Different summer period (semester starts in June)
Ann Rata
I went to MIT, but currently I'm studying in Thailand. I've got a
problem, because over here the summer period is March through May, so
the semester starts in June and ends in September. This means I would
have to be coding and going to classes at the same time if I got
accepted. I'd be willing to make up for this by coding at night and
during the weekends, but how do the mentors look at this? Should I
submit an application at all?
Thanks a lot,
Ann
Leslie Hawthorn
It is perfectly acceptable to submit an application to the program and
most mentors do not mind provided you are up front about your schedule
constraints. The best place to communicate your schedule constraints
is to your would-be mentors directly, either in your program
application or on IRC. The personal touch shows you're more
dedicated.
The fact that you've thought this through and already have a game plan
about how to make sure you have time to devote to your project already
makes you a great would-be student IMHO.
Cheers,
LH
--
Leslie Hawthorn
Program Manager - Open Source
Google Inc.
http://code.google.com/opensource/
I blog here:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com - http://www.hawthornlandings.org
Sam Moffatt
I took part in the first SoC in 2005 and I live in Australia. I had a
break of two weeks in the middle of the semester with the rest being
school time and managed to complete my project. If you can manage your
time well and explain your limitations ahead of time I would consider
that you have no problems (beyond the lack of time!) with soc. Think
about it, plan and underestimate your time (definitely don't
overestimate!) because there are going to be days when you get home
and not want to do a single thing (which is natural) but this ends up
cutting into the time you have left ;) I'm not the only one as well,
there have been quite a few southern hemispheral people who have a
similar time span where school is run, as well as people around the
world who don't quite have summer all off ;) So I'd say its very
possible and very acceptable, just communicate this up early and make
sure you let people know when you're having issues with timelines so
that they can accommodate you at the earliest possible chance :)
Sam
--
Sam Moffatt
http://pasamio.id.au
Ann Rata
find a project that interests me.
Sam,
It sounds like you had an awesome experience. Did you have sleep
deprivation or end up skipping class for a whole week to finish your
project? :) Are you planning to participate again this year?
Ann
Sam Moffatt
> Sam,
>
> It sounds like you had an awesome experience. Did you have sleep
> deprivation or end up skipping class for a whole week to finish your
> project? :) Are you planning to participate again this year?
>
> Ann
Hi Ann,
I didn't have that much sleep deprivation, not more than the usual at
least :p I didn't skip (many) classes it depends on how complex your
project is and your own skill set. If you set yourself a project that
you can reasonable fit into your time frame then that is awesome, as I
said underestimate everything because that'll be closer to reality
(especially time!). I must admit when I wasn't working or at uni I was
working on my project (or even in my uni refect during lunch breaks
working on it ;P). Its very rewarding to complete your project and see
it working the way you wanted (perhaps with that really tricky bit not
quite there yet, but it sort of works just don't feed it a
(string|int|unicode character) :P). As for this year, if my
organisation gets accepted I'll be a mentor for them again (will be my
third year as a mentor). As a mentor I can help more people into SoC,
more new ideas, and see something from a different perspective. People
have different ways of solving problems and sometimes its great with
SoC to see how someone else would have solved the problem ;)
Sam