Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
Having the hard deadline as it has been, allows for planning for mentors and also, for students who juggle insane schedules filled with academic demands, extra curriculars, and somewhere in there I would hope they are developing social lives. Well-balanced social and academic development is important to the well-being of the individual students and their teams.
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As much as I know that it probably isn't, I feel like the scheduling comment is hitting right at me (anyone who follows me on Twitter or is friends on Facebook can attest that I have had numerous "I have so much work to do...oh, it's 2am already?" statuses over the course of the year). I'm not too sure about my social life right now, actually, or my sanity, for that matter. If we hadn't had a hard (or in the case of MI teams, "slightly squishy") deadline with the bagging, I might still be in the shop until 11pm most nights. As much as I love robotics, I've become completely burned out this year.
FIRST is demanding of the students and mentors alike. 6 weeks of robot-building is enough to drive all of us crazy (in both a good and bad way). Work will expand to fill the time allotted - that's why deadlines exist.
I think that everyone's views on this are on a team-by-team basis. Teams who are behind on their robots will generally love more time to work on it, but teams who are totally done by week 5 won't be as concerned about it, because it's normally just extra practice and tweaking time.