The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Hey. was just curious as to if other semifinalists have been contacted by someone yet. I know it's early (just got my email a few days ago) and i assume that most locations have different priorities, but... it could never hurt to start knowing when everyone starts getting phone calls.

Has anyone received any emails from smart since the semi-finalist list came out? Has anyone received the SF-86 form or the fingerprint form? And has anyone been requested to send transcripts? I haven't heard anything from smart since the semi-finalist list came out.

guest wrote:Has anyone received any emails from smart since the semi-finalist list came out?

patience my friend, patience. It doesn't look like they will ask semifinalists for anything at least until after the facilities submit names to the SMART office, which isn't due in until March 15th according to the semifinalist email, or maybe not even until after finalists are announced. In the mean time, the only person who MIGHT contact you is someone from a sponsoring facility.Try not to even think about it. I know its hard, I did this last year too. All the waiting exasperated me and I never did get a call. In the end I just got stressed out over something I had no control over.

ehilge wrote:I never did get a call. In the end I just got stressed out over something I had no control over.

Not to be rude/intrusive, but did you end up getting a scholarship despite not getting a call? Or are you simply suggesting we not let it bother us until its all over (if at all, lol)?

Best thing anyone can do right now to kill the time is prepare for an interview. Start reading the literature on good interview answers, how to present yourself, and what kind of answers you'll need to have on hand before they call.

You might also want to come up with your own talking points. If you get a call from a weak interviewer, they might follow your lead, which means you could have a chance to interview yourself, asking yourself the questions that you feel would most qualify you for the position.

Also remember, this is the government, if someone asks you what kind of a salary you are looking for, politely avoid the question or turn it back on the interviewer by asking, "Well, I know that government jobs are paid on budgets from congress. I know the pay is very competitive and comparable to the private sector. What kind of compensation package is set for this particular career?"

Just researching this will kill the time for you and also give you valuable skills to use in the future even if you don't get the phone call. Remember, don't worry about tomorrow - prepare for it! Today has enough worries of its' own.

From everything I have read on prior posts they only ask you routine questions. It is not the type of interview where you have to sell yourself. And it is nearly impossible to anticipate what they may ask you. The salary is fixed and I can’t see them asking you what you think about it. Am I misunderstanding the previous comments?

Everyone is different. To make a statement that they will all ask this or not ask that, is only going to be true if they are given specific guidelines to not ask those questions. Further, if you do know what kind of questions ("basic/generic") they will be asking, then it's best to at least study up on what that means and know how to answer those questions better than the next person

Further, not every personality is the same. If you're interviewed by a weak personality, you could possibly direct the interview and use your own talking points to highlight who you are. My best advice, regardless of what has happened in the past is to brush up and study interview techniques. If you have a friend that will study with you and give you mock interview that would be even better.

When I was about to get out of the Military (first four years) I applied for a job at the census bureau. I was asked about salary and all kinds of questions, but my studying prepared me for that... I was offered the job, but ended up turning it down. It was a government job, but I got paid better to stay in the military. At the time the job was a GS-5 promotable to GS-6 after 1 year.

Almost half way through the month and nothing yet. Has anyone heard anything?

Is it the kiss of death if you do not get an interview?

If we presume the facilities received all the applicant materials electronically on the first of February as the timeline suggests that means that they at most have had the information of 1500 applicants at their disposal for a little over a week, about 8 days. I think its safe to say that people won't be contacted until the end of the month, or early next month. The facilities likely need time to sort through applications, discuss / review them and make tentative decisions. Then they will likely call potential candidates to help distinguish between their choices. This assumes that they contact candidates at all. Recall past recipients have stated that not all facilities contacted their selections. Patience is the key. Granted everyone who is serious about this scholarship will be prepared for a potential interview, but once that is done the best thing to do is return to your normal life. Worrying will only hinder your performance in daily tasks. By the end of next month you'll know for certain your status with regards to the scholarship.

So there has been one announcement of contact... please, if you are getting phone calls let us know. Even if others are not getting calls at least we know what stage we are in.

I have to imagine that there has been more than one person contacted by now.

good luck to all!

Do they call at a random time and hope you are available? Or do they email you with a specific time so you can be ready by the phone. I thought I read in one of the old posts that they email you with a specific appointment time when they will call. You can email back to change the time if it is not convenient. Can anyone tell me for sure what their procedure is for a call?

Naval facility called one of my kids for a quick interview for SMART. The CallerID said WITS3, which is the Defense phone system, so be sure to answer the phone if you see that. heck, answer all the calls just in case

What kind of questions did they ask?

I got a phone call and an e-mail from an sponsoring facility on Tuesday, February 15 requesting to have a phone interview. They interviewd me the next day and it lasted about 20 minutes, I think I did well. They explained the kind of work that they do and the position they were looking to fill and its location. Here are some questions they asked me during the interview: What would you bring to our agency? What would you say your main weakness is? What would be your tentative graduation date? Are you willing to move to the location we offer? What kind of major and specialty field are you going for? Does the school you will be attending offer courses that are related to the work you would be doing here? (That was after they explained some details of the position they are trying to fill) Do you have any other questions for us? They also stressed the fact that even though the SMART Scholarship has the word "research" in its name, it does not mean that you will be doing research if selected for a position. They also asked if I was more inclined to research or professional practice.

I hope this helps you guys prepare a little bit for your interviews, I know that not all sponsoring facilities will ask the same questions, but I just wanted to offer what my interview was like.

And now I wait, March 30th looks so far away...

Good luck to all of you!

Thanks for the information jramcam. It is definitely helpful.

I was starting to feel all was lost when I looked back at this! The interviews for potential slections are from march 21-25. Interviews right now are probably for clarifications.


If you have not yet recieved a call there is still hope!

February 21, 2010
Program Office Closed - President's Day

March 19, 2011 2011 Service/Agency Selections Due to SMART Program
March 21-25, 2011 Program Office Phone Interviews with Potential Selections
March 30, 2011 2011 Award Notifications Sent
April 15, 2011 2011 Award Responses Due
May 30, 2011 Program Office Closed - Memorial Day
July 4, 2011 Program Office Closed - Independence Day
July 2011 2011 New Scholar Orientation
August 1, 2011 2012 Application Opens
September 15, 2011 Program Office Closed - Labor Day

P.S. They sure do get a lot of days off!

Thanks Jim for posting that

I was thinking about that official SMART timeline at the time the two posts were made claiming to have gotten calls. I question some of the information posted on this forum.

Jim M wrote:I was starting to feel all was lost when I looked back at this! The interviews for potential slections are from march 21-25. Interviews right now are probably for clarifications.


If you have not yet recieved a call there is still hope!

February 21, 2010
Program Office Closed - President's Day

March 19, 2011 2011 Service/Agency Selections Due to SMART Program
March 21-25, 2011 Program Office Phone Interviews with Potential Selections
March 30, 2011 2011 Award Notifications Sent
April 15, 2011 2011 Award Responses Due
May 30, 2011 Program Office Closed - Memorial Day
July 4, 2011 Program Office Closed - Independence Day
July 2011 2011 New Scholar Orientation
August 1, 2011 2012 Application Opens
September 15, 2011 Program Office Closed - Labor Day

P.S. They sure do get a lot of days off!

While this is true, I'd imagine that "Service/Agency Selections" wouldn't be sent in to the smart office for people who they didn't even bother to interview. The interviews from 21-25 I think is more of a confirmation that you still want to do the program etc. Of course, I could be wrong, but I don't see why an agency would hire someone without speaking to them at all, unless their credentials were THAT impressive... but even so.

I do remeber in one of the threads folks mentioning that they were selected and never recieved a phone call. I do not think that all 1500 folks would be called or even all 600 selcted as finalists. The list sent out was ranked and I believe searchable (could someone confirm). I do not think anyone has lied about being contacted. I think any calls being made right now are to confirm things that they did not see in the application.

With everything in life you must weigh your source with research... for the most part I do think the information posted on this site is a good source for the progression of the process.

1500 went on to be semi-finalist and maybe 20 people posted. That works out to be 1.3%. If the same is true about interviews then it could be that about 150 interviews have been conducted. Make sense?

Anyway I would ask that if there are others who recieved phone calls that they post as well.

I am atleast happy I have a place to go each day to take my mind off of the wait, although I probably come here way to often!

Just to clear the air for the poster above, I, too, received an email asking to schedule a phone interview last week.

Have you talked with them yet? If so... what kind of questions did they ask?

Have you talked with them yet? If so... what kind of questions did they ask?

For my interview, most of the questions were based on the resume; they just asked for more details or about certain aspects of different things on my resume.

Did they make initial contact by e-mail or phone? I went back to check my contact info and noticed I ahd a typo in my phone number but my e-mail is fine. Could you imagine if I was not selected because of this typo!

Jim M: I believe you have misinterpreted the timeline you posted. For more detail, I would go to

http://smart.asee.org/apply_/faq/application_timeline

This may clarify things for you and anyone else... we are in an interview period for real interviews, not just points of clarification.

Take home message I got from those who had interviews: Being a graduate student I've had my fair share of interviews for the co-ops and internships I had... and job interviews when I was still on the fence on grad school. From what the previous posters stated, these interviews sound a lot like most interviews. They kinda have a canned set of questions and draw inspiration from your resume. Mike from earlier in this thread has some excellent advice. Just google "how to job interview" and you'll learn tons more.

Personally, I consider myself pretty competent when it comes to interviews, but it's always good to brush up. Not only that, these are phone interviews. You can't give a firm handshake, make eye contact, sit up straight and exude confidence very easily. So to expand on Mike's comments, also study up on phone interview tips.

Not much else I can offer. Other than I have not received an email, but I am not worried. We have plenty of time and the proportion of calls going out from agencies will exponentially increase as time approaches March 19.