The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

So I am a freshman in college this year, and I hail from a town with a population of 300. As much as I have wanted to work on research projects related to my field of interest (electrical engineering) this is something that I have not been able to do yet. One reason being because the closest town of any considerable size is almost two hours away. The other reason is that I am coming from a fairly poor family so I have always had to work during the summer and I have never had the opportunity to go work unpaid on a research project. Probably the closest thing to research is that I pioneered, formed, and captained my highschool FIRST robotics team, which came in 12th out of 60 some our first year. I then mentored it my first year after graduating (last year) and we came in 5th. I don't really know if any of that is important or not, but yeah...

I write this looking for advice for a first semester freshman (though I will be a sophmore credit wise come next semester) with no research background. So any advice or tips you have to me applying would be greatly appreciated.

I have no research experience going into this either. I am riding on a very strong career history which I hope will suffice. I have also been successfull in college as well, but with a full time job there has not been a lot of time for research.
I am also wondering how important the prior research experience is going to be. If I recieve the scholarship I will be able to complete a lot more than in my current situation.

From everyone I've talked to, prior research isn't expected until post graduate level applicants. While I'm sure it doesn't hurt, they don't see it's necessary until you're a Doctoral candidate.

I'd have to agree with the above post. Research is mainly for graduate students, as freshman it'd be difficult to get that sort of opportunity.

Since research experience isn't expected until the graduate applications, how much of a boost is it for undergrads? (Say a current sophomore).

I don't know the point system, but I would say significant.