The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Just curious to see if anyone has been contacted yet for an interview?

Not yet. My internship supervisor is trying to find my application.

Not yet either. However, an official from a naval research facility did interact with my LinkedIn post about making the semifinals. Perhaps they are conducting initial vetting/background checks on applicants.

No interview yet, but I was contacted this morning by an individual from a SF who said that they saw my SMART application. They were contacting me to encourage me to apply to an internship program at their facility. From what I gathered from the email, they are still in the process of determining potential SMART recipients. But, I’ll take this as a good sign lol.

Still no interview 🥲

Same.

Same. Nothing yet. I've reached out to a couple facilities and people last week with an updated resume just to let them know I am in the application pool and to request any info they might have about working as a SMART scholar with them. Nothing from them either yet

UPDATE: Just got a call to schedule an interview with the Missile Defense Agency!

What's worse is when they called, I hung up because I thought it was spam call T-T but, thankfully they called back! So fingers, toes, and all other body parts crossed

Congrats! I've been refreshing this forum all day looking for good news.

frankiesmith wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:42 pm

UPDATE: Just got a call to schedule an interview with the Missile Defense Agency!

What's worse is when they called, I hung up because I thought it was spam call T-T but, thankfully they called back! So fingers, toes, and all other body parts crossed

Nice! Was that SF one of your top 3?

Guest wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:53 pm

frankiesmith wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:42 pm

UPDATE: Just got a call to schedule an interview with the Missile Defense Agency!

What's worse is when they called, I hung up because I thought it was spam call T-T but, thankfully they called back! So fingers, toes, and all other body parts crossed

Nice! Was that SF one of your top 3?

If I remember correctly, they were actually my number 1!

aqzws wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:43 pm

Congrats! I've been refreshing this forum all day looking for good news.

Thanks! I got an interview around this time last year, but that hasn't stopped from checking my email incessantly this whole time

frankiesmith wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:42 pm

UPDATE: Just got a call to schedule an interview with the Missile Defense Agency!

What's worse is when they called, I hung up because I thought it was spam call T-T but, thankfully they called back! So fingers, toes, and all other body parts crossed

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. It helps to know that they are starting to contact the semi-finalists!

Everyone - please keep sharing if/when you hear something!

I set up a group interview for next Monday with two USACE districts - Rock Island & Omaha!

Does anyone have any experience with USACE??

aerophd wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:02 pm

Same. Nothing yet. I've reached out to a couple facilities and people last week with an updated resume just to let them know I am in the application pool and to request any info they might have about working as a SMART scholar with them. Nothing from them either yet

I was wondering if you had heard back yet and if anyone else recommends reaching out to SFs directly?

Guest wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:09 pm

aerophd wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:02 pm

Same. Nothing yet. I've reached out to a couple facilities and people last week with an updated resume just to let them know I am in the application pool and to request any info they might have about working as a SMART scholar with them. Nothing from them either yet

I was wondering if you had heard back yet and if anyone else recommends reaching out to SFs directly?

I don’t think it would hurt to contact SFs.

Hi! So I just got a missed call from San Francisco, one of the cities for my top choices, and when my phone thinks it’s a scam it won’t ring, only show me the missed call. When I google the number there’s no “scam found” or even any information on it, which makes me think it was an SF calling. Do SFs call again? Or reach out via email? I really hope I didn’t mess up this opportunity if it was an SF calling.

I would think they would leave a message, but if not, I would just call the number and see who answers.

anthonyk wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:43 pm

Guest wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:09 pm

aerophd wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:02 pm

Same. Nothing yet. I've reached out to a couple facilities and people last week with an updated resume just to let them know I am in the application pool and to request any info they might have about working as a SMART scholar with them. Nothing from them either yet

I was wondering if you had heard back yet and if anyone else recommends reaching out to SFs directly?

I don’t think it would hurt to contact SFs.

How would we contact SFs? I couldn't find any contact information on my acceptance email or anything

Guest wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:11 pm

anthonyk wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:43 pm

Guest wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:09 pm

I was wondering if you had heard back yet and if anyone else recommends reaching out to SFs directly?

I don’t think it would hurt to contact SFs.

How would we contact SFs? I couldn't find any contact information on my acceptance email or anything

One way to do this is go on google scholar and search the name of the facility to find research done at that facility. You could find research you're interested in and reach out to the authors of that paper (emails are often listed on there). Another way to do it is find someone who is part of that facility on LinkedIn and send them a message. There are also often news stories that facilities put out that you could find the name of someone and then their email is almost always the same form for each facility, such as First_MI_Last@usace.army.mil, so once you find their name and an example of an email from that facility, you should be good to go.

Finally found and joined this forum, semifinalist here. Just wanted to report no contact by SF or interview so far (March 2).

My former internship supervisor told me that he can’t ensure I’ll be selected but he put my name out there to the facilities SMART program coordinator.

I saw an update from one of SMART’s socials today that the SFs are in the process of finalizing their decisions.

Guest wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 04, 2022 5:45 pm

I saw an update from one of SMART’s socials today that the SFs are in the process of finalizing their decisions.

I heard that my top SF hasn't even began interviewing people.....

SMART’s Instagram said SFs are in the process of making their final award selections…. So I’m guessing that since I haven’t been contacted for an interview yet I probably shouldn’t expect one

Crossing my fingers that I’m one of those lucky people that gets selected without an interview