[wp-hackers] [GSoC 2013]: Queries regarding GSoC application template

[Andrew Nacin]

Hi Sayak,

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 5:51 PM, Sayak Sarkar <sayak.bugsmith at gmail.com>wrote:

> Is it mandatory to include the details of one or more Science Professors in
> the reference subsection? The main reason for this query is that there have
> been a few faculty changes in my college recently, and the college does not
> provide contact information for ex-faculty due to some staff policies.
>

We'd like to be able to talk with someone who can vouch for your abilities.
If there is a professor, advisor, supervisor, etc., who can do that, a
reference certainly can't hurt your application.

The second query is whether I should enlist only the programming courses
> and their grades in the Academic Performance subsection or should I enlist
> only the details for only the courses relevant to my project proposal. This
> is because we have had quite a significant number of programming courses in
> our program curriculum and not all courses are of much relevance to my
> project proposal.


We want to see what kind of student you are. If you're a computer science
student (which is by no means a requirement), I would list your programming
courses, not just what is particular to your project proposal. While you
won't use Haskell in your project, that you did well in functional
programming is useful.

I personally do not highly value strong academic performance when reviewing
applications. I will look at it, but I am more interested in your proposal
— not just the idea, but how you think and how you plan to get things done.
GSoC is considered a full-time job and we want to make sure we are not
making a "bad" hire.

Nacin