The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

has anyone heard back in round2? Yeah, it would be nice to be able to have some final closure since the last communication was rather ambiguous.. "a second round of up to 20 additional awards may be issued this month." -'up to 20': out of how many remaining candidates? -'may be issued': what is thi...

AnonLoser wrote:How many retention applicants are still going for their degrees and/or leaving their agency?

I'm another retention applicant that did not recieve the award.

What about all of the rejected retention candidates though?.. you're senario doesn't really make sense when you consider that a retention candidate already has a position in the DOD.

I was told that the buget for 2012 SMART Scholars was cut by 85%, meaning they can only fund about 45 scholars this year as opposed to 300 in the past. I have it on good authority (from a 2-star equivalent) that this is the case. And I believe it is 2012 funds, not 2013. I think we're all agreed th...

For comparisson, last year's bill became public law a full three months before award announcements were made: FY H.R.1540 "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012" http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:1:./temp/~bdDcUB::|/home/LegislativeData.php?n=BSS;c=112| 4/14/2011 Introd...

OK, so, I've done a little research. I'm assuming that candidates selected this cycle will be funded under FY13, because if we were funded under FY12 there wouldn't be a budget issue and we would have been notified by now. Also, FY13 starts in September, which coincides with the Fall school-year sta...

In 2010 they told us how much the orientation in Monterey cost. Someone else can correct me but I believe it was on the order of 3 million...not 500k. I would bet this is why they moved it to DC last year. Monterey = tiny resort-ish town with a tiny airport = expensive to fly into, expensive hotels...

bulldog wrote:Or a frustrated applicant is trying to hack in retaliation for the long wait. Who knows.

lol, let's hope there isn't anyone that has gone that insane.

Anybody else notice the SMART website is down?

Possibly a good sign?!?

Without all these comments, I don't know how crazy I would have been about not hearing back for almost two months now!!!!!! Ah, I remember all those passionate arguments about the exact definition of "few" in "few weeks". I don't think too many people expected the answer to be "at least seven". Ind...

smart_hopeful wrote:This is all on the website, which you should read, lazybones.

...Be on good terms with God, because he's apparently the only one who knows what the heck is going on with this stupid scholarship.

That pretty much sums it up.

Total guess , but I think award announcements will be sent on Thursday, May 31 around 2pm EST. Why? -The last few posts give the appearance that the DOD has provided ASEE with enough information for them to start to finalize the process. -If they wait until June / July, they will start to go past m...

Guest wrote:I feel that much of our "cognitive stress" could be avoided in our situation with a bit more open communication on the delay and a little less uninformed waiting.

Absolutely agree... I would also consider that a much more professional way for ASEE/SPO to handle the situation.

So, the main SMART page was updated today. I'm having trouble finding what they've updated, though ... They updated something on the Participants page, under the Forms section. I think it was just the addition of an Internship prep sheet (what to expect and how to behave at the internship) and mayb...

Guest wrote:You're poking a bear by emailing her.

Agreed. I wouldn't do it... but I would be interested to hear what she has to say if someone else is up for sending a courteous inquiry.

Guest wrote:She has assistants who are well aware of this forum.

Really?? How do you know?

For the curious, "OASD(R&E)/RD" is apparently the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Research Directorate. The brave and/or foolhardy (I am neither) can find their contact information here . OASD(R&E)/RD STEM Development Office administers NDEP, which adminis...

LostInTheSauce wrote:I could be tempted to slap some bologna slices on their black SUV's. Just sayin'...

I second that motion.

And gatsby, I should be clear--I am not making an attack on your or trying to start a flame war--the irony was too perfect. I really mean no disrespect. I only mean to caution people on reading too far in to the wording by SMART/ASEE/SPO, etc.. No need to incite false hope (or an increase sense of....

Since they haven't given us any timeline, I emailed ASEE today to ask about orientation. This is their response: Due to the delay in this year's awards there is no date for orientation set this summer. Given the delay in the award announcements there may not be a traditional orientation event this y...

Few- noun, pronoun adjective 1. not many but more than one: Where are people finding their definitions? Few does not indicate any specific number. Not three...not four... It is a relative term that means more than one, but less than many (many also being a relative term), which was likely strategic...

2012_UMD wrote:Tomorrow is three weeks since the "few week" delay. Here's to hoping to a government "few" isn't much longer.

Yeah, it would be nice if they at least gave us an update sometime this week.

Well I have been unofficially told I didn't get into my first choice school and I am unwilling to go to my second choice without this scholarship which won't be processed in time for me to enroll so if I do recieve the award I will be promptly declining it. Guess I get to do this all again in the f...

There's a lot of anxious people browsing the forum this morning... several hundred views in just a couple hours.

Eh, I'd be perfectly happen with an email saying "You [have/have not] been selected for the SMART fellowship. For those selected, contracts will be sent out in the next few weeks for you to accept or decline." I don't think too many of us would be horribly offended by not having a copy of the contr...

I've been in contact with my SF and asked 'are you of the impression that awardees have already been selected?'. His response was, "My understanding is the final selections have been made and that they are just doing a review of some administrative stuff." I know it isn't an official statement from...