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Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 7:58 pm
by Confused_Applicant
Has anyone encountered the situation where multiple SF's have selected you for the SMART and yet you still do not get an award? This happened to me and I am trying to figure out why or how.

To clarify "selected", I received a call from a SF telling me to select which division within the SF I wanted to work for. I also received calls from a different SF saying they had selected me at the end of the interview.

Following up with the SF's today, they don't know what happened.

Re: Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 8:17 pm
by EliosHarg
It could be that you were ranked too low for each facility(i.e.you were ranked 3 and they only got 2 spots)

Re: Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 8:51 pm
by RetentionApplicant
Agreed with Elios, but along with that, remember SMART factors in your preferences too. So if you didn't originally list the SF in your app, but someone else did that made the SF's selections, they would receive preference I believe.

Re: Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:46 pm
by COnfused_Applicant
RetentionApplicant wrote:Agreed with Elios, but along with that, remember SMART factors in your preferences too. So if you didn't originally list the SF in your app, but someone else did that made the SF's selections, they would receive preference I believe.
I can see if they only received two out of the three spots they asked for, or maybe they directorate I interviewed with got nothing. One of the interviewers I contacted said he was told after the fact that he would get no funding, which seems silly to bother interviewing them.

As for preferences, all of my interviews were from my top two preferences.

Re: Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:53 pm
by GuestM
Other things could factor in too like the overall budget of the program. SMART only has so much funding so they have to weigh the factors like how much your school costs and how many years they'd have to fund you. The SFs pick their top choices and SMART has to shuffle things around to make the bottom line work out. That's at least what my SF told me last year.

Re: Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 10:54 pm
by AlsoConfused
Same here.

The SF I spoke with for an "interview" basically spent 2 hours telling me about their facility and why I should select them, so when I got the rejection email on Monday, I was beyond surprised. The SF sounded sad that I wasn't selected when they responded which leads me to believe that it was SMART's decision. :-/

Re: Multiple selections, no offer

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:58 pm
by Guest1234
AlsoConfused wrote:Same here.

The SF I spoke with for an "interview" basically spent 2 hours telling me about their facility and why I should select them, so when I got the rejection email on Monday, I was beyond surprised. The SF sounded sad that I wasn't selected when they responded which leads me to believe that it was SMART's decision. :-/
This is accurate. The SMART program office ends up making the final pairings and decisions, not the SF's. Although, if a SF only requested one student, odds are they get that specific student. For ones that submit a list of students they want, they usually only get the top N students, based on budget.