What have GSoC and eBay got in common? At first, it may appear as an odd question.
In fact, there is a straightforward answer: action seems to happen at the last minute. Up to last week, many students had only submitted very basic placeholder applications on the Debian wiki but I've now seen a couple of more fully documented proposals arriving at the last minute.
Some of these applications have improved as a result of people contacting the students who put their names on the wiki and referring them to useful resources such as successful applications from 2012
Many students are busy with exams, some have only discovered GSoC at the last minute, but this doesn't mean they are any less talented than those who have spent weeks researching a project idea.
Now is a good time for any member of the open source community (not just Debian participants and not just mentors) to have a look over the student applications: