The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

My daughter had her interview in early February. Just got an email yesterday 2/25 about holding 2 days in July for orientation in DC, but still no official notification of being selected. If she is selected, that notification is supposed to come in early-April. Just keeping fingers crossed for her to receive good news, but know it's not the end of the world if she doesn't get selected. Like Tom Petty said so well, The Waiting is the Hardest Part....

How to prepare for facility interviews on 1/9. Several applicants asked if this meant we were semifinalist. No official notice was sent, the people in the conference did confirm we were "semifinalists" but that didn't mean much more than "your application had all the necessary parts completed". People got excited about it. Which is okay.

Did anyone get an interview yet?

[quote=Guest post_id=16882 time=1739368954]When was this zoom call?[/quote]

You can go ahead and ignore the person talking about Zoom calls and semi-finalist status. It was definitely taken way out of context. Even if it wasn't, it is likely that the person who said it does not have the authority to make such a call.

From SMART themselves:
"Please note, neither this email nor contact with a Sponsoring Facility is a promise of an award. [b]There will not be a semifinalist notification.[/b] The 2024 SMART Scholarship awards are currently scheduled to be announced in April 2025, and the Dellums SMART Scholarship awards are currently scheduled to be announced in May 2025."

Just trust the process bro. It's nerve wracking and "semi-finalist status" would ease some anxiety. Just remember that the worst they can say is no.

When was this zoom call?

[quote=Guest post_id=16878 time=1739019749]
They said that we were semifinalists if we got an invitation to the zoom call about this year's selection process. They're was no official notice sent.
[/quote]

Out if curiosity where did you hear this? Did only certain people get an invite to the zoom meeting? I figured everyone did.

They said that we were semifinalists if we got an invitation to the zoom call about this year's selection process. They're was no official notice sent.

No semi finalist notifications this year

It looks like past years, they told people that they are semifinalists this week. Has anyone heard anything? I looked at last year's posts and the said it showed their status had changed in the portal, but I don't even know where status is shown in the portal at all.