My journey of getting into GSoC’20

Hi,

My name is Yugantar and I have recently been accepted into the Google Summer of Code 2020 as a student developer. During this summer, I’ll be working with AnitaB.org Open Source on the Mentorship iOS app and would like to share my journey of getting accepted!

In this post, I’ll be talking about how getting into GSoC is not as difficult as perceived, and would try to make the entire process clearer and simpler for future applicants by telling my journey along with a few tips.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the necessity of work-from-home, this year saw a ground-breaking number of GSoC applications from students around the world. In fact, I myself am one of those applicants. I realised that I’ll have to work remotely this summer, and GSoC being one of the best open-source programs for students immediately became the perfect option for me.

Getting into GSoC is easier than you might think

Looking at the official statistics from Google, it becomes apparent that even in its most competitive year, GSoC was still a pretty good shot. This year, there were 6626 student applicants out of which 1199 were selected. This roughly comes down to 1 out of 6 students being selected (actually even less than 6, somewhere around 5.5).
Frankly, it’s nothing compared to the competitiveness of getting an internship at a big tech company or even a startup, where there are sometimes more than a hundred applicants out of which only one gets selected. However, it must be noted that this is an average figure which varies heavily from org to org. Some orgs are extremely competitive (like mine 😬, only 4 out of 197 proposals were selected) while some are not.

It is also worth mentioning that the number of students who submit their final proposal is significantly less than the number of students who register for the program.
Sincerely working during the application period and submitting your final proposal is an achievement in itself, one that takes a lot of work. But once you do and if you do, you get a good chance of getting accepted.

It is difficult to be 100% sure about the acceptance rate of an org beforehand, hence, it is recommended to submit multiple proposals (max 3) to increase your chances. Though, submitting one high-quality proposal is a much better bet than submitting multiple medium-quality ones.

Perhaps, the biggest difficulty in getting into GSoC is the extraordinary amount of time it takes to apply to it.

Being an open-source program, GSoC drives on the spirit of contribution, the one-month application period serves like a demo of what it would be like, for both - you and the org. During the application period you do everything, communicate, discuss, contribute, and understand, and trust me all of it helps.

Try to start soon after the orgs are announced

I actually started very late with the process, the organisations were announced on 20 February, and I started on around 8 March, i.e. more than two weeks later. This was partly because I made up my mind much later, however, with my college closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, I practically had all the time every day till the end of the application period (31 March) to work on my proposal and communicate with the org.

I’ve heard seniors recommending to start as early as January by figuring out the prospective orgs using past year archives, but I don’t believe that anyone needs to start working before the organisations are announced. If you love to contribute to open-source and you have time to spare, then it’s superb, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone to contribute this early only for the sake of the program. Just start soon after the orgs are announced, and you’d be fine.

In addition to the obvious reasons, there is another very important reason to start timely, and that is that the application period in itself is a big learning opportunity. So, the earlier you start the more time you get for this experience.
I myself learned a lot about a few different projects, and because GSoC has dedicated mentors, it is much easier to do it with their help. I am an iOS developer, so I’ve always wanted to contribute to the Swift programming language, however, I only did that this time during the GSoC application period because it provided me with two things — mentors and incentive.

It is common to explore a lot of different orgs

The GSoC application phase is kind-of hectic. It involves a lot of things, from exploring the orgs, to understanding the project, and to drafting the actual proposal. Every org has their own set of instructions (usually involving their communication platform and contributing tips) and ideas list. It is common to explore a lot of different organisations (even till the end moment); I myself explored more than five of them, then fixed on three, and ultimately ended up applying to two.

The program is supposed to be fun and pleasurable for everyone, students, mentors, admins, and the whole community. The more you’ll get involved in the application phase, the more clarity you’ll get about which org and which project you really want to work on.

Do contribute to the project, show your caliber

This is perhaps the most important point of all. I can’t emphasise enough just how important and beneficial it is to contribute to the project that you’re planning to submit your proposal for. As I said earlier, the application phase acts like a demo of what the actual program will be like, and coding is a major part of that.

Contributing to a project not only helps you to show your caliber to the org, but also significantly helps you to —

• Gain a deep understanding of the project and its codebase,
• Formulate ideas and scope of improvements for your proposal,
• Understand the contributing procedure,
• Experience the org’s work culture, and
• Interact and build a rapport with the mentor.

The points mentioned above expand in their scope much beyond what is written; but all in all, contributing is essential and pivotal for a successful application.

Follow your heart

I feel really lucky that I was able to ace GSoC, not only because the circumstances made it perfect for me, but also because I actually was lucky, and I got this luck by following my heart.

Like other orgs, AnitaB.org had many projects listed in their ideas list. Being an iOS developer, I was interested in working on an iOS project in Swift, and found one (PowerUp). While it matched my tech-stack, I soon realised that I didn’t really had any vision or strong enthusiasm for it, rather, I liked the Mentorship system project the most from the very first day.

So, just over a week or two before the application deadline, I decided to switch. And now instead of drafting my proposal for the PowerUp project, I worked on a proposal for an all-new Mentorship iOS app. Honestly, it felt risky and scary, to just switch my whole project like that and ditch all the work that I’ve done. But, as is evident, it worked out.

In fact, if I wouldn’t have switched, I wouldn’t have been accepted at all, and the reason why I’m saying this is because the PowerUp project was archived later. As I’ve said earlier, the program is supposed to be a fun and exciting experience (much of the life actually), so it is important to do what you love.

It may seem that I’m only saying this because it worked out for me, but the point is that I did took that decision before knowing the consequences, and following my heart has always satisfied me. Moreover, working on a project I didn’t really love (or even believed in) would have been a much less meaningful experience for me.

But the crux is: you have to be good

Different people are good at different things, and if you’re good at coding, then that is your strongest friend to get you into GSoC or any other program/internship/job.

Earlier in this post, I talked about the varying and undefined acceptance rates of different orgs. If you’re not able to convince the org that you understand the project and that you will be able to complete it, then, even if you’re the only applicant, you can still be rejected. The orgs are not obliged to fill all of their slots.

It’s not your resume that decides your acceptance, but your work.

One of the things that I like the most about GSoC is just how fair it is for everyone. If you are a student developer, you must have come across this paradox that to get hired you need experience, and to get experience you need to get hired. GSoC is really amazing in this way, that it’s not your resume that decides your acceptance, but your work.

So, this is my journey of getting into GSoC 2020. I hope that this post helps future applicants in their application and approach towards the program.

Please feel free to reach out to me and connect, check out our projects, or join our open source community:
LinkedIn, GitHub, Mentorship iOS, AnitaB.org Community

Thank you!