MLH Fellowship Program
The MLH Fellowship community offers students to collaborate on open-source projects. Currently, MLH offers three programs as follow:
- Explorer
- Open-Source
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Externship
Let’s dive deep into these programs to help you understand and choose the one that aligns with your interest.
Explorer
Explorer program helps build a portfolio of projects with advanced technologies by collaborating in small groups on a series of short hackathon-type sprints.
Best Suited for the participants who want to explore new technologies or build personal projects. In the explorer program, students usually work in a small group of about 2- 4 people who regularly build new projects after almost two weeks. One can choose from several themes to build their project, such as gaming, dev tools, etc. This program tests the creative aspect of a student and challenges them to explore their best interests.
Open Source
Open-Source program is for those candidates who want to be phenomenal open-source developers by contributing to major projects used by famous organizations (such as GitHub) and several MLH partners.
Best Suited for participants who have worked on several projects but lack experience contributing to open-source projects. This program allows students to work on major open-source tools such as Julia, Flask, React, etc. In the open-source program, students usually work in a small group, also known as pods consisting of 8-10 students under the guidance of a professional mentor and 2-3 project maintainers. All these people in a pod work together to contribute to the open-source projects.
Externship
The externship program helps in providing practical exposure to the participants by allowing them to collaborate with organizations that deal with real-life entities.
Best Suited for participants looking to find solutions to real-life problems or gain experience working with organizations dealing with such real-life entities. The externship program is for people that believe in practice-based learning.
Note: Currently, externships are offered to people authorized to work in the United States as most MLH partnering companies are US-oriented. The MLH Fellowship community is trying to partner with more companies across the globe. But for the time being, all those who aren’t eligible for the externship program are automatically considered for open-source programs.
Recommended topic: Software Engineering
Eligibility Criteria
Before participating in the MLH Fellowship program, one must ensure that they fulfill the following criteria:
- The participant must be above 18 or above 13 with the parent’s permission to participate in the MLH program.
- The participant must be a country resident not embargoed by the United States.
- The participant must devote 30 hours (full-time participation) and 10-20 hours (part-time participation) per week in the program.
- The participant must be fluent in English.
- The participant must have a good grip on at least one programming language.
- The participant should have access to a good quality internet connection.
Phases of the MLH Application
Follow the below-mentioned steps to apply to the MLH fellowship program:
Filling the Application Form
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First, fill out the registration form by visiting the official MLH Fellowship program website covering personal information, interest, experience, etc.
Note: The MLH Fellowship program has particular deadlines and timings for each batch, and the applications are processed on a rolling basis. Hence, it is recommended to apply as early as possible.
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There is a developer experience section in the application form where a candidate needs to fill any preferred language they are good at. Ideally, it is expected to have advanced knowledge of the chosen language and a project based on that language. A candidate needs to consider before selecting the language as mentors judge a participant’s knowledge in that field in the technical interview.
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The most crucial step in the selection process is choosing a good code sample to be filled in the form. As the MLH community focuses on real-life-based projects, it is good to have a code sample that resembles this idea and demonstrates best coding practices. Choose any project that represents your ability to code. Displaying good development practices is a huge plus point.
- There is also an essay writing section consisting of 5 questions. While writing down an essay, you should focus on circumstances that make you unique and noteworthy. You can also mention how the MLH community inspires you or your love for coding, hackathons, anything that pulls the reader's interest. Avoid any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.
Shortlisting for the Interview Round
It may take a few months to complete the entire application process. Candidates are shortlisted for the general interview round based on one’s resume, essay, code sample, and other criteria.
Interview Round
There are mainly two interview rounds: the general interview and the technical interview.
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The general interview lasts 10- 15 minutes, where mentors ask some general questions to judge one’s personality, whether the candidate is eligible or not, their communication skills, etc.
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Based on the general interview round, candidates are further shortlisted for a technical interview round where they have to explain a piece of code they have written in the past.
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After completing all three rounds, candidates are offered the role.
If, in any case, a candidate gets rejected, then they can’t reappear in the same batch due to overwhelming applications worldwide. However, MLH Fellowship regularly conducts these programs every year and welcomes anyone who fits the criteria. You can apply again next year after replenishing your skills.
Fellowship Tips
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MLH Fellowship process application on a rolling basis, so it is always a good choice to apply as soon as possible. Also, one needs to be extra careful while filling the application as a candidate is given only one chance per batch.
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In the technical interview round, they mainly focus on the project you have submitted earlier. That’s why it is best to have a good understanding of the project you have submitted.
- The MLH Fellowship does not allow accommodating changes once the application is submitted. You should fill out your application carefully and check it thoroughly before submitting it. You might lose a chance to be in the MLH Fellowship program's current batch once the wrong application is submitted, whereas one can always apply in the future batches.
Benefits of MLH Fellowship
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MLH Fellowship believes in the real-life implementation of projects. It allows the candidates to work on various projects under the guidance of some great mentors.
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Candidates are divided into small groups of people across the globe that provides excellent exposure and also help in expanding the network.
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MLH Fellowship is an educational program with flexible working hours. A candidate only needs to complete the week limit depending on the chosen course, i.e., part-time or full-time.
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MLH regularly organizes several fun events, including hackathons, coding competitions, etc. Participating in such events can help improve skills and help learn new things.
You might think that one needs to have some extraordinary developing skills and an excellent experience to be a part of the MLH program, which is not the case. The complete process might look a bit scary, but the reality is that most people that get selected in this program are new fellows. The only thing you need that could make a difference is your passion for technology, curiosity to learn new things, and creativity. Programs like MLH fellowship, hackathons, etc., are organized to find the raw talented people like you and then nurture them successfully.
FAQs
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Can a candidate apply to multiple programs of MLH Fellowship?
No, due to overwhelming participation by a large volume of students. MLH Fellowship currently allows only one program per batch.
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What kind of projects are offered under the MLH Fellowship Program?
The MLH Fellowship community works hard to make sure that the projects assigned to the candidates are of their best interest and align with the demands of the industry. The projects are usually selected based on the feedback received from the sponsors and the abilities of the team members.
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Is the MLH Fellowship Program considered as an internship or job?
No, The MLH Fellowship is only an educational program that can be considered as taking a course or class. The main objective of these programs is to harbour capable candidates by providing them with enough resources and teaching them advanced skills that can help them grow.
Key Takeaways
In this article, we have extensively discussed the MLH Fellowship Program. Every year, thousands of technologists participate in these programs that help them launch startups, land jobs, gain experience, etc. The MLH Fellowship is a collection of different programs designed to make learning easy and fast by pairing educational and fun content with practical applications. We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding the MLH Fellowship Program. If you want to learn more, you can follow our guided path. Do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow.
Happy Coding!