unfortunately the real story here isn't that a female would-be developer with mediocre projects got an internship.

This is my real story lol. That and I applied to non target internships in my area. We have a large research district that hires hundreds of interns over the summer but since we only have a community college and satellite campus for a state school, there isn't much local competition. Local interns are preferred because we can stay on year-round which is what I'm doing.

I'm very grateful for getting my internship, but I was not blind to the fact that most of the guys in my intern group were extremely talented (one's at Microsoft now!) yet only had the one offer from our company. Too competitive. Yet we had a close to even spread of men to women and most of the women were non technical or very new aspiring developers like me. Definitely average in terms of talent, especially compared to the men.

It really does suck out there for young white or Asian men who are applying to internships or junior positions. Without previous work experience, it is very competitive in a way I won't have to experience as long as I don't apply to big name companies. I bring this up because this post is not applicable to most of this sub. Her experience is inherently different than what most of the undergrads in this degree face.