Deadlines don’t care about intentions, no matter how loudly they’re announced in the group chat.

So when one college student officially locked in the easiest presentation topic before anyone else, a disorganized classmate who forgot to put her name down suddenly felt entitled to a do-over.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for refusing to switch project topics after my classmate “claimed” it late?

In one of my university classes, we had to pick presentation topics from a shared Google Sheet.

It was first come, first served.

The professor said once you put your name down, it’s yours.

From the start, the process was a bit contentious.

There was one topic everyone wanted because it’s easier and has a lot of sources.

I checked the sheet the night it opened and saw no one had written their name yet, so I added mine.

This quickly caused drama with another classmate.

The next morning, a girl from my class messaged me saying she was “planning to take that one” and had already told her friends she was doing it.

She said she forgot to add her name before going to bed and asked if I could switch with her.

This just wouldn’t do for this student.

The only topics left were more complicated and would definitely require more work.

I told her I was sorry, but I picked it fairly and didn’t want to switch.

Now the classroom is divided.

Now some classmates are saying I was technically right but socially kind of harsh, because “everyone knew” she wanted that topic and I could’ve just been nice.

I feel like if she really wanted it, she should’ve written her name down.

But I also don’t want to be that person.

AITA?

“Finders keepers” applies to research topics as well.

What did Reddit think?

This classmate’s excuse wasn’t near as fool proof as she thought.

If nothing else, maybe she’ll learn a valuable lesson from this experience.

One-upping is always a valid strategy.

It’s time for this classmate to behave like an adult.

This student shouldn’t sacrifice her topic just because her classmate couldn’t get organized.

In college and in life: you snooze, you lose!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.