The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

[quote="CassM"][quote="GooglyHeim"]I had two facilities give me a ranking among their candidates. Meaning a ranking on a list they send back to SMART. Does anyone know how that is judged? Like if you are on multiple ranked lists will you get the site which has you ranked higher?[/quote]

The facilities that I interviewed with also mentioned interviewing some other candidates. The first one said they had 12 candidates they were looking at and the second one said they had 4, but neither gave me my ranking amongst those candidates and I was hesitant to ask, in case it would be off-putting to them.

Did you outright ask them where you ranked among the candidates? I'm wondering if I can email them so that I have an idea how likely I am to get a scholarship...[/quote]


I didn't ask. 2 of the 3 SFs I spoke to offered the information. All 3 sites handled the process very differently. though.

Site A called the day after semi-finalists were announced and asked what I wanted to do (nothing technical) and seemed to want to find a home for me.
Site B called and scheduled a formal interview, partly technical, then sent me an e-mail a week later with my ranked position among the interviewees.
Site C seemed to have already made their rankings but wanted to confirm a few things that may have been deal breakers to certain candidates. They just casually mentioned that I was their 2nd choice in the conversation.

The way ranking was described to me was completely subjective to the facility. They get a list, but that list is so long that they then have to filter it based on their needs and what candidates fit their criteria. From there they look at candidate interests, essays, background, etc.

From there they interview their top picks, but a candidate can decline interview/selection if they're not a SF the candidate is interested in. The candidate could also be a top candidate for other SF, which is why SMART has the final call as to where someone goes.

[quote="GooglyHeim"]I had two facilities give me a ranking among their candidates. Meaning a ranking on a list they send back to SMART. Does anyone know how that is judged? Like if you are on multiple ranked lists will you get the site which has you ranked higher?[/quote]

The facilities that I interviewed with also mentioned interviewing some other candidates. The first one said they had 12 candidates they were looking at and the second one said they had 4, but neither gave me my ranking amongst those candidates and I was hesitant to ask, in case it would be off-putting to them.

Did you outright ask them where you ranked among the candidates? I'm wondering if I can email them so that I have an idea how likely I am to get a scholarship...

Basically your facility interviewed some amount of students. They then rank you guys for who their top choices are. The facilities don't seem to know how many people they will get so they send a list with a lot of extra choices. In the case of being on multiple lists you'll be given to the one who you are closer to the top for that also can have enough scholars for you to make it off their list. For example SF 1 has you as number 3 on their list but can only have two scholars, SF 2 has you as number 7 and they get 10 scholars, SF 3 has you as number 5 and they get 5 scholars. I would assume you'd be placed in SF 3.

I had two facilities give me a ranking among their candidates. Meaning a ranking on a list they send back to SMART. Does anyone know how that is judged? Like if you are on multiple ranked lists will you get the site which has you ranked higher?

The list that is sent out to the SF’s is in a ranked order by best students/overall fit

So the SF that interviewed me mentioned something about my ranking according to my major? Could someone tell me more about what that is and how it affects who gets picked for the finalists for the scholarship? Thanks so much!