Semifinalists

[Dilly]

Thank God we didn't have to wait til Friday. Now to just wait *checks calendar* ugh 2 more months...or more...

[klmahoney188]

Semifinalist here! Working at a contractor and graduated from undergrad back in 2019. Very stoked for the rest of you, try to take it easy for the next few weeks all the best vibes and energy to you all and don't get down if tou were not selected. So many paths and options out there

[Asdfg]

Congratulations everyone that got accepted as a semi finalist!!
This is my second year being accepted as a semi finalist, last year I didn’t get the award so I’m hopeful!

When facilities contact you, do they usually email you first to let you know? When they call will the caller ID be something indicated it’s probably from a facility or does it look like spam calls?

What were some things they asked?

[Guest]

You find out if you’re a semi finalist via email correct? I haven’t gotten an email either way, is anyone else like this?

[SMARTuser]

Anyone know the acceptance rate of people notified they are a semifinalist? For example, If SMART selects 1000 semi-finalists, how many of those are extended an offer? 1 in 5, 1 in 10 etc.??

[Biomed]

Anyone know the acceptance rate of people notified they are a semifinalist? For example, If SMART selects 1000 semi-finalists, how many of those are extended an offer? 1 in 5, 1 in 10 etc.??

You can find that type of info on the website: https://www.smartscholarship.org/smart?id=program_stats

[curious]

Hi,
I noticed quite a few semi-finalists say that they were semi-finalists last year too. I'm just curious if you don't mind me asking, what were y'all's stats, and did you have an interview last year? I saw on a Reddit page that approximately 1/4 of semi-finalists are awarded the scholarship, I don't know how accurate that is.

[guestmmm]

Also curious to know, is it rare to get a scholarship without having interview?

[Dilly]

I find those stats fairly useless. How are the average GPA over 4.0?!

[Jsjdjd]

Hi,
I noticed quite a few semi-finalists say that they were semi-finalists last year too. I'm just curious if you don't mind me asking, what were y'all's stats, and did you have an interview last year? I saw on a Reddit page that approximately 1/4 of semi-finalists are awarded the scholarship, I don't know how accurate that is.

I got the semi finalist award last year, but didn’t get accepted to my graduate schools so I just ignored my phone for possible calls from facilities.
My GPA was 3.85, BS in systems biology, minor in physics and math, GRE was around average for all sections. I got the email that I wasn’t a recipient in April.

[Mighty Boulder]

Well looking back in the past forums, smart stopped reporting the semi-finalist numbers. In 2010, there were around 3300 applicants and roughly 1300 semi- finalists were chosen. From the 1300 semi-finalists, only 250-300 finalists were ultimately chosen. So some quick math shows they take 39% the first round (little better than 1 out of 3) and then 19%-23% the second round (between 1 out of 4 or 5).

I have no idea if that is still accurate but I would suspect something along those odds. They roughly have 300 open positions every year (looking back from 2019 and 2020) and 2300-2500 applicants every year. So we just need to see how many openings there are this year. Someone in a previous post mentioned that they talked to smart before the closing of applications and they indicated that up to 400-500 positions could be open this year.

Here is a website that shows more odds from older years but from total applicants to awards:
https://www.famvestor.com/smartscholarship/

[Guest]

You find out if you’re a semi finalist via email correct? I haven’t gotten an email either way, is anyone else like this?

I also have not received an email one way or the other. does anyone know who we should reach out to?

[NotPoggers]

You find out if you’re a semi finalist via email correct? I haven’t gotten an email either way, is anyone else like this?

I also have not received an email one way or the other. does anyone know who we should reach out to?

I was planning on waiting until the end of the week, then possibly reaching out to support.

[Akelly]

I noticed that 4.3% of applicants are BME in 2020 and 0% were awarded. Does anyone know why this would be? If there are BME facilities wouldn't they are least take a few? I'm a semifinalist BME so just curious.

[wysdem]

You find out if you’re a semi finalist via email correct? I haven’t gotten an email either way, is anyone else like this?

I also have not received an email one way or the other. does anyone know who we should reach out to?

I was planning on waiting until the end of the week, then possibly reaching out to support.

I spent an more than an hour on hold to finally get ahold of some one from the support team. She was able to tell me that I was a Semi-Finalist (hooray!) and that myself and an unknown number of other applicants didn't receive the email due to technical problems. She seemed to imply that so far the only people who have called in about not receiving an email were all semi-finalist. So if you really want to know call the number listed on the site (the one from application email has been disconnected) and be prepared to wait on hold.

[ryantetreault]

Son is a semifinalist! His SFs listed in application are all here in SoCAL about 45 miles from us.
CA is super competitive so I’m just super stoked on him being semifinalist. Of course, this is just only Step 1 .

Based on previous years, does anyone know of a rough % of semifinalists who eventually get the final offer?

When does the first round of Final offers usually come - is it the last week of April?

Also from previous posts here, I see it’s also possible that other SF (even not listed in his choices) may also consider him for interview, if they like to consider him? Is this true?

-- The acceptance isn't based off a percentage, but more based of the amount of jobs available at the time. SMART knocks off the lower half of applicants in the initial phase, and those who move on are semi-finalists. On average about 3-4000 applications are submitted, and there are about 3-400 jobs open each year, so I would guess as a semi-finalist it would be a 20% chance (based off a random draw).

-- Most likely, I would look around to see what SMART recipients have said about their experience.

-- Yes. This is an excerpt from the SMART Report in 2018 (https://www.ida.org/-/media/feature/pub ... -9262.ashx), "In the second round of selection, the top 50 percent of ranked applications are
uploaded to an online portal that can be accessed by all the sponsoring facility POCs and S&E managers interested in participating in the SMART program."

[Biomed]

I noticed that 4.3% of applicants are BME in 2020 and 0% were awarded. Does anyone know why this would be? If there are BME facilities wouldn't they are least take a few? I'm a semifinalist BME so just curious.

The BME field classification is relatively new to the program. When I first applied back in the 2017 application cycle, the closest "field" I applied under was Biosciences. Perhaps the program needs a bit more time to accept BME majors.

Also, from what I've seen in industry and school/academic labs, BMEs with bachelor degrees are more likely to be working under someone with a master's degree or PhD. I'm not entirely sure what the case is for the DoD, but I'm expecting that they may be targeting BME PhDs to actually run their labs.

Who knows, maybe you and I will be the first ones to actually get hired as a BME scholar (cheers to making it as a semi-finalist).

[NotPoggers]

I also have not received an email one way or the other. does anyone know who we should reach out to?

I was planning on waiting until the end of the week, then possibly reaching out to support.

I spent an more than an hour on hold to finally get ahold of some one from the support team. She was able to tell me that I was a Semi-Finalist (hooray!) and that myself and an unknown number of other applicants didn't receive the email due to technical problems. She seemed to imply that so far the only people who have called in about not receiving an email were all semi-finalist. So if you really want to know call the number listed on the site (the one from application email has been disconnected) and be prepared to wait on hold.

Lol I've been on hold for 1.5 hrs.

[blackbeltco]

my son too is focus on soCal SFs and is a semi finalist. whta is your son's specialty/focus?

[mmrlsmart]

my son too is focus on soCal SFs and is a semi finalist. whta is your son's specialty/focus?

Computer Science for my son. How about yours?

[blackbeltco]

cybersecurity

[Guest]

Hello! Does anyone know if it helps to reach out to the SF's as a semifinalist, before interviews? Or is it better to just wait for them to contact you, if at all

[ryantetreault]

Hello! Does anyone know if it helps to reach out to the SF's as a semifinalist, before interviews? Or is it better to just wait for them to contact you, if at all

I would definitely not. The all SF's receive your application and go from there. Not all SF's do interviews, and those who do wouldn't want random people (they have your application but don't know you) contacting them. If people knew it worked, they would get hundreds of emails from different people.

[Dilly]

I emailed two department heads to introduce myself. I think it shows initiative but I can see that it might get annoying, if it's a competitive SF. I mainly opted to do so because mine doesn't seem to get scholars often so I wanted to make sure they were aware that I was even applying.

[Biomed]

I emailed two department heads to introduce myself. I think it shows initiative but I can see that it might get annoying, if it's a competitive SF. I mainly opted to do so because mine doesn't seem to get scholars often so I wanted to make sure they were aware that I was even applying.

Did the SFs you contacted have their email publicly available on the SMART website or on the branches/SF's own website? I'm finding that some of the SFs do not have an email listed publicly - only a phone number.

Hello! Does anyone know if it helps to reach out to the SF's as a semifinalist, before interviews? Or is it better to just wait for them to contact you, if at all

I would definitely not. The all SF's receive your application and go from there. Not all SF's do interviews, and those who do wouldn't want random people (they have your application but don't know you) contacting them. If people knew it worked, they would get hundreds of emails from different people.

Hit or miss, depending on the SF. When I was a semi-finalist in 2017 some SFs responded positively - others they told me not to contact them again and that they would formally reach out to me if they thought I was a good candidate for them.