dFIX - Good luck holding it together. I'll recount for you a strategy I used in the final days of my senior project in undergrad: at your next meal, go to a cafe or restaurant, clear your mind for a few minutes over food, then make a list of the things you absolutely must get down, the steps to achieve them, and how to place priorities on them.

Then stick to the list. Use it as your Personal Bible of Achievement. Make sure you figure which are the MOST important things done (and what steps need to be taken to achieve them), and figure out which things are good to get done but not critical, and figure out which can slack/be forgotten.

Twenty minutes of organization can help make the next 6 days much smoother, if not easy.

Good luck and hang in there.

i've been using task lists, as LB suggested, for years...it definitely helps you eliminate some of the anxiety stress you are feeling right now.

having said that, difficultFIX...you should not be working for any firm that wants you to sacrifice your education for their deadlines...
i was luckly enough to work for a firm, during school, where my boss would literally pull drawings from my desk and tell me to go to school when they knew i had a deadline...then again, it was past midnight...

simples - I sympathize with your delimma - up to a point.

not sure what your deal is with your firm. tumbleweed may be right about them putting you in a crappy situation, but I doubt it.

we routinely have student employees in our office. some work a part-time schedule and come to us on that basis. we deploy them accordingly (in a limited capacity) and work around their schedules.

others come to us as full-time employees and expect to be treated as such. they are integrated into a team and expect (and are expected) to pull their weight. if the team works ot, they work ot.

you really can't have it both ways. your firm's role is not simply to subsidize your education and accommodate your personal agenda. they have deadlines too and have a right to expect your participation.

that's bs, file...

what kind of crappy employee is the firm gonna get if you don't get the most out of school.

i've worked for two firms, one small & one big during undergrad... and every architect i've ever known understands what finals are like. and understands that you may never get to do more meaningful or self-fulfilling work ever again.

of course, there should be a written agreement as to the number of hours expected, but unless you're under contract to be there, they should be able to shift the hours elsewhere.

what kind of firm constantly relies on intern help to meet CD deadlines?

i had some rough deadlines during my last year in school, but not because anyone told me to be there. it was my first two jobs as a PA, for a project that nobody else had worked on. i had to keep up with a bunch of CA work and revisions...but when it came to finals...i gave a two week notice that I would be taking a leave to finish my studio finals. boss didn't blink. i arranged for someone else to handle the stuff that needed immediate attention and that i'd see them in two weeks. clockwork.

unless your job is the opportunity of a lifetime, let them know where your priorities lie. we shouldn't have to put up with this shit as a profession.

My advise: "Take this Job and Shove it." Quoting some ole country western tune from God knows when. Education is far more important in the long haul, than some cad-monkey ass job, where no one from the top can find time to step in and help you out over the next week.
I would suspect they were all off to their summer homes over the weekend. While you were sweating bullets. Be nice about it, tell him
you understand your boss his deadline is important, but like most deadlines in life it will find a reason to be extended. However your Studio is over in one week.....done....gone.....forever and if you don't have your act together your looking at screwing up your gpa....and no grad school.....

Pretend like you are working, but do the school work instead. The sneakiness of it all will encourage you to finish your school work.

You will feal guilty. Then finish your work

good luck

1. find friends to help you out for your final project.

2. find friends in your firm to help you out for your project or even subsitute you for the rest of the week.

Quit your job...they are using you.

Any office that doesn't respect an employee's pursuit of education is not worth working for.

postal - you're certainly entitled to your opinion. however, you might want to consider what the originator of this thread wrote - "I am not even close to being done with my studio work........" - yet, he's got enough time to post on archinect. what was he doing the rest of the term? why isn't the work "even close" - sounds to me like the guy screwed around all term and now wants to blame the firm for his problems.

get real people - if you take a job, you take more than a paycheck - you also take on responsibility. what's the old saying "your failure to plan doesn't constitute an emergency on my part"

don't accuse me of being an enemy of education. I have a bunch of degrees myself - paid for by me. I routinely have students in my firm and I treat them well. what I don't do is treat them like irresponsible children and the vast majority stay on with me after they earn their degree.

wake up and smell the coffee, people!

file...i mostly agree with you and your perspective as an employer, as long as he is in deed a full time employee...but there is a level of sensitivity, and you seem to be aware of it, when it comes to asking a student employee to spend his studio project time on the firm's deadline.

After all, the old saying "your failure to plan doesn't constitute an emergency on my part" goes both ways...perhaps a project manager didn't schedule enough hours, or the firm owner was eager to please a client by meeting unrealistic deadlines, and the student has to sacrifice his studio project so he can pick up red-marks for a senior housing project...

And we can cut DifficultFix some slack...being an integral part of a firm (i assume, based on the firm's request) and an architectural student is not for slackers...and "not even close to being done" could mean "i am a slacker" as it could mean "i am an overdriven perfectionist"...we just don't know, but he has not posted on archinect since he started this discussion...

but i am sure you understand all this...i wouldn't want an employee saying "I feel Like I am about to explode..."

simples ... you are, of course, correct ... it all depends on the specific circumstances of a specific situation.

mostly my comments were a reaction to the numerous posts above that seem to automatically lump this student's employer into the "scumbag, exploitative firm" category.

"tasks expand to fit the time available to complete them" or something like that, plan asimple you got to much going on, it happens and Lb has the solution if you feel you need get it all done. but clearly your all in a lather and need to focus on one at a time not multi-task as it can tend to dilute your focus and ability to get any of them completed. Head down close the door and tackle the "essential" aspects of each task if you find time later then come back and fill in the un essential stuff.

at least you dont have crabs

So I made it thru.......It was difficult but as Liberty bell suggested...I made a list which helped me coordinate my tasks....

Big thanx.....Now its time to sleep.....