How do you choose group members in graduate school when almost everyone knows that nothing is really at stake except to get a pass? Rarely do professors fail a student in graduate school, unless the student is performing very, very poorly.
During college or even high school, usually people tend to be lucky if they end up with a group mate who is not only intelligent enough, but is also running for honors or even achieving a Latin honor when they were about to graduate college. This would mean that not only you're going to have a talented group mate, but they're also the ones who will exert most effort even if it would come to a point that he/she will be the one doing everything. Additionally, this would also mean that the group mates around this person could actually afford to lax in terms of their contribution to a particular project or activity. However on the other end of the spectrum, there are students who are average or sometimes below average intelligence wise, but their effort sometimes exceed to that of the honor students.
During college or even high school, usually people tend to be lucky if they end up with a group mate who is not only intelligent enough, but is also running for honors or even achieving a Latin honor when they were about to graduate college. This would mean that not only you're going to have a talented group mate, but they're also the ones who will exert most effort even if it would come to a point that he/she will be the one doing everything. Additionally, this would also mean that the group mates around this person could actually afford to lax in terms of their contribution to a particular project or activity. However on the other end of the spectrum, there are students who are average or sometimes below average intelligence wise, but their effort sometimes exceed to that of the honor students.
Then comes the graduate school - where nothing is really at stake in terms of your personal, educational or even your professional career. It was not like in high school or in college wherein every grade or performance mattered. Here a graduate diploma is more of an icing on the cake. So when it comes to groupings - whether choose your own or count off, one might be hearing lots of friction among group members. Of course, since you would be label as professionals, it would be expected of you to confront things professionally and not just argue with each other like kids. Also, that would mean that professors may not care whether your group would contribute their part or not. In all the subjects I took in the MBA program, I only had three professors who actually do care about ranking group members.
Unlike college and in high school, making excuses is possible in graduate school because of work. One can constantly say that they are busy at work, they are in weird shifts etc. You cannot make those kinds of excuses during college - unless of course you are really working as part time (then, that would be a different story). Also, you cannot cite extracurricular activities as an excuse not to contribute your part (it was your choice to join there in the first place). In graduate school, you are all working and being a student is a part time.
So how do you choose your group members now knowing that some of your classmates can have a leeway of using work as an excuse not to contribute much? You may have group members who are intelligent, but does not want to make significant contribution. On the other hand, you may also have group members who are deemed incapable of contributing significantly, yet you see their initiative to find ways in contributing to the task.
For those who are aware that they are incapable to make significant contribution in terms of knowledge, they might depend on classmates who are very good at talking but does not provide the translated output. As for other students who are on the "always busy" mode, they might lean towards classmates who are very industrious when it comes to providing meaningful output, in that way they can be afforded to buy some time in finishing their work at the same time allow them to somehow provide minimal input.
Generally, I think students would choose someone who could provide the best effort in any task even if nothing was really at stake. In an environment wherein everybody is busy doing something whether it is about work, personal matters or even family, one would really need to depend on someone who is willing to put an effort rather than those who are intelligent enough yet fail to provide a meaningful output in a group.
