Now that summer has begun for all those kids still in college, it’s high time to find a summer job. If you’re a programmer or developer in college, chances are you already have that summer job. Google Summer of Code exploded this year with over 1,000 students representing countries from all around the world.
In its eighth year running, Summer of Code saw the highest number of applications and applicants all vying for a coveted spot with one of the 180 organizations, including Twitter, that are offering programming internships this summer. Google received 6,685 applications from 4,258 students representing 98 countries.
Unfortunately, not everybody can make it, but a large number of them did. In fact, this year saw more students being accepted than ever before. There are 1,212 students from 69 countries participating in this year’s Summer of Code.
India is at the top spot this year with 227 students having been accepted in the program. The United States is in second with 172 students. German is in third with 72 students. The rest of the students came from a variety of other countries including Russia, China, Poland, Sri Lanka, Romania, France, Canada and more.
Google makes special note of a student from Mauritius being accepted into the program, a first for the small African nation. It just proves that programming is starting to be accepted and proliferate throughout the world. Like art and music, code is a universal language that can tie people together.
In other fantastic news, this year set a new record for the number of women accepted into the program. Out of the 1,212 students accepted this year, 8.3 percent identified themselves as women. That’s up from 7.1 percent last year. Here’s hoping that number can get above 10 percent next year. We need more women in computer science and programs like this are perfect for fostering that kind of interest early on.
The next update will see Google breaking down students by university. I hope my Alma Mater, the University of Kentucky, will be proudly representing this year. They have a fantastic computer science program that doesn’t get enough credit for all the awesome work they do.