Afraid of group projects in college

I have been living abroad for a long time, so I’m not confident with my english speaking ability. I’m worried that it will affect me in group projects. I think I should try to avoid group project for the first semester until I’m confident with my speaking ability.
Does anyone know what type of classes usually don’t have group projects? Or do almost all of them have it?
(I’m thinking about taking introduction to CS, introduction to psychology, freshman writing, a music course and maybe an art course)

Also, can anyone share how does group project usually work? Do teachers divide students into groups? Or do you have to find partners yourself? What if I can’t find anyone to partner with? (I’m going to a public school where a lot of students went to high school together, so I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t know anyone)

This thread is probably pretty dumb, but I’m very worried.
I would really appreciate it if anyone can share their experience or advice.

What are you planning to major in?

In my 4 years of college, and 3 undergrad, I think I did 2 group projects.

I don’t think this will be as big an issue as you’re thinking.

@bjkmom
I’m thinking maybe psychology
What classes did you have that required group projects?
Thanks.

Both were education classes. But neither was until my Junior or Senior year of college.
I strongly suspect that your choice of classes will be part of the distinction.

Read the course descriptions carefully. Perhaps join a chat group of kids that go to that school.

And, above all, give yourself some credit. Most of us can recognize someone whose primary language isn’t English, and most of us are very good about taking that in stride.

You’re smart enough to get into the school. That means the admissions committee is confident that you’ll succeed. Until you can convince yourself that they’re right, just convince yourself that they’re good at what they do and trust their judgment.

The best of luck to you!

My DS is an engineering major and has had group projects in every engineering class since his freshman year. In some he got to choose who he worked with, in others the teacher assigned the groups.

Business classes tend to have group projects in every course beyond the intro level.

I had a group project in my Intro CS course. However, in that class the ability to speak English was far less important than the ability to code in English, something that does not require native fluency.

Plenty of people won’t already have partners when doing group projects. Even in high school classes where everyone knew each other, there were always a few people without a group. This is even more true in college.

In group projects, the teacher will either assign groups randomly or will allow people to form their own groups. Requirements are set on how many people can be within a group to prevent people from getting an unfair advantage. If you have trouble finding a group, you can always send an email to the class to get in touch with someone who needs another person to work with.

In my major, most of my collaborative work was done in labs (chemistry being the best example). Communications classes are also very likely to involve group work (I did at least two of them when I took Public Speaking). I can’t say for sure if the classes you are taking may have group work involved because many times the preference for group work depends on the personality of the professor.

Most people have anxieties about doing group work, so I’m sure if you share your concerns with your partners, they would be understanding about it.

There’s not really a way to guarantee that you don’t get group projects. You might want to check if you can find old syllabi of the class online or if you can find reviews of the classes that talk about assignments. You can also always drop a class that has a group project when you get the syllabus in the beginning of the class. Just have another class in mind that you can add.

That being said, I wouldn’t worry too much about group projects. Most students will be fine working with a non-native speaker. And depending on the project, you might not even get together and talk that often. I’ve had group projects where we met face-to-face once or twice and then communicated the rest of the time by text/email. And your writing seems fine. Working in a group project may even help to improve your english. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

My group projects were all choose your own partner(s). But most students didn’t know others and just made groups with students sitting near them. Don’the assume all the kids in the class know each other. There will likely be a good number who aren’t friends with anyone in the class.

Is it the presentation part that is causing you worry? If so, you should know that the fear of public speaking is the Number 1 fear of people all over the world, and I’m sure that’s even stronger if you’re presenting in a language that’s not your most comfortable one.

When I go to conferences, I find that presenters whose first language isn’t the official conference language typically do two things to help their presentation: (1) powerpoint slides with captions in case their accent is difficult for the audience to understand (don’t READ the powerpoint, just have key points on it!), (2) note cards that they clearly have used for practice. A lot of practice. Audience members understand that it’s difficult to communicate in a second language and they tend to be nice during the question and answer session.

If your fear is communicating when the group meets, I think that will take care of itself, since you’ll be doing lots and lots of informal communication with other students and your rusty language skills will improve rapidly once you arrive on campus.