2015 Applications Open Today!
After a few months of very diligent work on our Teams App, we’ve made preparing your application for Rails Girls Summer of Code a whole lot more straightforward. Here’s the low down on applying in 2015!
Check out if you’re eligible
This year, we have made the eligibility criteria for applicants a bit clearer.
As our focus is on providing opportunities for further learning post Rails Girls workshop, we do require that applicants have attended at least a Rails Girls or similar community-driven workshop.
While no one is discouraged from applying on the basis of gender, preference will be given to applicants who identify or have been socialized as female. To see the full criteria please take a look at our application guide.
If you’re not sure about any of the eligibility criteria, please contact us.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the program is full-time for three months, for sponsored teams, so you may have to save any long holidays for post-program ;)
Establish Your Team
Find a Pair
One of the requirements of the Summer of Code is that you are a two-person team.
Establishing a team means not just finding someone else to lodge an application with, but someone who you will be able to get along with over three months of intense project work. Establishing a team that will be able to deal with and work through moments of stress and conflict will be extremely important to the success of your summer. For more about finding a pair, take a look at our guide
Find a Coach
Teams will also need to have at least one coach who is able to give them active support throughout the summer. While coaches can be approached a number of ways, we have some advice on finding coaches here, and a blog post on ‘Where to Start’.
If you want to provide potential coaches with more information on what you will need from them over the summer, you can direct them to our guide for coaches.
Finding a coaching company
Finding a coaching company who can offer you a place to work from, and a team of coaches on hand to support you is a terrific boost to your application. To start approaching and asking companies for the help over the summer, share with them our guides for coaching companies.
Select a project
Thanks to the invaluable feedback from last year’s teams, mentors, coaches and supervisors, we have improved the way students can select a project for their application.
This year, applicants will be required to select from projects on our approved list, that can be found in our projects repository.
If you know of an amazing project you want to contribute to that is not yet on our list, you will need to contact the maintainers to submit the project to us. Check out our guide for mentors and submitting projects.
Work on Your Application
We’ve added some fantastic functionality to our application system, which will be extremely helpful as you complete your application.
You now have the ability to save your application as a draft. It may not seem like much, but being able to save and go back to your application to add coaches, coaching companies, and further clarity to your project goals may be the difference between lodging an awesome or average application.
The deadline for submitting your application is Tuesday 14th April, 2015. So take your time to create the best application you can using our drafting feature, before submitting.
Project Mentors will be required to sign off on your application in the week after submissions close; 15th - 22nd April, 2015.
Assess your coding level
We know that trying to outline your coding level can be pretty subjective. Therefore, this year’s application form contains ‘skill level guidelines’ to help guide you in your self-assessment.
While there can still be grey areas in your learning that you will want to tell us about in your application, these guidelines should provide more clarity on what we expect your skills to be at each level, instead of just a number on a scale.
This post is just the basics and new stuff about the application process. Get on over to our Students Section to check out the full application guide, and start getting your team and application together!
Good luck!