What to do to improve chances next round

[Sad Rejectee]

I am going to start early with this question so I can start working on it over the next 8 months. What would be some ways to improve the chance of receiving an award? I'm hoping that these tips will be a helpful coping mechanism with the rejection :D

I'm finishing up my first year as a computer science major wanting to do cybersecurity. I didn't get any phone calls or emails :/ nor do I have much outside experience (other than the basic courses I've taken like programming and math and all that).

Should I try to get involved in research or just start doing certifications and stuff like that? Or should I try to broaden my interest instead of focusing on cybersecurity to increase my chances of getting the award? If you're a freshman and received the award, could you sum up what experience/things you felt really helped your acceptance?

Congrats to all who received an award, and to those who didn't know that you'll have many more opportunities in life. I'm trying to get myself to understand that.

[rerathar]

I am going to start early with this question so I can start working on it over the next 8 months. What would be some ways to improve the chance of receiving an award? I'm hoping that these tips will be a helpful coping mechanism with the rejection :D

I'm finishing up my first year as a computer science major wanting to do cybersecurity. I didn't get any phone calls or emails :/ nor do I have much outside experience (other than the basic courses I've taken like programming and math and all that).

Should I try to get involved in research or just start doing certifications and stuff like that? Or should I try to broaden my interest instead of focusing on cybersecurity to increase my chances of getting the award? If you're a freshman and received the award, could you sum up what experience/things you felt really helped your acceptance?

Congrats to all who received an award, and to those who didn't know that you'll have many more opportunities in life. I'm trying to get myself to understand that.

I recommend bolstering your comp sci portions of your resume. Mentor (FIRST Robotics is a good one as it actively involves programming and time constraints that can be applied to real life situations, as it's a program also sponsored by the DoD and can provide a great number of references which can be used for letters of rec) and tutor other students, take more comp sci related classes, and keep your GPA up.

[Sad Rejectee]

I am going to start early with this question so I can start working on it over the next 8 months. What would be some ways to improve the chance of receiving an award? I'm hoping that these tips will be a helpful coping mechanism with the rejection :D

I'm finishing up my first year as a computer science major wanting to do cybersecurity. I didn't get any phone calls or emails :/ nor do I have much outside experience (other than the basic courses I've taken like programming and math and all that).

Should I try to get involved in research or just start doing certifications and stuff like that? Or should I try to broaden my interest instead of focusing on cybersecurity to increase my chances of getting the award? If you're a freshman and received the award, could you sum up what experience/things you felt really helped your acceptance?

Congrats to all who received an award, and to those who didn't know that you'll have many more opportunities in life. I'm trying to get myself to understand that.

I recommend bolstering your comp sci portions of your resume. Mentor (FIRST Robotics is a good one as it actively involves programming and time constraints that can be applied to real life situations, as it's a program also sponsored by the DoD and can provide a great number of references which can be used for letters of rec) and tutor other students, take more comp sci related classes, and keep your GPA up.

Yeah, I realized about halfway through the application that my resume wasn't very focused on that aspect. Thank you for the tips!

[rigs90]

I'm a mechanical engineer, and much like you, I applied to SMART my first year in college, made it to the semifinalist round, then didn't receive an award. I think part of the reason why was because I had two of my letters of recommendation from high school teachers since I didn't know any professors that well yet. Another big reason I found out after calling a few facilities is that not that many facilities are looking for first year college students. A lot of places are looking for at least second or third year college students.

So I changed up a few things and I managed to earn an award this year. I think the three biggest things that helped were:

1. I'm now a second year student with a decent GPA
2. During the summer I browsed through my departments faculty list and looked for faculty that did research that seemed interesting or related to what I wanted to do and then just emailed them politely asking if I could volunteer as an undergraduate research assistant. First professor I emailed told me to send him my transcript to see my grades, they were good, so he let me come onto his team. I did good work as a volunteer this past fall semester, and now this spring semester he's letting me do work for credit hours.
3. Having gotten to know more professors since my first year and as well as the professor I do research under, I was able to get much stronger letters of recommendation that discussed my college performance, rather than my high school performance.


Hopefully this personal anecdote proves useful/comforting and I'm willing to answer any questions you might have.