Congratulations to all the Google Summer of Code students whose proposals got accepted this year!!

I just came across this WordPress blogpost congratulating their Google Summer of Code 2009 students.  And at the very bottom, Jane Wells, the author, asks: “Where are all the geek girls?” I’m sure this isn’t a surprise to anybody, but what is surprising is the fact that the number of GSoC applicants went down this year.  This is disappointing, since a lot of us are really trying to get the word out.  Just looking at the University of Toronto for example, we’ve held many info sessions for GSoC 2009.  We even had threads on our department bulletin board answering any questions students might have regarding GSoC.  And I’m sure we’re not the only ones promoting it, so I personally found this very surprising — at first at least.

But now that I stop and think about it, the GSoC application deadline was definitely during one of the busier weeks for post-secondary students.  Thinking back, I was extremely stressed out last year around this time as well, since there were so many assignments and other evaluations to take care of while I was trying to apply for GSoC 2008.  I eventually had to sacrifice my assembly programming assignment to complete my GSoC proposal.  But I’m really glad I did so, because my proposal got accepted, and I still managed to get a passing grade for that one assignment (barely!).

This year, many of my friends considered applying for GSoC.  However, on top of all the deadlines, many of my friends were still looking for PEY internship positions.  So they eventually had to give up this awesome opportunity.  I’m not sure if prolonging the application period would have helped my friends in particular, but I’m sure a lot of students would benefit from the extra few days, and maybe they could work around their busy schedules and submit at least one proposal. :D

For those of you who were unable to apply to GSoC this year, remember to do so next year!  It really was an awesome opportunity for me last year, and it has definitely helped me a lot in finding internship positions.  And for those of you who are wondering what I was working on last summer for GSoC 2008, click here!