and integrate those into the draft. Also, I get comments and questions from the profs and have to the integrate those into the draft as well. The first draft part is due today; I'm thinking I'll have something good for presentation to the professors on Friday. I mean, I can turn this in today, make a C or low B or turn it in by Tuesday of next week and make a Low A/High B (which I believe will occur once I get the testing down)

Anyhow... thank you for the response.