The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Will people comment here when you get any calls or other official notifications beyond your semi-finalist status? I'm already going crazy with impatience and we have a long way to go...

Didn't get my first interview until late March. Just keep a focus on school and research how these interviews typically go in order to develop a game plan. In my case there were a couple questions about things on my resume and my plans for the future.

NotPoggers wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:34 am

Didn't get my first interview until late March. Just keep a focus on school and research how these interviews typically go in order to develop a game plan. In my case there were a couple questions about things on my resume and my plans for the future.

How did they contact you in order to set up an interview? Was it an email from them to set up a call, or did they straight up call you?

The chief of one of my preferred facilities contacted me via email today and provided his work cell phone number to call (if I was still interested, which I am). I called two hours later and we had a little talk. Painless.

Nice to hear that. Which state is your preferred facility?

Just curious, was it your email you used for your SMART login, or your school email that they used?
Thanks for the update!

It is the Rock Island, IL facility. And the chief contacted me through an email that I don't remember listing. It was neither my login email nor my school email nor the email listed on my resume (same as login), but still my email. It's a mystery. And I cannot review my submitted application anymore, so I guess I won't find out.

Weird! I noticed I couldn't login to the SMART portal any more too, I thought I just used a weird password that I'd forgotten.
Back to the waiting game...

bdsmith wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:21 am

The chief of one of my preferred facilities contacted me via email today and provided his work cell phone number to call (if I was still interested, which I am). I called two hours later and we had a little talk. Painless.

Does this mean you are a finalist? What are you waiting on now?

charlie wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 12, 2021 7:14 pm

Does this mean you are a finalist? What are you waiting on now?

I don't know, tbf. The guy who I interviewed with--the self-identified chief of the branch--told me, "we'll try to make it work" twice near the end of the interview, mentioned that his deadline was March 8, and that the program deadline is March 31. He told me I might or might not hear from him between March 8 and 31st, but definitely after the 31st. That is all. I'm hopeful, but I'm not celebrating until it's official.

I got an email to set up a phone interview/chat with a rep from my #2 SF earlier this week (Tue. 2/16), and within a day, we had the chat. It ended up being about an hour long. Very casual and pleasant, but ultimately noncommittal (though was told I'm on "the list" for review by teams, so I *may* be contacted by this SF or others in coming weeks for further questioning). Also got the impression that I'm of interest more so for my dedication to learning or my aptitude as an engineer rather than any specific research endeavors or abilities, which is fine by me, but leaves me wondering why I wasn't contacted by anyone last year, since I applied this time with more-or-less the same application and so have about the same aptitude as before..

Anyway, to further assuage other anxious applicants about the chat, the whole thing was rather low stress. I was initially asked why I applied in general and then spent much of the remaining time listening to and learning from the rep as she described the culture of the SF and what sort of systems I may be working on if I were accepted in her department. I asked a couple of questions periodically but mostly stayed silent while taking notes. Really no big deal.

I'll probably post more if I get more news, but for now, it's back to the dreaded waiting game!

@Jakey Are you an Undergrad? and what is your major?

Had my “interview” a few days ago, the man was very kind and seemed very interested in me. I put interview in quotes because it was more like a very pleasant talk; very low stress after the begging nerves were gone, and we even eventually got to talking about video games towards the end. We talked about stuff in every area of my application. He commented on my references, my essays that I wrote, my resume; basically everything, but he resonated a lot with what I said in my essays. Said he’d be putting in for me and he’ll keep me updated whenever anything happens.

I had a phone call Friday from my number 2 facility and they said they would be calling back within the next week or two to set up an official interview and get some information from me. Do many people actually receive an interview and is this a good sign? This is my first year applying and I know no one with experience with the process or application, they said they flagged my profile and were really interested in me so I'm hoping it all works out.

Did you just get a random call or did they email you to let you know first to set up a time for the interview?

kpa226 wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:39 pm

Did you just get a random call or did they email you to let you know first to set up a time for the interview?

They emailed me first, saying that they were interested in speaking with me if I was interested. I emailed back asking for a time they were available, and they gave me a time and I agreed. I told him to call me and I gave him my number, and he called me at the agreed time.

Dragon0 wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 20, 2021 4:08 am

@Jakey Are you an Undergrad? and what is your major?

Nah, I'm a graduate student. Major is Materials Science and Engineering.

I received an email last week asking me to confirm a time for an interview. I interview tomorrow

kpa226 wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:39 pm

Did you just get a random call or did they email you to let you know first to set up a time for the interview?

Yeah I got a call last Friday and have an interview scheduled for this upcoming Friday

Does anyone know about how many people the SF's can interview each year?

Any Undergrad Computer Science major got a call from Fort Gordon (SF) yet?

ParadoxOSK wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 22, 2021 4:09 pm

Does anyone know about how many people the SF's can interview each year?

My interviewer said that the facility he is located at had 104 semi-finalists pick them as either their first or second choice that they can view. He also said that out of those 104 people, his facility could only get around 10 of them. I’m sure the number would change based on the facility, but that’s the ballpark he gave me.

My son received email last week to schedule an interview for this week. This SF was either his #2 or #3 (can’t recall which is which).
Then today, he received a voicemail from another SF (either his #2 or #3) asking him to call back for a short 15 minute talk. They haven’t called back yet.

In this situation, should he volunteer the info that there are already 2 SFs that contacted him? Or just tell that to them if he gets asked the question?

I wouldn't. Just interview with both. If he gets an offer from both, he can pick, I'm pretty sure. But you don't want neither to offer, thinking he's getting placed elsewhere.

I'm so paranoid that the interview request will be sent to my generic Gmail and that I'll miss it. Did your messages get sent to your school email, or the one on your resume? Or the one you registered with SMART for your application? I need to know which one to be scouring.

Dilly wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:40 pm

I'm so paranoid that the interview request will be sent to my generic Gmail and that I'll miss it. Did your messages get sent to your school email, or the one on your resume? Or the one you registered with SMART for your application? I need to know which one to be scouring.

Both of the emails I received were to the account that I listed on my application, I believe.