Second round email

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

Second round email

Post by excitedithink »

Congrats second round awardees!!!

Congratulations! On behalf of the Department of Defense we are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded a scholarship under the Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Education Program. Please go to https://smart.asee.org/award for information regarding your award offer. Your login information is the same as that used for your application. Please pay close attention to the due dates for requested materials.

mecheng
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Re: Second round email

Post by mecheng »

excitedithink wrote:Congrats second round awardees!!!

Congratulations! On behalf of the Department of Defense we are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded a scholarship under the Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Education Program. Please go to https://smart.asee.org/award for information regarding your award offer. Your login information is the same as that used for your application. Please pay close attention to the due dates for requested materials.
I got it too! Congratulations!

HOrobOD

Re: Second round email

Post by HOrobOD »

Same!

I got the later change of error message a couple weekends ago. Was it the same for everyone else who just got in?

excitedithink

Re: Second round email

Post by excitedithink »

HOrobOD wrote:Same!

I got the later change of error message a couple weekends ago. Was it the same for everyone else who just got in?
I believe so!

Guest147

Re: Second round email

Post by Guest147 »

I got accepted too and was in the second round of temp closed errors!

Awardless

Re: Second round email

Post by Awardless »

Congrats, you guys!

Any semi-educated guesses at whether or not there might be additional awards between now and mid-June..?

Clearly, I was not an awardee...(although I'm wondering how likely it was at all given I've not seen many PhD recipients at all - this year or last - and we need it most!). :-(

Guest

Re: Second round email

Post by Guest »

Awardless wrote:Congrats, you guys!

Any semi-educated guesses at whether or not there might be additional awards between now and mid-June..?

Clearly, I was not an awardee...(although I'm wondering how likely it was at all given I've not seen many PhD recipients at all - this year or last - and we need it most!). :-(
Why do you say you need it most? In my program they'll fund their PhD student's completely and don't give master's students anything? I assume if a PhD doesn't match well they'll know you will want to switch somewhere else as soon as you're done with the service portion as you'll be doing a lot of cool research during your degree program. Where as master's is still a lot of classes.

This is probably the waitlist point now since no one seems to have later switched to the temp closed message.

Bummed guest

Re: Second round email

Post by Bummed guest »

Guest wrote:
Awardless wrote:Congrats, you guys!

Any semi-educated guesses at whether or not there might be additional awards between now and mid-June..?

Clearly, I was not an awardee...(although I'm wondering how likely it was at all given I've not seen many PhD recipients at all - this year or last - and we need it most!). :-(
Why do you say you need it most? In my program they'll fund their PhD student's completely and don't give master's students anything? I assume if a PhD doesn't match well they'll know you will want to switch somewhere else as soon as you're done with the service portion as you'll be doing a lot of cool research during your degree program. Where as master's is still a lot of classes.

This is probably the waitlist point now since no one seems to have later switched to the temp closed message.

I say that because it is a widespread assumption that PhD students are fully funded. Many (if not most) might be covered by their advisor's grant, and that's the ideal scenario. Often the grant does not cover the entire period of the student's PhD and the student is left wasting precious time applying for scholarships like this one. The majority of undergrads are still living (or have the option to live) at home, and they also have the option to work for pay outside of school. Most if not all PhD programs STRICTLY PROHIBIT (by university/departmental policy) PhD students from taking outside work, so they're screwed if they lose their funding, as a number of students in my program have. PhD students TEND to be 'older'/more independent/at a later stage in life and have home/family/other responsibilities, so lack of funds is a more precarious situation.

I have two Master's degrees, which I self-funded. The idea is that graduate students are not committed/committing to long-term research/academia (and typically they are not - just improving education for professional advancement), which is why they are unfunded.

Lastly, it is highly unlikely that a PhD student will be looking to 'jump ship' after the re-payment period, for similar reasons as those stated above. At that stage, doctoral holders will more likely be pursuing growth and committing to deepening in his/her area of research, whereas the undergraduate student has more incentive to explore their options before settling with an employer for the long-haul.

Incorrect Username

Re: Second round email

Post by Incorrect Username »

Bummed guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
Awardless wrote:Congrats, you guys!

Any semi-educated guesses at whether or not there might be additional awards between now and mid-June..?

Clearly, I was not an awardee...(although I'm wondering how likely it was at all given I've not seen many PhD recipients at all - this year or last - and we need it most!). :-(
Why do you say you need it most? In my program they'll fund their PhD student's completely and don't give master's students anything? I assume if a PhD doesn't match well they'll know you will want to switch somewhere else as soon as you're done with the service portion as you'll be doing a lot of cool research during your degree program. Where as master's is still a lot of classes.

This is probably the waitlist point now since no one seems to have later switched to the temp closed message.

I say that because it is a widespread assumption that PhD students are fully funded. Many (if not most) might be covered by their advisor's grant, and that's the ideal scenario. Often the grant does not cover the entire period of the student's PhD and the student is left wasting precious time applying for scholarships like this one. The majority of undergrads are still living (or have the option to live) at home, and they also have the option to work for pay outside of school. Most if not all PhD programs STRICTLY PROHIBIT (by university/departmental policy) PhD students from taking outside work, so they're screwed if they lose their funding, as a number of students in my program have. PhD students TEND to be 'older'/more independent/at a later stage in life and have home/family/other responsibilities, so lack of funds is a more precarious situation.

I have two Master's degrees, which I self-funded. The idea is that graduate students are not committed/committing to long-term research/academia (and typically they are not - just improving education for professional advancement), which is why they are unfunded.

Lastly, it is highly unlikely that a PhD student will be looking to 'jump ship' after the re-payment period, for similar reasons as those stated above. At that stage, doctoral holders will more likely be pursuing growth and committing to deepening in his/her area of research, whereas the undergraduate student has more incentive to explore their options before settling with an employer for the long-haul.

I think we (PhD students) are funded less because we are more expensive and/or our skills are maybe too specialized for what they are typically looking for. From what I can tell the undergrads are given something like ~20k whereas PhDs are 38k. And I'm willing to bet that undergrads are typically done quicker, since a typical PhD program is 5-6 yrs vs undergrad 4 yrs. If they funded more of us, the program would have a lot less recipients. At least this is what I tell myself considering I was recommended by two places, have a 4.0 undergrad and grad, a publication, years of research experience, etc.

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