Don't give up

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Re: Don't give up

by havecourageandbekind » Tue Apr 25, 2017 11:29 pm

SMARTRejectee wrote:I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.
I think this is a generally friendly forum as well. Its now at the point where I felt a reminder was needed that we are all great no matter what because Im seeing a lot of negativity and people telling other people to stop telling themselves they have a shot. It is up to us to decide what to believe and what to feel inside about it. It is not up to other SMART hopefuls to tell people they should give up now!!

Re: Don't give up

by Guest » Tue Apr 25, 2017 11:26 pm

SMART2Rejectee2 wrote:
SMARTRejectee wrote:I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.
Same here.
Ditto.

Re: Don't give up

by Guest » Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:23 pm

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
For all you know, asking for only a year might've worked against you. Remember, the goal of smart is permanent recruitment. They don't want someone who works for them for a year and then leaves. Meanwhile, someone who needs 2 or 3 years might be more expensive, but I'm sure retention rates are much higher.
That's true! But I could also see it playing against you if you're a incoming freshman or sophomore, given that there's a pretty high washout rate for the STEM majors the DOD wants.

I also made the cardinal sin of not selecting a preferred facility, which I thought indicated a degree of flexibility, but instead put out of view for many facilities that chose based on who chooses them.

Guest147596790 Thank you for the kind words! I'm hopeful that that someone somewhere will see some potential in me. Maybe grad school?

I want to thank everyone here for the general kindness. If you made it as a semifinalist, you're going to make a quality engineer or scientist or leader regardless of award status. I think I'm a bit hurt now but I know that's true.

Re: Don't give up

by Guest » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:52 pm

Guest1 wrote:
SMART2Rejectee2 wrote:
SMARTRejectee wrote:I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.
Same here.
I'm kinda of disappointed.

Civil Engineering major, 3.97/4.00, a full years work experience at a major engineering firm. And research!

All I was asking for was just a year.

Bleh.
For all you know, asking for only a year might've worked against you. Remember, the goal of smart is permanent recruitment. They don't want someone who works for them for a year and then leaves. Meanwhile, someone who needs 2 or 3 years might be more expensive, but I'm sure retention rates are much higher.

Re: Don't give up

by Guest147596790 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:34 pm

guest wrote:Excellent points made. With this scholarship, even more than most, there seems to be quite a bit of luck involved. I am a 3rd year PhD student. I applied last year and this year with basically identical credentials, almost exactly the same essays, similar references, and the same preferred SFs. Last year I was a semi-finalist, and got exactly zero calls or interest from any SFs. This year I had 3 different SF managers call showing a great deal of interest. I know they must have seen my application last year - unless ASEE lost it - so what made the difference from one year to the next? Maybe those managers were just too busy last year to put any effort into screening resumes. Maybe they didn't even get the resumes until it was too late. Some managers at SFs don't even know about the program, or they don't get any guidance when their boss flops a stack of resumes on their desks. Could be anything - and is very likely not something related to actual qualifications.
As with most things, I think it really comes down to luck and timing (which are certainly related). It's possible in your case that several positions opened up between your last application and this one. Or maybe there was some phenomenal candidate/s that swept house in your field last year. I know that I'm being considered this year for a position that a friend is (I think) much more qualified for but received no interview last year and didn't re-apply.

Re: Don't give up

by guest » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:28 pm

Excellent points made. With this scholarship, even more than most, there seems to be quite a bit of luck involved. I am a 3rd year PhD student. I applied last year and this year with basically identical credentials, almost exactly the same essays, similar references, and the same preferred SFs. Last year I was a semi-finalist, and got exactly zero calls or interest from any SFs. This year I had 3 different SF managers call showing a great deal of interest. I know they must have seen my application last year - unless ASEE lost it - so what made the difference from one year to the next? Maybe those managers were just too busy last year to put any effort into screening resumes. Maybe they didn't even get the resumes until it was too late. Some managers at SFs don't even know about the program, or they don't get any guidance when their boss flops a stack of resumes on their desks. Could be anything - and is very likely not something related to actual qualifications.

Re: Don't give up

by Guest147596790 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:12 pm

Guest1 wrote:
SMART2Rejectee2 wrote:
SMARTRejectee wrote:I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.
Same here.
I'm kinda of disappointed.

Civil Engineering major, 3.97/4.00, a full years work experience at a major engineering firm. And research!

All I was asking for was just a year.

Bleh.
You don't know that you're not getting the award. You won't know that until sometime in the summer (I think June). Just because you're not getting the coveted portal closed error doesn't mean you won't get an award during the first round of picks. I realize it's not a great sign, but we don't know that they're not still working on awards. In fact, I think it's logical to think that they ARE still working on awards.

If you DON'T get picked the first time around, you've still got a chance at a second round pick in the summer. As the topic says: "Don't give up"

Re: Don't give up

by Guest1 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:50 pm

SMART2Rejectee2 wrote:
SMARTRejectee wrote:I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.
Same here.
I'm kinda of disappointed.

Civil Engineering major, 3.97/4.00, a full years work experience at a major engineering firm. And research!

All I was asking for was just a year.

Bleh.

Re: Don't give up

by SMART2Rejectee2 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:46 pm

SMARTRejectee wrote:I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.
Same here.

Re: Don't give up

by SMARTRejectee » Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:42 pm

I am sad about my pending rejection. But I think this post is great. I think the SMART forum is a friendly forum.

Re: Don't give up

by Guest1566 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:19 pm

In all honesty, I'm a sophomore in my undergrad studies. The mere fact that I even made it this far is enough to be grateful for. It just means given more experience I may have an actual chance later down the road. This is already farther than I thought I would make. Thanks for the reminder. It was greatly appreciated.

Re: Don't give up

by BME Guest » Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:04 am

Well said!

There's a (much younger) fellow PhD student in my program in the lab I just switched to, who I've always been courteous to, invited to social events and over for the holidays with my husband, etc. Essentially, I thought there was mutual respect, if not friendship.

However, when our PI started praising my work, I noticed he immediately started acting snarky and (even more) condescending (than usual), which I've come to recognize over many years outside of academia to be petty jealousy - this from a guy who is highly intelligent and capable. Sadly, I know now that I have to keep him at arms length.

So no, don't let any award - or lack thereof - serve as some kind of validation for your inherent superior or inferior intellect and overall worth as a human being. Intelligence is so much more than one's knowledge of a given subject, as is what constitutes a person worthy of respect and admiration.

Not everyone can 'win', and not every opportunity is meant to be yours. Honor and hone your strengths while exercising humility, and you will have a life of abundance in more areas than one.

Don't give up

by havecourageandbekind » Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:19 pm

Felt the need to post this where it's more obvious....

Just because you don't get this doesn't mean you're not a fantastically deserving human. You all are awesome and we all deserve it. But, only 250 of us can have it.

Please stop acting like your GPA or your research makes you better than everyone else on this forum. We all are in the same boat and knock each other down does not make us more likely to get it.

Whoever gets the sponsorship I hope is the best person for the job and if that means you have a 4.0 GPA then great. If it means you had 3.0 then that's great too. Your GPA no longer matters, it matters how you interviewed and what the SF needs in its future workforce. They're not going to invest in someone who's a 4.0 student in aerospace over a 3.0 student in aerospace just because of the GPA. The government works very hard to place people somewhere they'll work well with. The phone interviews are the point where this is all related to you as a person, not your student/research profile.

I feel like my interviewer didn't care about a word I said even before we got into the interview itself. Which either tells you he already decided against me, or he was just not a people person. However, I've already counted myself out. That doesn't mean I don't deserve it as much as anyone else on this forum. That also doesn't mean I want to be made to feel bad about not getting it, nor do I want to believe SMART would have something like this show the results ahead of time. That's like getting accepted/denied to school via a third party comment then in a while hearing if it was confirmed or not.

So we'll hear eventually, good, bad, or ugly. Congrats to everyone who has made it this far as it shows we are worth something to even get to the interview round. This is only 1/4 of the original applicants. Hell, I got into the grad school of my dreams and the major of my dreams at a top school that I never even thought would give my application a second glance nor would I have applied to without having found this scholarship. If I don't get this then I'll be sad as I would love the opportunity to work in the SF that interviewed me. But my life isn't going to be over I'll have a full-time job or interview somewhere that pays better and can cover a semester full time off school.

So I repeat

Just because you don't get this doesn't mean you're not a fantastically deserving human. You all are awesome and we all deserve it. But, only 250 of us can have it.

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