Okay, I know the awards have not come out yet but if anyone is think about re applying if they do not get the scholarship this is very helpful. It is a summary of what they look for on the application and is written by a former panelist for both the SMART and NDSEG. I found it very helpful and used it as my guide for writing mine. This is my second time applying and I did not have this the first time. The first time I applied I did not make it past the first round but this time I made it to the semifinalist round. I could not post the document as a word file so I did a copy and paste. I suggest anyone who want to use it copy and paste it to a word document and save it for future reference. However I want to make one thing clear. I AM NOT A PANELIST I AM A APPLICANT. Everything from this point on was written by someone else.
" NOTES FOR WRITING A SUCCESFUL DOD FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION 01/28/13
I served on the DoD review panels for both the SMART (2 days) and NDSEG (1 day) fellowships. Below I have summarized the award mechanics and listed my thoughts on the key components to include/address for a competitive application.
DoD SMART FELLOWSHIP
2012/2013 Award statistics and mechanics o
• Applicants for graduateFellowships can be seniors or current grad students read together
• Applicants for undergrad fellowships can be in any year of undergrad Read together
• 2000 apps (3‐5K in prev. yrs) across all fields; 200 apps in biosciences (field I reviewed)
• Each application receives 3 reads
• Based on rankings, the top ~50% is sent to DOD for matching (~8% of applicants are selected)
• The DOD placements are across 68 DoD labs, and 12 government agencies (e.g., NSA, CIA)
• Recipients can decline/ accept (will likely know the lab they will work at prior to accepting)
• Once the DoD receives the list, the matching is all that matters Not awarded in rank order
• Students at top will likely have multiple sites/labs/agencies that are interested
• CRITICAL: Most apps that are good (do not have to be excellent) in each area will be competitive, but
surprisingly, very few are good in each component
• Applications notes o Point potentials
GPA, transcripts, test scores, resume 25 points
Publications and presentations 5 points
Awards and honors 5 points
Summary of education and professional goals 20 points
Interest and research explanation 20 points
Community and volunteer work 5 points
Leadership experiences 5 points
Teamwork experiences 5 points
References 10 points
TOTAL 100 points
o GPA/GRE are heavily weighted
o Many categories are only 5 pts, but if these are left blank (common) you will receive 0 Even if you have
listed these in your resume/CV, do not leave anything blank
o To emphasize, do not leave anything blank Be creative if you have limited experience (e.g., presented in a
journal club or class, or mentoring a labmate will get you 1 or 2 pts instead of 0.
o For pubs/pres, honors, community, leadership, teamwork: List the activity and level of achievement (e.g., a
regional award, an activity that was 20 hrs/week) and then provide a short narrative describing the item and
outcome. A list (even with many items) scores lower than items with context and/or a quantitative metric
(e.g., 20 hrs/week, 2 students in the state)
o In goals statement:
Write passionately and genuinely with strong organization (use separate paragraphs)
Suggested sections: Personal Background, research interests and project ideas, link to DOD, choice of DOD
labs, long‐term goals
Critical: Need to spend at least 1 paragraph or more discussing SPECIFIC DOD SITES that you want to match
with and how they facilitate your goals
MUST MAKE STRONG CASE FOR WHY YOU WANT THE DOD POSITION AND SOME CHOICE LABS
o In interest and research explanation
Need strong organization. For each research experience communicate the goal, approach, and the
outcome/productivity (e.g., new finding, publication or presentation
Tie back to DOD and choice of specific labs mentioned in goals statement
DoD NDSEG FELLOWSHIP
• 2012/2013 Award statistics and mechanics o Applicants must be seniors or 1st/2nd year graduate students o
3000 applicants for 200 awards (~7%) but pool is STRONGER than SMART since no work req. o Biggest field is
biosciences (645 apps) followed by chemistry (340) o Biosciences is where most bioengineering topics are
received (also some to Mat Sci, ChemE) o All apps receive at least 2 reads; some receive 3 reads (if on cut‐off
border or discrepancy) o After reading, applications are ranked and a conservative cut‐off is applied. In my
panel the top 258 application (out of 645) were sent in ranked order to DoD for final selection
• Applications notes o The pool is hyper‐competitive (my mean was about 60/100 with high scorers in the 80s) o
In my scoring, a GPA of 3.7 and GRE in the 80 percentile would score 20/25 pts
o Even with perfect essays and references, you can’t receive a NDSEG with weak GPA/GREs
NOT TRUE for NSF GRFP (no GREs; scored only for innovation and broader impact) o Point potentials
GPA, GRE, transcripts 25 points
Publications, presentations, and patents 10 points
Awards and honors 5 points
Leadership experiences 5 points
Teamwork experiences 5 points
Memberships and community/ volunteer 5 points
Scientific or research experiences 20 points
Summary of goals 15 points
References 10 points
TOTAL 100 points
o Need some kind of publications and/or presentations and strong GPA/GRE o Must be solid on every category,
and strong on several o DO NOT LEAVE ANY SECTIONS BLANK (blank sections receive 0)
o List items in each category using descriptive language and quantitative metric (hrs/week, # of award
recipients in the state, school, country) as opposed to a list
o Be creative if needed to put something in each category (see examples above given for SMART) o For research
experience:
List the project, position, dates of work, and location/advisor
For each, add a short paragraph discussing the work, your specific contributions and some specific outcome (a
new finding, 1 publications, 2 posters, 1 presentation, etc.)
List each project separately (even if in same lab)
Both number of experiences and level of depth are valued
Critical to show organization and deliverables in each case to differentiate application o For other “list”
sections (leadership, teamwork,), use similar format but a 1 sentence description o For summary of goals
Use paragraphs and be specific many applications run together during review
Suggested sections: Personal motivation, past research and results, proposed research project (include aims,
brief discussion of experiments, and impact), Link to DoD and long‐term goals
Include enough detail to show you have an actual research project in mind (not that you want to work in
“tissue engineering”)
I scores the following: Check for motivation/personal interest, research hypothesis, experimental
aims/methods, impact, link to DoD, long‐term goals
o Although only 3 references are required, all 4 will be presented if submitted "
NOTES FOR WRITING A SUCCESSFU DOD FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION
Re: NOTES FOR WRITING A SUCCESSFU DOD FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION
Thanks, Guest! I hope I don't need this, but it will be incredibly helpful if I do!
-
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:23 pm
- Contact:
Re: NOTES FOR WRITING A SUCCESSFU DOD FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION
I also used this in preparing my application and found it extremely helpful! Fingers crossed that it helped in achieving the endgame as well.