# Project Selection ## Overview 1. Review all submitted proposals and decide which ones your org would like to accept. The interactions with the participant should weigh significantly in your decision of which proposal/contributor to select. NEVER accept a GSoC contributor solely on their proposal. 2. Only proposals with at least one committed mentor can be ranked. Mentors should not be the primary mentor on more than one project. 3. Org Admins rank the proposals, with #1 being their highest priority proposal. 4. Don't rank 2 proposals for the same project idea. 5. Google allocates a number of projects slots to each organization. 6. Based on the number of slots, the top priority proposals will be converted into accepted projects. i.e. If an org receives 4 project slots, their proposals ranked 1,2,3 and 4 will become projects (unless the contributors are selected by multiple organizations.) ## FAQ ### What is a project slot? Each accepted proposal will ultimately fill a project "slot". ### How do we decide how many proposals we want to accept? Organizations will rank the proposals they would like to accept based on the excellent proposals they have received that have at least one committed mentor ready to mentor that project. Do not rank proposals unless you really wish to accept them. ### We didn't receive any great proposals, can our org accept 0 proposals? Yes, if your org did not receive any excellent proposals and the discussions with the applicants didn't show a standout contributor you can contact Google Program Admins and let them know your org won't be accepting any GSoC contributors this year. We will then remove your org from this year's program. This won't affect your future participation in GSoC. ### How does slot allocation work? Google will review all of the slot requests from each of the orgs and will distribute a set number of project slots across the orgs. Orgs with a successful track record (former students reported having a positive experience with the org) are more likely to receive more slots. Proposals will turn into projects based on rank. For example, if an org ranked 14 proposals and Google grants 10 slots, the proposals ranked 1-10 will become the accepted projects for that org. ### What happens if we received more slots than we can use? Google will never give your org more slots than your Org Admins have ranked. Org Admins should only rank proposals their mentors and community are committed to mentoring for the program. ### We're a new GSoC org. How do we decide how many slots to request? We suggest that you rank a conservative number of slots. We regularly hear from new orgs that mentoring GSoC contributors is more work than expected. Fewer GSoC contributor projects will help prevent overload -- which is better for the orgs, mentors and GSoC contributors. Keep in mind, no matter how many slots are requested, new orgs are often only granted one or two slots in their first year to ease them into GSoC. ## Important Notes about Slot Requests - The order you rank your proposals will determine which projects are automatically converted into your accepted GSoC contributor projects. - If you only need one slot then please only request one slot by ranking only one proposal. - Never accept a proposal unless a mentor has had at least one conversation with the GSoC contributor. Most people can write great proposals, especially with the help of AI, that doesn't mean they have the skills or drive to be a great GSoC contributor for your community. - Do not accept proposals that are just "okay". You should only be accepting very good or excellent proposals. A mediocre proposal rarely results in a successful GSoC project at the end of the summer. - Do not rank multiple proposals for the same project idea. Both might be granted and then you will have two participants working on the same thing which is not allowed in GSoC. - Please consider your slot requests and your rankings very carefully. Your OAs are specifying which proposals your org wants to select when they rank them. Your org can not change your selections after the proposal ranking deadline. ## Handling Conflicts When you are ranking your proposals it is possible another org also is selecting the same GSoC contributor for their org. This generally happens about 20 times a year. Ranking is taken into account when slots are allocated to projects. The higher your organization ranks a proposal the more likely your organization will receive it, in the case another organization also ranks a proposal from the same contributor. We now allow GSoC contributors to rank their preferred organizations when they submit their proposals (viewable only to Google Admins). If the organization that ranks the proposal the highest is not their #1 choice, GSoC Admins will step in to mediate. We will notify both organizations to see if a "swap" is possible. The org can choose to 'release' the contributor and replace them with another participant. Or if they don't have a replacement candidate then they can keep the contributor. If you "lose" the project due to another org ranking it higher, Google will contact you to see which project you would like to replace that slot with. The system will automatically select the next ranked proposal (if your org did not receive all the slots you asked for) but the OA will have a day or so to let Google Admins know if they would prefer to adjust that project slot to a different contributor.