I've waited several months before cancelling a class, and that is only after several attempts to contact them through messages. While I can understand how it could be frustrating for mentors, I don't let it bother me. The way I look at it is that it has no effect on me. As far as I know, we are only limited in the number of students we can accept in a 30 day period. We are not limited in the number of students we can have at any particular time. So personally, I'm willing to give the student a lot of leeway and the benefit of the doubt. I think it's fine for mentors to have differing "rules" as far as dropping students. However, to be fair, students should be made aware of any guidelines and/or expectations from a mentor beforehand. It's not fair to make up rules as situations arise. I try to clearly outline my expectations in a private message when I first accept a student. less

I am under the impression that we can only have three students at any given time, as this was my understanding when I began the program. Is this not true? If it isn't, it makes less of a difference to me whether or not a student takes weeks in responding.

I also don't have any situation at hand where this is an issue; I have two awesome students currently, one of whom is in regular contact and the other who is usually in regular contact but hasn't been in touch lately (only for 10 days though). I'm speaking purely hypothetically as it has happened to me in the past and it seems to happen to other mentors as well. I'm trying to get a sense of the protocol regarding it, although from what I can see there perhaps isn't one. less

I am under the impression that we can only have three students at any given time, as this was my understanding when I began the program. Is this not true? If it isn't, it makes less of a difference to me whether or not a student takes weeks in responding.

I also don't have any situation at hand where this is an issue; I have two awesome students currently, one of whom is in regular contact and the other who is usually in regular contact but hasn't been in touch lately (only for 10 days though). I'm speaking purely hypothetically as it has happened to me in the past and it seems to happen to other mentors as well. I'm trying to get a sense of the protocol regarding it, although from what I can see there perhaps isn't one. less

I think it would be nice if there was an explicit protocol, but on the other hand I guess it makes sense to let fast-paced students find a fast-paced mentor. (Personally I don't mind waiting a few weeks or more in between my students submitting reviews (as long as I know they haven't forgotten about Eden completely), but I know some mentors like to work at a quick clip.)

Since there's not a protocol, I've been outlining what I hope/expect in the message before accepting the student. I actually have a student who's currently MIA, and I made sure to send her both an inbox message and a wall message (since I know default messaging settings don't send emails for inbox messages).

I guess personally I would favor a protocol (with flexibility, of course)---just a simple way to say "The community standard is that I'd like to hear from you at minimum every two weeks" with flexibility to add "and personally I like to hear from you much more often than that!" or "but if life gets in the way don't worry, I'm a laid-back mentor" as the mentor sees fit. Then the students could have a little more idea of whether the mentor they picked is a good fit. less

Until now I hadn't thought of outlining anything regarding how often I expect to hear from a student, but I think in the future I will do that just to err on the side of caution. I think it might work as a safeguard against misunderstandings in the future - both for students and myself. less

I think it's fine for every mentor to come up with their own timeline. There are no rules set by EF on how to to run the class, and I think it's good to let everyone choose their own style.

I have no problem with a student taking a couple of months to complete the class, but I expect them to keep me updated regularly on their progress. I let them know that in the initial message I send.

If I don't hear anything for 2 weeks I send a message checking in. A week after that I send a warning message that if I don't hear from them I will cancel the class. Then I wait another week, and if I still haven't heard I will cancel the class. I think a month in total is plenty of time to expect someone to get back to me.

The majority of the time I never hear anything back, but I have had some students reply with reasons why they weren't able to respons, or why they aren't able to work on the review for a while. I'm totally fine with that, I just want to be kept in the loop. less

I too think that they should be able to take as long as they want and need to complete a class. I'm sure this was on my question lol, it has been a month with no contact from them at all. I've sent messages, the last one asking them to contact me and just let me know that they are still here. I haven't dropped them yet. I will hold off and give them a little more time to respond. I don't want to drop someone if they have a reason for not being able to be on here. less

No, I definitely don't have a standard message! I usually write a different one each time depending one what the student's original message to me was. I would definitely love to see what your format is, as well as anyone else's; I think this is a great idea. It might be helpful for me (and probably others) to save a template to my computer and make one of my own from that. We could possibly consider the idea of creating a community standard template that all mentors would receive that they could feel free to use if they didn't want to type their own? I'd be willing to help craft this. It could be a concise message with links to important resources, a brief explanation of how the program works, and then mentors could feel free to tack on any of their personal expectations? less

Until now I hadn't thought of outlining anything regarding how often I expect to hear from a student, but I think in the future I will do that just to err on the side of caution. I think it might work as a safeguard against misunderstandings in the future - both for students and myself. less

Hah, yup! I posted this after reading your other post because it made me curious about what the protocol was. I think the consensus here is that it doesn't matter how long a student needs to finish the class, but that it's important that they stay in contact. How long it should take them to get in contact is another story though, and it seems we all have different ideas of how that should work. I think most mentors though want to give students the benefit of the doubt and are willing to work around their schedules, but need to know that students are still interested in the class. less

Popular mentors need the slots free so they can help others that want in their class. I'd say 2 weeks to a month without communication. If their life is crazy at the moment then they wouldn't have time to write 2 reviews anyway. They can always reconnect with you at a later point and request you again I suppose and explain why they weren't able to do it at that earlier time. less