The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Just wanted to thank everyone on here for helping me get through this. According to my SF, I was also expected to get funded but nope. Without everyone letting loose their shared stress I don't know what I would've done these past two months. I lost a lot of respect for SMART with their terrible lack of communication. They clearly heard from the DoD and didn't let us know what was going on.

In spite of all this terrible organizing and communication from SMART I plan on applying again next year. Taking out loans is getting way too old and my SF was extremely courteous to me and I would like to work in the area they want me in. I was told I will keep being recommended until I get it, but this two month wait helped me realize not to believe everything you hear.

Hope everyone has a good summer and congrats to all the winners! Everyone does deserve some sort of congrats for riding this storm out.

DoneWithWait wrote:Howdy y'all. I got my acceptance letter today and am overjoyed. I requested 3 years towards a B.S. in mathematics. ... If it is any consolation, I believe at some point the scholarship is no longer about whoever has the most gold stars but about who can be utilized the best for the SF's purposes.

I find it interesting that you were accepted for 3 years towards a BS in Math, it really hits home your second point: that the scholarship selection is about who can be best utilized by SFs. Which is completely their prerogative. If you are requesting 3 years, you were applying during your first year. Do you know what kind of math you plan on studying yet? Which SF were you placed with?

I ask because I requested 3 years towards a PhD in math--which means I have a clear idea of the type of mathematics that I can do. You would think they would want someone with a PhD over someone with a BS.

There seems to be a lot going on behind some magical curtain, it would be nice if there was some transparency.

missmath wrote:If you are requesting 3 years, you were applying during your first year. Do you know what kind of math you plan on studying yet? Which SF were you placed with?

I was leaning more towards pure math, but my SF is Hanscom AFB with the Electronics Center. I think I am going to be mainly focusing on cost analysis stuff. My only guess as to why I was selected rather than say someone with a PHD or a masters is due to the fact that you have already developed your mathematical knowledge to a specific field. And that's awesome. But I am on the other hand, am a blank mathematical slate. It's not that they require a whole slew of mathematical knowledge for the position in question, but they appreciate the logic and problem solving skills that math major have and develop. At least that's what my POC at my SF said during the interview. They can have me focus on what they want to a certain extent. I'm taking kind of a risk, because although it sounds interesting, I may be bored out of my mind working there.

Did any atmospheric science majors receive the scholarship?

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.

gatsby wrote:

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. :? :(

Same here. I am looking at other funding options, within and outside of the gov

Were there any of you that were accepted but had no interview or contact with a SF?

Others have said this happened in previous years, but I wonder if, with the budget cuts, SMART or the SFs became more scrutinous and interviewed most or all candidates who ended up being accepted.

missmath wrote:

DoneWithWait wrote:Howdy y'all. I got my acceptance letter today and am overjoyed. I requested 3 years towards a B.S. in mathematics. ... If it is any consolation, I believe at some point the scholarship is no longer about whoever has the most gold stars but about who can be utilized the best for the SF's purposes.

I find it interesting that you were accepted for 3 years towards a BS in Math, it really hits home your second point: that the scholarship selection is about who can be best utilized by SFs. Which is completely their prerogative. If you are requesting 3 years, you were applying during your first year. Do you know what kind of math you plan on studying yet? Which SF were you placed with?

I ask because I requested 3 years towards a PhD in math--which means I have a clear idea of the type of mathematics that I can do. You would think they would want someone with a PhD over someone with a BS.

There seems to be a lot going on behind some magical curtain, it would be nice if there was some transparency.

That is historically to be expected. See http://www.me.vt.edu/academic_programs/ ... 0AWARD.pdf. Scroll down to the number of awards by degree section. Many more B.S. mathematics recipients than Ph.D.. Nothing going on behind the curtain that is different from previous years.

[quote="_+_+_"]Were there any of you that were accepted but had no interview or contact with a SF?

I would be very interested in knowing this, too, please . . . whether anyone was accepted who had no interview/contact.

tseug wrote:Thoughts on this?:

https://twitter.com/#!/thekg101/status/ ... 5808222208

Does anyone remember this guy who claimed he got the award on April 7? I wonder if he ended up really getting it. Or maybe he was a previous year recipient.

It has been about 5 days and I have yet to receive an email saying I received the scholarship or informing me of my rejection. I am so happy that you guys finally received an answer! However, I want to join in the celebration and I can't. I emailed the smart@asee.org address, but it's been 5 days and still no reply. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what my next move should be? Thanks so much and congratulations to all those who received an award!

guest_15 wrote:It has been about 5 days and I have yet to receive an email saying I received the scholarship or informing me of my rejection. I am so happy that you guys finally received an answer! However, I want to join in the celebration and I can't. I emailed the smart@asee.org address, but it's been 5 days and still no reply. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what my next move should be? Thanks so much and congratulations to all those who received an award!

Try emailing smart@nps.edu.

I guess this thread is done for good eh? For those who might check in sometimes... has anyone heard back in round2? Just curious if it has happened already...

yup this thread is pretty much done with, you wont hear about round 2 until after the 22nd I would imagine, being that is the date all the paper work is due for the 1st round winners. They have to assess who declines the offer then figure out who gets the award in place. You would think since there are only 130 winners this process would be fast but seeing how things went who knows what might happen or how long it may be. Best of luck to everyone, there is still hope!!

finito wrote: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 this determined by?
-'this month': June is almost over, has anyone gotten a round 2 award?

gatsby wrote: -'this month': June is almost over, has anyone gotten a round 2 award?

No.

they are dealing with left over money from anybody turning down the award in round one. once they have the amount of left-overs, they have to figure out total cost of each round two candidate which varies based on the amount of tuition for each college/university. they should also have a fudge factor to accomodate recipients that add winter courses, which means more fees than originally planned.

I just got my award notification today so I guess they released the 20 or so other awards

has anyone else heard about round 2?

Keyes155 wrote:I just got my award notification today so I guess they released the 20 or so other awards

Congrats.

I sent an email to the smart office to ask if all awards have been issued, no reply. So I called, and no answer! I'm over it! This last year of dealing with this process has reminded me how life was in the Navy and what the word Navy is an acronym for: Never Again Volunteer Yourself! Good luck to all those that received the award!

Hi guys. I just called SMART just to give it a try and they picked up. I asked if all the round 2 awards have gone out and the lady said they have not. She didn't give a time table or anything, but just letting you guys know it's not technically completely over yet. Have a good one

spartan17 wrote:Hi guys. I just called SMART just to give it a try and they picked up. I asked if all the round 2 awards have gone out and the lady said they have not. She didn't give a time table or anything, but just letting you guys know it's not technically completely over yet. Have a good one

Thanks, and alll the best.

Does anyone have a time frame on when round 2 will finish?

Well it was supposed to be a month after they sent the first round announcements..... but we've seen how they've been on deadlines and vague timeframes. I would expect by about the time that first payments go out, which is like mid August or something.