My least favourite part of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is having to turn down all those students who sent in great applications and showed real enthusiasm for their project. But sadly, slots are limited and we have to make decisions.

But then there are also those applications that are ... not so great, to put it mildly. With all the available resources out there, you would think it's easy to read up on how to write a good application. In addition to the extensive GSoC FAQ provided by Google, there's the Student Guide as well as other useful publications, like the free ebook Open Advice, which contains tons of tips from open source mentors and former GSoC Students.

I realise all of this comes a bit late for this year's GSoC, but I thought I'd put it up now, for future reference, while memories of the latest round of application reviews are still fresh. So, in addition to the above-mentioned resources, here are some things that stood out in applications that we received over the years.