by calmlyAnxious » Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:38 pm
PSU wrote:Just wanted to put forward my disappointment with this whole process. As I posted before, it is frustrating to see that a scholarship meant to award the best and brightest of our generation with an opportunity to work for our country is awarded to only a select few majors. Also, as I have seen on this board and discussed with other individuals I know personally, if you know someone, you are more likely to get an award than if you don't. This system is flawed and should be completely shut down until it is fixed and becomes unbiased.
Here are my credentials
GPA: 3.94
University: Penn State
Major: BS Chemical Engineering; BS Energy Engineering; Minor Chemistry
Experiences: Member of a lab group, teaching assistant and various other tutor positions
Requested only one year as I am to be entering my senior year.
It's unfortunate that you did not get an award, my guess is that there wasn't as many Chem E positions to fill. This is not the NFL draft where you take the best player available in the first round, they have to fill holes of need. It is not a reward because you are smart, it's only a reward if you are smart and they currently need your skills. I'm not sure how past years #'s were broken down but I feel fairly confident that they fluctuated and that fluctuation was due to need. Unfortunately your timing did not line up with the DoD needs, this is something that happens all the time in life.
I'm not sure if you got an interview with anybody, but basically each participating facility submitted their desired names based on that installations needs. Those installations send in their list in a ranked order to the SMART office. The budget limit is used to determine which candidates make the cut. So basically if there isn't a demand for Chem E students, there could technically be zero selected. Frankly, candidates are selected on the need of the installations and not by some predetermined requirements of the SMART program office.
[quote="PSU"]Just wanted to put forward my disappointment with this whole process. As I posted before, it is frustrating to see that a scholarship meant to award the best and brightest of our generation with an opportunity to work for our country is awarded to only a select few majors. Also, as I have seen on this board and discussed with other individuals I know personally, if you know someone, you are more likely to get an award than if you don't. This system is flawed and should be completely shut down until it is fixed and becomes unbiased.
Here are my credentials
GPA: 3.94
University: Penn State
Major: BS Chemical Engineering; BS Energy Engineering; Minor Chemistry
Experiences: Member of a lab group, teaching assistant and various other tutor positions
Requested only one year as I am to be entering my senior year.[/quote]
It's unfortunate that you did not get an award, my guess is that there wasn't as many Chem E positions to fill. This is not the NFL draft where you take the best player available in the first round, they have to fill holes of need. It is not a reward because you are smart, it's only a reward if you are smart and they currently need your skills. I'm not sure how past years #'s were broken down but I feel fairly confident that they fluctuated and that fluctuation was due to need. Unfortunately your timing did not line up with the DoD needs, this is something that happens all the time in life.
I'm not sure if you got an interview with anybody, but basically each participating facility submitted their desired names based on that installations needs. Those installations send in their list in a ranked order to the SMART office. The budget limit is used to determine which candidates make the cut. So basically if there isn't a demand for Chem E students, there could technically be zero selected. Frankly, candidates are selected on the need of the installations and not by some predetermined requirements of the SMART program office.