2019 Email Announcements

This is an archive of all broadcast emails sent to Mentors and Org Admins.

June 24, 2019: Time to submit your evaluations of your Students (deadline June 28th 18:00 UTC)

Thank you for being a GSoC 2019 mentor or org admin!

One mentor for each student project must complete an evaluation of their student before Friday, June 28th at 18:00 UTC. Please go to your dashboard on the GSoC program site and complete your evaluation of your student before June 28th at 18:00 UTC. We encourage you to complete the evaluations ASAP so you don't forget to do it - it should take you less than 10 minutes to complete.

If your org misses an evaluation your org will lose $1100 of the mentor summit travel stipend and one less person will be able to attend the summit.

Org Admins -- we encourage you to verify all evaluations for your org's student projects are complete 48 hours before the deadline, giving you time to contact the mentors directly if they have outstanding evaluations. Org Admins can complete the evaluation if needed.

To fail or not to fail?

Every year we tell organizations and mentors to fail students who are not doing their work. Often people will want to give the student the benefit of the doubt that they will improve - this rarely happens. 14 years of experience has taught us that if you are considering failing a student then you probably should.

Google Summer of Code requires students to write quality code for the open source organizations they are working with while meeting their scheduled milestones. Students should not receive a stipend for being good proposal writers and nice people. They must also produce quality code that lives up to the expectations of your community. If they don't, they should be failed. Period.

In the evaluation there is a section where you can leave feedback directly for the student that they will see after the evaluation deadline passes. This is the place to say what they did well and also why you failed them (what they should have been doing - example: communicating with the mentor/community and meeting their scheduled milestones, etc.).

Failing students is expected and encouraged (when appropriate)
Each year, when Google admins are considering the Org Applications we look at the pass/fail status of an org's previous GSoC experience(s). We expect to see some failures from orgs who have participated several times. Orgs who never fail anyone make us wonder if they are being too lenient with their students. Failing a student can be a good thing for the student. It can teach them the importance of deadlines, responsibilities, and also not over-committing or overselling their skills. Many students have said they failed their first GSoC and then reapplied the next year and succeeded, because they learned from where they went wrong.

When deciding whether to pass or fail your student you should be considering the actual code produced and their involvement in the community. It is your responsibility to your organization, to all of the other students
participating in GSoC, to yourself, and to Google, to evaluate the student on the quality of their code contributions they have produced during these first 4 weeks of the program. Things happen and students get sick or have other issues pop up that don't allow them to work as much on GSoC as they planned. This happens. But just like with a job, if you don't do your work and meet the requirements of your job you are let go. Students that aren't meeting their deadlines and producing quality code should be failed.

The mentors list has had several productive discussions about whether failing is appropriate in certain circumstances. You can find them in the archive. Also be sure to check out the "Evaluations" chapter of the Mentor Guide.

Only 1 mentor can submit an evaluation for a student. If there are multiple mentors for a single student project you should decide in advance which mentor will complete the evaluation.

Important Dates

• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• June 28 18:00 UTC: Deadline for First Evaluation
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced
• Oct 17-20: GSoC Mentor Summit 2019 in Munich, Germany

Important Links for Mentors

2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive
GSoC mentor guide
Roles and Responsibilities

Please email Google Administrators at [e-mail] if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Google Summer of Code team

June 18, 2019: GSoC First Evaluation Information - Evals Open June 24-28 1800 UTC

We hope you are enjoying working with your students during these first few weeks of coding.

Below is important information regarding your required First Evaluation of your student(s) - please read everything very carefully.

IMPORTANT DEADLINE for ALL MENTORS: First Evaluations open June 24 and are DUE before Friday, June 28th 18:00 UTC

This first evaluation is a required part of your participation in GSoC 2019 and should take you about 10 minutes to complete. If you do not complete the first evaluation of each of your students by June 28 at 18:00 UTC, your organization will automatically lose $1100 of the mentor travel stipend for the mentor summit. There are no exceptions. Missed evaluations also contribute to our decision on whether to accept an organization in future years of GSoC.

Starting at 18:00 UTC on Monday, June 24th you can go to your dashboard on the GSoC program site to complete the first evaluation. Just click on the "Complete Evaluation" button and fill out the form. You must complete the entire evaluation form at once — you can not submit a partially completed evaluation and you can not edit the evaluation once it has been submitted. You must submit your first evaluation by June 28th at 18:00 UTC.

Can't submit the Evaluation between June 24-28?
If you know you will be unable to complete the evaluation of your student between June 24 - June 28 at 18:00 UTC, please ask the other mentor working with your student to complete the form. Your Org Admin can also fill out the form on your behalf. If you have the Org Admin complete the form be sure to provide them the answers (link to questions below) so they can fill out the form for you when the evaluation period opens.

Only one Mentor can complete an evaluation for a student
If there are multiple mentors working with a student you will need to decide which of you will be filling out the first evaluation of the student. Only one mentor can complete the evaluation. Once the evaluation has been submitted it can not be edited, so be sure you both agree on the outcome (pass versus fail) and who will be filling out the form ahead of time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I have multiple students?
If you are a Mentor for multiple students then you will see all of the First Evaluations that need to be completed in your Dashboard. From there you can click on the name of the student you wish to complete an evaluation for.

Can I see the evaluation questions in advance?
Yes, you can view the evaluation questions now.

Should I fail my student?
This is a very common question and you can check out some of the threads on the GSoC Mentors list (from 2017 and 2016) that discuss this as well as the "Evaluations" chapter of the Mentor Guide.

Timeline

• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• June 28 18:00 UTC: Deadline for First Evaluation
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced
• Oct 17-20: GSoC Mentor Summit 2019 in Munich, Germany

Important Links for Mentors

GSoC mentor guide
Roles and Responsibilities
2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive
Being a Great GSoC Mentor video

Please contact us at [e-mail] with any questions.

Best,
Stephanie Taylor
GSoC Program Administrator

May 21, 2019: Removing an Inactive Student before coding begins & tips

We're in the final few days of the community bonding period - coding begins May 27th.

Removing Inactive students

If you have a student that has not been actively involved in the community bonding period now is the time to let us know and we can remove them from the program. Please contact us at [e-mail] with the name of the student and your org name by May 26th and we will send them an email telling them they have been removed from the program.

Coding Begins May 27th

Coding officially begins for students on Monday, May 27th. By now you should have firmed up the milestones with your student and communicated what is expected of them throughout the summer and very specifically the next 4 weeks.

Please be sure to communicate regularly with your students, communication is key to a good experience for students and mentors during the program. Regular communication can vary but should be at a minimum 2 times a week whether that is via email, chat, video call, etc. Regular communication during these first few weeks in particular is vital to setting the stage for a successful summer for your student.

As a mentor if you become ill, life happens, etc. please contact your co-mentor or org admin at the earliest convenience to let them know they need to step in to cover your student while you need to step away for awhile.

Future Emails for Mentors and Org Admins

This is the last email some of you will receive from Google for GSoC 2019. Starting May 27th we will only send emails to mentors with an assigned student project in the system and to all org admins.

• May 6 - 26: Community Bonding Period
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
• May 27: Coding begins
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced
• Oct 17-20: GSoC Mentor Summit 2019 in Munich, Germany

Important Links for Mentors

GSoC mentor guide
Roles and Responsibilities
2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive
Being a Great GSoC Mentor video

Please contact us at [e-mail] with any questions.

Best,
Stephanie Taylor
GSoC Program Administrator

May 17 2019: The 2019 Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit

Hello Mentors and Org Admins!

We are excited to announce that to celebnrate the 15th year of GSoC we are making the Mentor Summit extra special - we're traveling halfway across the world (to Munich, Germany!) and making the event longer - 3.5 days!

We wanted to get all of you the dates and the location change earlier than usual as we know many of you start planning other conferences and activities around the Mentor Summit dates.

We will send all the registration details in early July and all of the details about mentor summit travel stipend payments will be sent to Org Admins in June. The basic information can be found below and on the Mentor Summit site (where more information will be added over the next few months).

Event Dates
Thursday, October 17 - Sunday, October 20

Location
Hotel and Conference Space: Munich Marriott Hotel

Website
https://sites.google.com/view/gsoc-mentorsummit2019/home

Purpose
As a way to say thank you and to continue to keep GSoC evolving we hold an annual summit at the end of each GSoC program. We bring two mentors from each participating organization together for a long weekend to talk about GSoC, the greater FOSS community, what can be done to make the program better, how to keep students involved in their communities post-GSoC, and many other topics. It's also a fun way to meet up with other mentors and org admins across the GSoC universe.

Who can come?
Two Mentors or Org Admins are invited from each GSoC 2019 organization. It is up to the Organization Administrators and your community to decide on which two people will be attending (but they must be 2019 Mentors with assigned student projects or a 2019 Organization Administrator). Most orgs will determine their mentors this summer during the program.

What are the changes for this Mentor Summit?

1. We're doing our first summit outside the Google campus in California and coming to Munich, Germany! We have been asked to have a Mentor Summit in Europe over the past few years and with a large number of our mentors within a quick 2 hour flight from Germany we hope this will allow many of you who have been unable to trek to the US for a long weekend to make the trip to central Europe.
2. We're extending the Mentor Summit from 2.5 days to 3.5 days. Events start Thursday evening and Friday will be our Fun Day Activities for attendees to explore Munich and get to know each other before the unconference begins Saturday am-Sunday pm.

We won't be giving out more information about the fun details than what is currently listed on the GSoC Mentor Summit site so please don't ask. : )

If you have any general questions please contact us at [e-mail]. We look forward to seeing you in October!

Best,
Stephanie Taylor

May 6, 2019: Community Bonding and FAQs from Mentors

All 1,276 GSoC 2019 student projects can now be found on the program site. Students can view their status on their dashboard and acceptance and rejection emails have been sent to all students who submitted final proposals.

Please read the Mentor Guide and the Roles and Responsibilities doc to help you navigate the next few months of GSoC. We've also prepared answers to some common FAQs below.

Please try and reach out to your student in the next 24 hours if you haven't already. Early communication and engagement with your student will help build a strong relationship for the rest of the program. Reach out to your student now and welcome them into your community.

Some Recent FAQs

What am I, as a Mentor, supposed to be doing during the Community Bonding period?
The Community Bonding period is intended to help get students ready to start contributing to your organization at full speed starting May 27th. Be sure to read the last email we sent, (always available in the email archive) where we go into more detail about how you and your student can take full advantage of this stage of GSoC.

If a student does not participate in community bonding, you have the option of removing them from the program before coding starts. We usually have about 5 or 6 orgs do this each year, it is better for your org and mentor to remove an inactive student now than waste your time over the next month trying to get them to communicate when they have likely decided to do something other than GSoC this summer.

Can my student start coding now, before the official coding period starts?
Yes, your student can start coding if they wish and their mentor okays it.

Some students may have already talked to you about a planned vacation/week of unavailability, etc. You are welcome to get them started early to make up for that time.

How many hours a week should my student be working on their GSoC project?
Your student should consider this to be a full time commitment and allocating about 30 hours a week to the project (some weeks may be more, some less). If your student is planning to only work on their project part-time for 20 hours a week during the whole program then your project is too easy and you should work with the student to add more to the project.

My student is dropping out of GSoC, what do I do?
Please instruct your student to officially withdraw from the program by visiting their dashboard on the GSoC site and pressing the withdraw button on their profile page. Unfortunately it is too late to add another student to replace that student slot.

My student is asking me about changing dates on their CPT/Acceptance letter, what does that mean?
Some students that are on student visas to the USA require CPT (Curricular Practical Training) letters to be able to participate in GSoC under the restrictions on their visas. Some students didn't research in advance what their visas allow them to do (or not do). Unfortunately, this means that there will likely be a few students who will have to drop out because Google does not provide CPT letters. Others may be able to participate if they refuse the stipend, which is acceptable if they contact Google Program Administrators and let us know.

Upcoming Important Dates

• May 6: Accepted GSoC 2019 students/projects announced
• May 6 - 26: Community Bonding Period
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
• May 27: Coding begins
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced
• October - GSoC 2019 Mentor Summit - exciting details coming next week about the big 1-5!

Important Links for Mentors

GSoC mentor guide
Roles and Responsibilities
2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive
Being a Great GSoC Mentor video

Please contact us at [e-mail] with any questions.

Best,
Stephanie

May 1, 2019: Next Steps for all Mentors and Org Admins

Thank you for being a Mentor or Org Admin for GSoC 2019! We value your commitment to helping students learn about and participate in open source development. You are the reason this program has continued to grow and evolve since 2005. Thank you! This email is long, but it contains a lot of important information to help you over the next few months. Please read everything carefully.

Accepted Students Announcement

GSoC 2019 accepted students will be announced on Monday, May 6 at 18:00 UTC on the GSoC program site. At that time, emails will be sent to all students (both accepted and rejected). It may take a few hours for the thousands of emails to be sent out. Emails will also be sent to all of the mentors assigned to a project.

Do NOT pre-announce the results in any fashion before the information is publicly visible on the GSoC website. Once it is visible (after 18:01 UTC on May 6) you are welcome to send out tweets, publish blog posts, etc.

Congrats, you are a mentor -- now it's time to mentor!

Google Summer of Code works best when the student and mentor work together closely. GSoC is not a "code for hire" program. The student is not there to do exactly what you tell them to do or to fend for themselves and figure out everything on their own. Check-ins should be regular -- at least weekly. If you planned less frequent check-ins please adjust your plan. If you're not willing or able to commit the time, please inform your org so they can replace you.

Proactive, productive communication early on (i.e over the next couple of weeks) is the key to setting up the partnership that leads to a successful student project. Successful relationships lead to successful students who often become long term contributors to your project and open source.

What do I do now?

1. Please read the Roles and Responsibilities to make sure you understand what is expected of you over the next 4 months but also what you should expect from your students. We rely on you to help enforce the program rules and to keep your student on track for success.
2. If you haven't looked at the GSoC Mentor Guide recently, please (at least) read the Communication and Mentoring sections.
3. Watch the 5 minute YouTube video: "Being a Great GSoC Mentor." It contains helpful information about the program and how to participate successfully at each step in GSoC.

The Community Bonding Period

As part of the student's acceptance into GSoC they are expected to actively participate in the Community Bonding period (May 6 -26). The Community Bonding period is intended to help get students ready to start contributing to your organization at full speed starting May 27th.

Community Bonding activities may involve:

• Becoming familiar with the community practices and processes. (This often involves a mix of observation and participation.)
• Participating on Mailing Lists / IRC / etc. (Not just lurking.)
• Setting up their development environment.
• Small (or large) patches/bug fixes. (These do not need to be directly related to their GSoC project.)
• Participating in code reviews for others. (Even someone who isn't familiar with the project can contribute by pointing out potential inefficiencies, bad error handling, etc.)
• Working with their mentor and other org members on refining their project plan. This might include finalizing deadlines and milestones, adding more detail, figuring out potential issues, etc.
• If the student is already familiar with the organization, they could be helping others get involved in the community.
• Reading (and updating!) documentation they will need to understand to complete their project.
• Reporting or replicating bugs.

Active means active. Students have committed to the program schedule, and we would like you to hold them to it. There is no single standard, as every org is different, every student has different time constraints, and there are many different ways to interact. Some students may require coaxing and encouragement in order to get them to actively participate.

If you do not see regular public interaction from the student, you should strongly encourage it. Public interaction is important -- it is a key principle of open source -- work happens where everyone can see it. Similarly, all work done by the students should be shared in a publicly available repository.

The past 14 years of GSoC have demonstrated that students who don't interact early and often are much more likely to fail later. Often they just disappear. We don't want you to waste your time on students who don't care about the project/organization and don't even attempt to show interest during the first few weeks of the program. Small contributions early on are a very positive signal.

Students who do not participate in community bonding may and should be removed from the program.

Changes to a Student's Accepted Project

You and your student can decide to change the project from what was originally proposed but you both need to agree on the change. Neither the mentor nor the student should feel pressured into making large project changes. Be fair to your students -- set them up for success. In return they should also be flexible to change the scope of the project (within reason) if the org finds it necessary.

Over the last couple of years we have had students who were incredibly upset because they felt they couldn't tell their mentor "no". Many took on more than they could handle. In some of these cases the new project was completely different from what had been originally proposed and many students did not have the appropriate background knowledge or skills to complete it.

Students are able to edit their project title and abstract until coding officially begins May 27th.

Students will not receive any of their stipend until after they successfully pass their first evaluation at the end of June.

Email Archive

All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.

If you have any questions please contact us at [e-mail]

Best,
GSoC team

April 29, 2019: Final Hours to Select GSoC students

The deadline for Org Admins to enter their organization's student selections is in less than 2 days - Wednesday, May 1 at 18:00 UTC.

This email is being sent to all Org Admins to remind you to check and make sure your selections are in order before the deadline.

Right now there are 32 organizations that have not entered any of their student selections and there are many others that have only entered selections for a handful of their given slots.

• Org Admins must go to their dashboard and select the student proposals their org would like to make into 2019 student projects based on the slots allocated to their org.

• At least one mentor must be assigned to each project. You can not select a project without assigning at least one of your mentors to the project.

• You can add or change mentors to a project until May 27th. Ideally you will have already identified the primary mentor for the project when students are announced on May 6. This way the student can get to know their mentor at the very start of the community bonding period and bonding can commence.

We would much rather you select only the excellent proposals rather than fill student slots for the sake of filling all slots allocated to your org.

Important Links

Slot Allocation and Project Selection
2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive

If you have any questions please contact us at [e-mail]

GSoC Team

April 24, 2019: Student Project Selection

Slot allocations have been granted to each organization and are now visible in each OA's dashboard.

It's now time to make the final decisions on which student projects your org will accept using your slot allocations and which mentors will help guide the students on their summer projects.

Student Project Selection

Wednesday, May 1st at 18:00 UTC: Deadline for OAs to submit their student selections

• Org Admins must go to their dashboard and select the student proposals your org would like to make your 2019 student projects based on the slots allocated to your org.
• At least one mentor must be assigned to each project. You can not select a project without assigning at least one of your mentors to the project.
• You can add or change mentors to a project until May 27. Ideally you will have already identified the primary mentor for the project when students are announced on May 6. This way the student can get to know their mentor at the very start of the community bonding period.
• Remember the sooner you make your selections the sooner you lock in your student selection. If you know there is a student or two that your org has to have we encourage you to go ahead and select them now rather than risk another org "taking" that student (assuming the student applied to multiple orgs which 31% of students this year did).

Read Slot Allocation and Project Selection for more information.

Conflict Resolution

If you try to accept a student that has already been accepted by another organization, you will see a notice to that effect. Contact info for that org's admins will be displayed so you can ask if they would be willing to release the student. They can choose a different student for that slot.

Google does not get involved in these decisions. It is up to the organization that first chose the student to decide how they wish to proceed. Do not ask the student, as this will leak the information that they are accepted before the decision is finalized.

Adding more Mentors

Many orgs were waiting to see how many slots they would receive so they can decide which student projects they will be selecting and thus which mentors will be mentoring those specific student projects. This is fine, but please be sure to invite the additional mentors you may need in the next couple of weeks.

Program Administrators 2nd Review

Google Program Admins are doing an additional review of the student's eligibility for the program once you have all locked in your students on May 1. There is a very small possibility that one of the students you selected will be found ineligible for the program during the second review. If this is the case Google will give you the opportunity to fill that student slot with another student before May 6.

You may wish to think about whether there is another student proposal that would be your "backup" student project should one of the students you selected be ineligible or withdraw from the program before the May 6 announcement.

Why would a student be rejected at this point? 5600 proof of enrollment forms were reviewed in a very short period of team by multiple people and it is possible an ineligible student was not discovered in the initial review and upon closer review it is discovered. Last year there were only a couple of students (out of 1265+) where this was an issue.

Communication Reminders leading up to Accepted Students Announcement

Do not tell students that they have been accepted into the program before the public announcement on May 6 after 18:00 UTC. Decisions are not official until it is on the website and emails are sent. On May 6 after 18:00 UTC -

• OA's will receive a confirmation email for each student that they have accepted. For large orgs this will be a lot of emails - we apologize in advance.
• Mentors with accepted projects will receive an email letting them know they are a mentor for the project.
• Students will receive an email letting them know which org they were accepted with or if rejected they will receive a rejection email.

Upcoming Important Dates

• April 24 - May 1 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections).
• May 1- 5: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility.
• May 6: Accepted GSoC 2019 students/projects are announced.
• May 6 - 26: Community Bonding Period.
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program.
• May 27: Coding begins.
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor.
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students.
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced.

Important Links for Mentors

• Slot Allocation and Project Selection
• GSoC mentor guide
• Roles and Responsibilities
• 2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive
• Being a Great GSoC Mentor video

Please contact us at [e-mail] with any questions.

Best, Stephanie Taylor GSoC Program Lead

April 18, 2019: Slot Requests from Org Admins due Monday 18:00 UTC

This email is being sent to all accepted GSoC 2019 mentors and org admins for reference.

This is a reminder for all Org Admins to look at their dashboard and make sure that one of the Org Admins from your Org has submitted your request before the deadline at 18:00 UTC Monday, April 22nd.

Slot Requests, Slot Allotment and Project Selection

• Deadline to submit slot requests: Monday, April 22nd at 18:00 UTC.
• Google will release slot allotments on Wednesday, April 24th. OA's will see the slots on their dashboard.
• Deadline for OAs to select projects (students) / assign mentors: Wednesday, May 1st at 18:00 UTC.

Slot Requests

Deadline: Monday, April 22nd at 18:00 UTC.

Org Admins must request a minimum and maximum number of project slots for their organization based on good proposals received and available mentors- both of these should be met when deciding on your numbers. Also remember that good mentors are vital to this process - just getting a person to agree to be a mentor does not make a good mentor. Just like when selecting students, quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. Find mentors familiar with the project they would be mentoring and who want to mentor, don't make someone be a mentor, that only results in disaster for everyone.

Slot request numbers are used to help Google allocate slots. Orgs may receive less than their requested minimum. New orgs will likely only receive a couple of slots, no matter how many they request.

There is a 1:1 mapping between projects and students. A student may only complete one GSoC project per year. Slots should only be requested for projects which you think are likely to succeed. Do not plan to accept "okay" proposals just to have more students working with your org this year.

And remember, students are applying to work on the proposed project - it's not cool to accept a student and then tell them we don't want you working on that project we want you to do this completely different project. Students don't feel like they can say no and usually when an org tries to do this it results in failure for the student and the org. You want a student to be excited about the project they are working on and forcing something completely new on them is inconsiderate. If you were planning to do this and have asked for student slots with this scenario in mind stop and go back and reduce your slot request numbers.

Read Slot Allocation and Project Selection for more information.

Student Eligibility

Deadline: ** Monday, April 22nd at 18:00 UTC.**

April 22nd is also the deadline for students to have any re-submitted proof of enrollment documents reviewed. Students have been informed of this and have all been sent multiple reminder emails to correct their form before the deadline, many have ignored the reminders or simply aren't eligible and thus don't have valid proof of enrollments they can supply. Students without valid proof of enrollment documents will not be eligible to participate. There will be no exceptions. Any students who did not submit an acceptable proof of enrollment before the April 22nd deadline or who withdraw from the program will disappear from your list of student projects you can accept on April 22nd.

Upcoming Important Dates

• April 9 - 21: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request- do not request more than your org can handle - this could take students away from orgs who have excellent student prospects and need the slots.
• April 22 18:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (Org Admins enter requests).
• April 24 18:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google.
• April 24 - May 1 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections).
• May 1- 5: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility.
• May 6: Accepted GSoC 2019 students/projects are announced.
• May 6 - 26: Community Bonding Period.
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program.
• May 27: Coding begins.
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor.
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students.
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced.

If you haven't done so already, be sure to read the Roles and Responsibilities to understand what is expected of you and of students during the program.

Email Archive

All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.

Please contact us at [e-mail]

Best, Stephanie Taylor GSoC Program Lead

April 6, 2019: Final PDF review and Slot Allocation

The student submission period is nearly over - you can expect a lot of proposals coming in over these last 3 days - we're already at record numbers of students registering for GSoC! We know you are all quite busy responding to students and giving them feedback on their draft proposals. In the next phase of GSoC, you select which of these proposals you choose for GSoC projects.

Reviewing Final PDF Proposals: April

The deadline for students to submit their Final PDF proposal is Tuesday, April 9 at 18:00 UTC. Students without Final PDF proposals cannot be accepted, and there will be no exceptions.

After April 9 at 18:00 UTC, org members will be able to see the Final PDFs submitted by students.

April 9 18:00 UTC is also the deadline for students to submit a proof of enrollment in an eligible university program. Students who fail to do this are ineligible for GSoC this year. We will be reviewing the forms and students will have a chance to resubmit if there are any problems.

Your decision about whether or not to select a student should be based on the Final PDF proposal. You will also be able to reference the draft proposal -- but should not make your decision based on it. A draft proposal is intended to be used to view the comment thread and maybe see how the student interacted with you and responded to comments, etc. Do not use it to let the student make more changes after the deadline. That is not fair to all the other applicants.

Want to Mentor?

If you are interested in being a mentor for a given proposal then you can click the purple "Want to Mentor" button to help your Org Admin know that you are interested. This is particularly helpful for the org admins when determining if they have enough mentors for their slot requests.

Slots Request - deadline Monday, April 22 18:00 UTC (Org Admin task)

• Org Admins will request a minimum and maximum number of project slots.
• Slots should only be requested for projects where there is at least one confirmed mentor and where the student has a good chance of succeeding.
• Do not accept "okay" proposals.
• Do not request more slots than you have mentors for - if we grant you the slots you request and you can't use all of them you have essentially taken away these slots from other orgs that could have used them and also taken away the opportunity for that number of students to participate in GSoC 2019.
• New orgs will likely only receive 1-2 slots, no matter how many they request.
• Mentors should be mentoring 1 project generally. In rare cases a mentor can mentor 2 projects.

April 22nd is also the deadline for students to have any re-submitted proof of enrollment forms approved. Note that students with invalid forms will not appear in your list of student projects you can choose from starting April 24th (when slots are announced to orgs).

All Org Admins should read Slot Allocation and Project Selection for more detailed information.

Upcoming Important Dates

• March 25 - April 9 18:00 UTC: Students submit their Final PDF proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
• April 9 - 21: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request- do not request more than your org can handle - this could take students away from orgs who have excellent student prospects and need the slots.
• April 22 18:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (Org Admins enter requests).
• April 24 18:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google.
• April 24 - May 1 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections).
• May 1- 5: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility.
• May 6: Accepted GSoC 2019 students/projects are announced.
• May 6 - 26: Community Bonding Period.
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program.
• May 27: Coding begins.
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor.
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students.
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced.

If you haven't done so already, be sure to read the Roles and Responsibilities to understand what is expected of you and of students during the program.

Please contact us at [e-mail] with any questions.

Google Open Source Programs Office

March 18, 2019: Tips on Reviewing Student Proposals

TO: Org Admins and Mentors

Thank you for registering to be a GSoC 2019 mentor or organization administrator! We have many new mentors and organizations (27!) this year so we wanted to go through some important details to help you understand the process for the next few months.

If you signed up to be a mentor or org admin after March 4, be sure to read the 2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive for previous emails we sent to help you prepare for this year's program.

[Action Required for Mentors] Please take the time to do the following:

• Reach out to your organization administrator to learn more about what is expected of you this year as a mentor, including reviewing the student proposals and leaving comments starting March 25.
• Read the Google Summer of Code mentor guide and the Roles and Responsibilities doc.
• Watch the 5 minute YouTube video: "Being a Great GSoC Mentor". The video was shot with GSoC veteran Org Admins and Mentors. It contains helpful information about the program and how to participate successfully at each step in GSoC.

[Action Required for Org Admins] Please take the time to do the following:

• You should currently be inviting mentors and making sure they are registering so the mentors will have access to the student proposals next week so they can comment and help with the review process.
• Be sure you have enough mentors to support the incoming student proposals over the next few weeks.

Student Proposals

Student Proposal Submission period: March 25-April 9

Starting next week, students will be able to submit their proposals via the program website. Each student may submit up to 3 proposals to the program. They can submit multiple proposals to the same organization for different projects if they wish.

Historically, the students with the best proposals reach out to the orgs early to receive feedback before submitting their final proposal - those students who have already been reaching out to you are likely to be among your best student options this year.

Draft Proposals To encourage more students to seek feedback on their proposals, draft proposals are part of the official proposal workflow. Be sure to refresh your dashboard periodically so that you can see when new drafts are ready to review. You will not receive an email. We are encouraging the use of Google Docs for proposals as this will allow you to comment directly on the proposal.

Over the next few weeks you will be interacting with dozens, and in some cases, hundreds of students interested in working with your project. We know many of you may become overwhelmed and some students can be impatient, so you may want to have an auto-responder or some sort of canned response to let students know you are looking at their proposals but it could take X days to receive a response.

Post Student Proposal Period: April 9-21

Students must submit their final proposal as a PDF through the website. It will be visible to mentors/org admins after the deadline for student applications (April 9 18:00 UTC). You should make your decisions on which students to accept based on the contents of the final PDF proposal and your interactions with the student.

Students can delete their proposals after the submission period and you will not receive an email of the deletion. If a proposal disappears from your list, it is likely because they deleted it or because they failed to submit a Final PDF.

Working with Students

All student projects must have at least one mentor assigned. We strongly encourage assigning a second mentor as a backup mentor or co-mentor. A mentor should not be the primary mentor for more than one or two students maximum. Mentoring can be a lot of work and we don't want anyone to burn out and become frustrated with the program.

Ineligible Students

1. Remember per the Program Rules, Orgs can not accept students who are immediate family members or in the same household as any org admins or mentors for your organization.
2. If you are talking with a student during the student application period and they don't submit a final proposal then they are not eligible to be accepted.

Code of Conduct

Be sure to read the Program Rules and the Code of Conduct section for GSoC. Your org may also have an additional Code of Conduct which you should be sure to point students to as well. If you have a situation where a prospective student, mentor or org admin violates the GSoC Code of Conduct please notify me as soon as possible at [e-mail].

Important GSoC Dates

• Now - March 25: Proactive students will reach out to you and ask questions about your ideas list and receive feedback from your org so they can start crafting their project proposals. Org Admins should be inviting mentors.
• March 25 - April 9 18:00 UTC: Students will submit their draft proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
• April 9 - 21: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request- do not request more than your org can handle - this could take students away from orgs who have excellent student prospects and need the slots.
• April 22 18:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (Org Admins enter requests).
• April 24 18:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google.
• April 24 - May 1 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections).
• May 1- 5: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility.
• May 6: Accepted GSoC 2019 students/projects are announced.
• May 6 - 26: Community Bonding Period.
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program.
• May 27: Coding begins.
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• July 22 - 26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors.
• August 19 - 26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor.
• August 26 - September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students.
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced.
• October (exact dates TBD): Mentor Summit - more exciting details to come in May!

Mentors Mailing List

If you want to be included on the GSoC mentors mailing list be sure to opt in on your User Profile page. You can always opt out once you have been added by unsubscribing using the link on any of the emails.

Contact Us

Please use the [e-mail] email address for questions so that anyone on our team can answer your question for you.

Email Archive

All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.

March 4, 2019: Thanks for being part of GSoC 2019 - welcome!

TO: Org Admins and Mentors

Welcome to the 15th year of GSoC! This year the program has 206 open source organizations participating and we expect to have more student applications than ever before. And a special welcome to our 28 organizations participating in GSoC for the first time!

You should already be receiving communications from many proactive, excited students to discuss project ideas - we hope you are prepared! Every year some orgs will be inundated with students reaching out to learn more about the projects while other orgs will have a slower response, that is normal.

We want to give you a quick overview of the next few months and address some of the common questions you may have these first few weeks of the program. We will send updates and reminder emails for important dates to you over the next 6 months to this email address, please check it regularly.

Important Info for 2019

• There are 3 evaluation periods where mentors are required to complete an evaluation of their student. After the first 4 weeks of coding, after 8 weeks of coding and then at the end (after 12 weeks of coding). The evaluation forms are relatively short with multiple choice questions and a couple of free form responses to give your student feedback (which hopefully is being done weekly already by the mentor).
• Students can only be accepted into GSoC 2 times. Google Admins will do a sanity check on all accepted students once you select your students in early April so you do not need to be concerned about this.
• UNIVERSITIES: If you are a university, we expect you to select students outside of your program. Selecting students from your university is okay (1-2 students tops) but if all of the students you select are from your university then you likely won't be accepted into GSoC again. You should be bringing new students into your project.
• Students can only submit 3 proposals in the program.
• We allow 13-17 year olds to be mentors for GSoC as long as they have parental consent to be a part of the program. An additional form is required. We will send the form to the student once they have registered.

Inviting Mentors to your Organization

Organization Administrators should be reaching out to mentors and sending them invitations to be a part of their organization now through the GSoC webapp. The mentor will then click the link in the email they receive to create their account. Org Admins can see the list of those that have been invited and those that have accepted the invitation from their dashboard.

GSoC Mentor-invite Mailing List

For those that have opted into the GSoC mentor mailing list (available on your profile page) we will bulk add you to the list on March 14. Then we will add additional folks who opt in about once a week throughout the program period. You can remove yourself through the groups interface at any time. You can also update your settings to receive a daily digest of emails and other options. This generally is not a very high traffic list but there will be more questions over the next two months on this list than later in the program.

The GSoC mentor mailing list is a great way to ask questions of other org admins and mentors and to get their feedback and help.

Important Upcoming Dates

• Now-March 25: Proactive students will reach out to you and ask questions about your ideas list and receive feedback from your org so they can start crafting their project proposals. Org Admins should be inviting mentors.
• March 25-April 9 18:00 UTC: Students will submit their draft proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
• April 9-21: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request- do not request more than your org can handle - this could take students away from orgs who have excellent student prospects and need the slots.
• April 22 18:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (Org Admins enter requests)
• April 24 18:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
• April 24-May 1 18:00 UTC: Orgs select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (Org Admins enter selections)
• May 1-5: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility
• May 6: Accepted GSoC 2019 students/projects are announced
• May 6-26: Community Bonding Period
• May 26: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
• May 27: Coding begins
• June 24-28: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• July 22-26: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
• August 19-26: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
• August 26-September 2: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
• September 3: Students passing GSoC 2019 are announced

Organization Payments

Complete details regarding GSoC 2019 payments will be sent out in April to Org Admins. In the meantime, please note that Google will pay each organization after final evaluations are submitted.

• Orgs who participated in 2017 or 2018: do not need to create a new Payoneer account (if your banking details changed, please update them through your Payoneer dashboard).
• Orgs new to GSoC or not yet signed up with Payoneer: we will send you an invitation in late April to create your account - do not go and create your own account now.

Quick Glossary

• Proposal: A document which describes the project the student wants to work on for your organization. Should include a timeline containing clear milestones and specific deliverables.
• Slot: Google will grant each org a certain number of project "slots" based on requests and history with GSoC. Each slot can hold one student/project.
• Project: Once a student has been selected and projects are announced, their proposal becomes a project for the remainder of the program.

More Information

If you have not yet read the Roles and Responsibilities page created with the help of GSoC Org admins and mentors, we highly encourage you to read this and share it with your prospective mentors - it will help everyone understand what is expected of them over the next 6 months. You may also want to check out the Mentor Guide, which contains important information for both Mentors and Org Admins at each stage of the program.

Email Archive

All emails sent to Org Admins and Mentors during this year's program are stored in the 2019 GSoC OA and Mentor email archive.

If you have any questions please contact us at [e-mail]