Current DoD Contractor

Answers to various questions regarding the SMART Scholarship application process. Includes many tips and statistics.
DoD Contractor

Current DoD Contractor

Post by DoD Contractor »

I am currently a DoD contractor and I indicated this when prompted in the first part of the application. Currently though I am still a college sophomore. I have worked as a contractor for the past two summers. Will my application be looked at differently? Thanks

ccain

Re: Current DoD Contractor

Post by ccain »

As someone with a background similar to yours (intern as an undergrad with DoE contractor, post-graduation employment for DoD contractor - EE/CS areas), I can tell you that the answer is: it depends. If you have relevant work experience in an area that is of direct application to your proposed study plan/career goals, then I say yes absolutely. The entire goal of this is to recruit quality young talent and retain them long-term. Having defense-related experience, and a desire to work directly for one of the labs will put you a leg up over others.

If you have an active clearance I think is irrelevant in this case: normally it always matters to private companies as they have to foot the bill to the gov't (in some cases nearly 10k), so anyone having a clearance (someone else paid for) will be hired over the person who does not (yet). The DoD themselves have such a massive budget, I don't think they really are concerned. In general though, holding a clearance is always a good thing in the marketability end of things.

Personally speaking, anyone interested in this program for the scholarship funding are in it for the wrong reasons and will probably be weeded out. The DoD is looking for researchers and top-notch engineers, most preferrably with advanced degrees. They do not pay as much as the private market for similar jobs (in my field and level, starting salaries lag up to 10-15k, and only a few dept's implement pay for performance review systems), so the people who end up there truly want to be.

As a sophomore I think you have a decent shot against people at your level. But I really feel that this program's research focus is no-doubt more graduate-student oriented, so I think that puts undergrads in general at a disadvantage.

Good luck!

guest

Re: Current DoD Contractor

Post by guest »

But I really feel that this program's research focus is no-doubt more graduate-student oriented, so I think that puts undergrads in general at a disadvantage.
The post by the SMART Guide begs to differ. The awards are split 50-50 between undergrads and grads according to the SMART Guide's post. (Somewhere on this forum)

Guest

Re: Current DoD Contractor

Post by Guest »

guest wrote:
But I really feel that this program's research focus is no-doubt more graduate-student oriented, so I think that puts undergrads in general at a disadvantage.
The post by the SMART Guide begs to differ. The awards are split 50-50 between undergrads and grads according to the SMART Guide's post. (Somewhere on this forum)

You are correct on there is a general set proportion of the awards that go for undergrad versus grad (though not sure if it's 50/50). What I was driving at was mostly just that at the undergraduate level, the competition is proportionally higher than for PhD candidates. In many cases, graduate students (such as myself) obtain their own funding through their respective departments and receive tuition waivers commonly, so there is less interest and need for programs such as this one at that level, unless they are specifically set on pursuing research for the DoD and are most interested in the job placement.

Post Reply