21M second year here, I didn't get selected in GSoC. I was pretty confident in getting in, but alas idk what went through their head that they took someone who came late and contributed almost nothing in the organisation.
I got rejected from my research internship too, and what I have now is an offer from my uncle's friend of an unpaid internship which is not remote (aka hot weather travel daily). At least I could've claimed credits from my uni if it was a paid internship and boosted my gpa.
It feels so unfair. All the free time I could've done something else, I invested into this organisation. I could've applied for other internships too, but I wasn't confident since I'm not a third year and from a tier 1 college, so I stopped after 3 weeks of no responses. It was fine if this project wasn't selected by google, but it feels so damn fucking unfair that a new guy who barely put effort in got in. I see almost nothing better than me except a slightly better college, which doesn't fucking matter for gsoc. Yes I'm bitter and jealous and I can't help it, I'm human.
What do I do now? Do I slog away in this unpaid internship? Do I start applying on wellfound n shi? Do I sit during summer holidays and do leetcode? (I have done just 40 rn). Do I make some project? I'm genuinely feeling lost, I feel scared I'll waste these summer holidays. Please tell me fr.
Edit: My friend in same year got in, that mf deserves it happy for him, but mkc he alr has a really high paying job experience (50+lpa) coz he has been coding since 14yo in game dev field. LEAVE SOME FOR THE REST OF US 😭😭😭