SMART for fifth year

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

SMART for fifth year

Post by SuperSenior »

Hi; I'm a 4th year undergrad at Dartmouth College. I am applying for a SMART scholarship, but there are a number of circumstances and I would appreciate your opinion.

The short story is that I was a bio/chem double major for my first three years and did fairly well--I have just submitted a manuscript for publication and I have a lot of research background in lab, including last summer where I spent all summer researching--and from which comes my current manuscript for publication. I'll have two superb letters from my lab PIs.

The thing is that I discovered Computer Science last fall and I have decided to pursue it ever since. I am thus taking a fifth year of undergrad to complete the CS major on top of my bio major.

I am applying for the SMART for this fifth year.

My reservations:
1) They normally don't fund seniors. This isn't my "actual" final year, but I am still a "senior" this year.
2) My CS experience is fairly limited (only 3 courses on the transcript, but I just completed 3 more). The CS GPA is 3.89. Unfortunately the latest 3 classes won't show on my transcript as term just ended and I had to submit the transcript earlier.
3) Although my CS GPA is 3.89, my overall is approximately average for SMART acceptances.

So basically I'm hoping that my extensive--and successful--Bio background will convince them to fund my fifth year to pursue a CS degree. Weird. I do have a great letter coming from a CS prof.

I'm looking for any kind of advice. I would be happy to detail my background a little more, but that's the short story.