DMEA, Kirtland AFB, or Dahlgren NSWC sponsorships?

[rattlehead]

Long story short: I am curious to see if anyone, especially BSEE majors, were sponsored by the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA), Kirtland Air Force Base, or Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center?


Here's the long story, if anyone is bored enough to read it

I applied for the current SMART scholarship and I was selected as a semifinalist, but I was never contacted by any facilities and I was not selected as a first round finalist. I know there may be a second round, but I doubt I will get the scholarship due to the lack of interest in me displayed by any of the sponsoring facilities.

Looking back, I can see a two areas where things may have gone wrong on my end.

1. I am currently community college student (in my last semester and going to transfer in Fall 2011), so that already puts me at a disadvantage against all the university students who applied.
2. However, I believe my biggest error was that I didn't put a lot of thought into my top sponsoring facility preferences. I read in the application that these choices do not affect chances, but after submitting the app, I found this forum and learned otherwise. If only I found it sooner!

For my top preferences, I chose LAAFB, San Diego SPAWAR, and Pt. Mugu NSWC. However, it turns out that none of these really match up with my research interests. Furthermore, I learned from another thread here that San Diego didn't even consider any BSEE's. I'm an electrical engineering student, and my research interests include directed energy weapons, optical electronics, and microelectronics.

For Fall 2011, I've been admitted to Cal Poly SLO, and will most likely go there (except if I am admitted to Berkeley EECS). After the first quarter of Cal Poly, I'll have some university grades on my transcript (albeit only one quarter) and then I'll apply again for the scholarship. And when I apply again, I'll make damn sure to put more thought into my facility preferences.

I've been researching different facilities, and the three facilities most geared towards my research interests and that I'd be able to contribute the most to seem to be DMEA (microelectronics, opto-electronics), and Kirtland AFB and Dahlgren NSWC (directed energy weapons). I think I would put these three as my top preferences the next time I apply.

So I'm curious to know, has anyone been sponsored by these facilities? If I maintain my 3.9+ GPA once I transfer from my CC to Cal Poly, would I have any shot at being sponsored by DMEA, Kirtland, or Dahlgren?

[Guest]

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I figured I would give you my experience with this part of the scholarship application. I was one of the lucky few that did end up getting a scholarship a week ago (but I also have one of the more heavily recruited majors - computer science). When I was filling out the application I heard that the facilities you choose as your top choice don't really matter, so I didn't really do much research on the different facilities. Nevertheless, I was contacted by two different facilities, neither of which were in my list of top choices. What I was told by the facilities that interviewed me was that once all of the semi-finalist were named (about 1500 semifinalists), all of those applications are sent to every facility. This was good for me (I am really excited about the facility that chose me), but they do see your top choices. This came up in one of the interviews - they asked if I would be willing to join them even though they weren't one of my selected facilities.

Bottom line, (and this is just speculation on my part) is that I think your major, gpa, and research interests are most important because all facilities get your application if you are a semi-finalist. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do research into the different facilities because I am sure that couldn't hurt!

[dafix]

...Bottom line, (and this is just speculation on my part) is that I think your major, gpa, and research interests are most important because all facilities get your application if you are a semi-finalist. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do research into the different facilities because I am sure that couldn't hurt!

This the the feeling I got from the selection process too.

[Jim M]

I actually feel like making selections hurt my chances. After my first pick told me they were not looking for EEs I called some others and they all asked if they were i9n my top three.

I also feel like they were not looking for that many EEs this year either. I guess we will see when they post how many from each major or this year.