Award Portal Temporarily Closed

[SMART2017]

I guess I am one of the 1/3 as Taco said. Anyway, we can try again next year. But I think it is just sad that I did not make the cut even if DOD has more funding.

[Angel of Mercy]

Not trying to get your hopes up, but this is by no means final or an indication of anything. No one on this post really knows anything. Don't give up yet.

[Guest]

I guess I am one of the 1/3 as Taco said. Anyway, we can try again next year. But I think it is just sad that I did not make the cut even if DOD has more funding.

Like I said earlier it is all speculation.

[jayster]

I think we know why Taco didn't get the award, funny math lol. Those who have already resigned, get a spine, its still up in the air!

[Adrian]

I guess I am one of the 1/3 as Taco said. Anyway, we can try again next year. But I think it is just sad that I did not make the cut even if DOD has more funding.

Like I said earlier it is all speculation.

For the record, I also predicted that awards would come out on the 7th.

However, being told about the results of the scholarship through an error message, followed by several days of silence, and then an eventual rejection message, would be exactly par for the course for this program.

The timing, proportions and fit are too exact to be meaningless.

[havecourageandbekind]

They're for sure not meaningless, but I assume they're not done or again why wait to inform everyone? Also on the calculations based off of this forum there are only 54 replies here and IDK about others but I've posted at least 6 of them. I also agree that people aren't going to admit they get the incorrect username and password by reading all these comments basically saying it means we're out and you won because you're better.

Whoever gets the sponsorship I hope is the best person for the job and if that means you have a 4.0 GPA then great. If it means you had 3.0 then that's great too. Your GPA no longer matters, it matters how you interviewed and what the SF needs in its future workforce. They're not going to invest in someone who's a 4.0 student in aerospace over a 3.0 student in aerospace just because of the GPA. The government works very hard to place people somewhere they'll work well with. The phone interviews are the point where this is all related to you as a person, not your student/research profile.

I feel like my interviewer didn't care about a word I said even before we got into the interview itself. Which either tells you he already decided against me, or he was just not a people person. However, I've already counted myself out. That doesn't mean I don't deserve it as much as anyone else on this forum. That also doesn't mean I want to be made to feel bad about not getting it, nor do I want to believe SMART would have something like this show the results ahead of time. That's like getting accepted/denied to school via a third party comment then in a while hearing if it was confirmed or not.

So we'll hear eventually, good, bad, or ugly. Congrats to everyone who has made it this far as it shows we are worth something to even get to the interview round. This is only 1/4 of the original applicants. Hell, I got into the grad school of my dreams and the major of my dreams at a top school that I never even thought would give my application a second glance nor would I have applied to without having found this scholarship. If I don't get this then I'll be sad as I would love the opportunity to work in the SF that interviewed me. But my life isn't going to be over I'll have a full-time job or interview somewhere that pays better and can cover a semester full time off school.

Just because you don't get this doesn't mean you're not a fantastically deserving human. You all are awesome and we all deserve it. But, only 250 of us can have it.

[Guest]

nor do I want to believe SMART would have something like this show the results ahead of time. That's like getting accepted/denied to school via a third party comment then in a while hearing if it was confirmed or not.[/u][/b]

Well, it did last year. One would think they would've fixed it, but I suppose this is the government.

[Tacos123]

I think we know why Taco didn't get the award, funny math lol. Those who have already resigned, get a spine, its still up in the air!

I understand this is like when medieval villagers saw meteors in the sky and tried to interpret it's meaning relative to their own lives. But I think this is significant.

[Guest]

I think we know why Taco didn't get the award, funny math lol. Those who have already resigned, get a spine, its still up in the air!

I understand this is like when medieval villagers saw meteors in the sky and tried to interpret it's meaning relative to their own lives. But I think this is significant.

Your base assumptions were wrong (2/3 of those interviewed get the award, the posts here are representative of the finalist population as a whole) but your conclusion is likely correct, if last year is anything to go by.

[tacos123]

I think we know why Taco didn't get the award, funny math lol. Those who have already resigned, get a spine, its still up in the air!

I understand this is like when medieval villagers saw meteors in the sky and tried to interpret it's meaning relative to their own lives. But I think this is significant.

Your base assumptions were wrong (2/3 of those interviewed get the award, the posts here are representative of the finalist population as a whole) but your conclusion is likely correct, if last year is anything to go by.

There's no way of objectively gathering that information, so I used several flawed assumptions to come to a conclusion. I'm also not being absurdly scientific about this because I don't want it to be true.

[Guest]

They're for sure not meaningless, but I assume they're not done or again why wait to inform everyone? Also on the calculations based off of this forum there are only 54 replies here and IDK about others but I've posted at least 6 of them. I also agree that people aren't going to admit they get the incorrect username and password by reading all these comments basically saying it means we're out and you won because you're better.

Whoever gets the sponsorship I hope is the best person for the job and if that means you have a 4.0 GPA then great. If it means you had 3.0 then that's great too. Your GPA no longer matters, it matters how you interviewed and what the SF needs in its future workforce. They're not going to invest in someone who's a 4.0 student in aerospace over a 3.0 student in aerospace just because of the GPA. The government works very hard to place people somewhere they'll work well with. The phone interviews are the point where this is all related to you as a person, not your student/research profile.

I feel like my interviewer didn't care about a word I said even before we got into the interview itself. Which either tells you he already decided against me, or he was just not a people person. However, I've already counted myself out. That doesn't mean I don't deserve it as much as anyone else on this forum. That also doesn't mean I want to be made to feel bad about not getting it, nor do I want to believe SMART would have something like this show the results ahead of time. That's like getting accepted/denied to school via a third party comment then in a while hearing if it was confirmed or not.

So we'll hear eventually, good, bad, or ugly. Congrats to everyone who has made it this far as it shows we are worth something to even get to the interview round. This is only 1/4 of the original applicants. Hell, I got into the grad school of my dreams and the major of my dreams at a top school that I never even thought would give my application a second glance nor would I have applied to without having found this scholarship. If I don't get this then I'll be sad as I would love the opportunity to work in the SF that interviewed me. But my life isn't going to be over I'll have a full-time job or interview somewhere that pays better and can cover a semester full time off school.

Just because you don't get this doesn't mean you're not a fantastically deserving human. You all are awesome and we all deserve it. But, only 250 of us can have it.

Could we all just take a break from over analyzing for a second and appreciate this? No matter what is true or not about these error messages, we are all completely deserving of the award and should be proud of how far we've made it in the process.

[chocolate]

I think that's probably enough for feeling bad if you didn't get the 'temporarily closed' message. For all we know, there's someone out there trolling all of us by posting that they got that message on several anonymous accounts. Or, if they were telling the truth, maybe it just happened to a few people who needed individual account maintenance. Or, maybe SMART is cycling through the alphabet so that everyone's is 'temporarily closed' for some period of time.

The point is, there are just so many things that the message could mean, if anything at all. There's no point in putting yourself down (or feeling superior over others, for that matter) depending on what message you get when you try logging into a page that wasn't even officially provided to applicants in SMART correspondence.

Besides, with the basically 50/50 shot at a government shutdown in a few days, we may not even hear definitively for a while past our original expectations of a notification this week or next week. So sit tight, and try thinking about something else until you get that email - I think I speak for everyone (at least, undergrads) in that we could probably use the time to study for finals!

[Guest]

For all we know, there's someone out there trolling all of us by posting that they got that message on several anonymous accounts. Or, if they were telling the truth, maybe it just happened to a few people who needed individual account maintenance.

That's kinda a rude assumption. I can promise you people aren't trolling. I'm getting this error message too on top of everyone else. It also isn't account maintenance, because technically as candidates we shouldn't even have accounts on the awards site (Which is why some of us are getting the incorrect user/pass error).

I think SMART is starting the awarding process, and I feel that at this point they are planning for the worst when it comes to government budgeting so they're only starting to give a small amount of awards. I'm sure after the funding gets passed and depending on if it gets raised/lowered more people will be added (or people can even be removed from consideration). It truly is still up in the air -.. Yes, it's exciting to get the "Temporarily Closed" message, but my fear at this point is having that status revoked or still being rejected because of budget cuts.

All we can do is wait, and stop feeling sorry for ourselves -- at least until we all know for sure.

[Guest]

For all we know, there's someone out there trolling all of us by posting that they got that message on several anonymous accounts. Or, if they were telling the truth, maybe it just happened to a few people who needed individual account maintenance.

That's kinda a rude assumption. I can promise you people aren't trolling. I'm getting this error message too on top of everyone else. It also isn't account maintenance, because technically as candidates we shouldn't even have accounts on the awards site (Which is why some of us are getting the incorrect user/pass error).

I think SMART is starting the awarding process, and I feel that at this point they are planning for the worst when it comes to government budgeting so they're only starting to give a small amount of awards. I'm sure after the funding gets passed and depending on if it gets raised/lowered more people will be added (or people can even be removed from consideration). It truly is still up in the air -.. Yes, it's exciting to get the "Temporarily Closed" message, but my fear at this point is having that status revoked or still being rejected because of budget cuts.

All we can do is wait, and stop feeling sorry for ourselves -- at least until we all know for sure.

I can't imagine there will be cuts, not with Trump in office. Now, it is possible that there will be further delays or that the funding increase isn't as large as they expect it to be. But budget cuts seem quite unlikely.

[jj999]

Does anyone know how final notifications are given? Is it a phone call or email? Just curious what to expect

[jj999]

I emailed SMART about the date because I have to let my current supervisor know if I will return next semester (which is no if I receive SMART) and I got this email in reply, so I am assuming we all might get a yes or a no.

"Thank you for your email. Award announcements will go out in May all semifinalist will be notified at that time.

Please let us know if you have any other questions."

[Guest147596790]

So just to recap, is this "Portal temporarily closed" error something that happened in the past for people who received the award?

If not, we don't really know what the error means right? I mean, it seems logical to think people have been entered into the system and that's why they're getting the "portal closed" error but it's also not entirely impossible that the error could be because they have been locked out of the system having been eliminated from the running.

It seems like we really don't know anything and until they make that announcement, there's no trick to predicting who's going to get it and who's not. Just hang tight, don't get discouraged, and hold out for that final announcement before you start losing sleep thinking you've been eliminated because of an error you are or are not getting on a section of the website that is not yet up and running for this year's candidates.

[Tacos123]

So just to recap, is this "Portal temporarily closed" error something that happened in the past for people who received the award?

If not, we don't really know what the error means right? I mean, it seems logical to think people have been entered into the system and that's why they're getting the "portal closed" error but it's also not entirely impossible that the error could be because they have been locked out of the system having been eliminated from the running.

It seems like we really don't know anything and until they make that announcement, there's no trick to predicting who's going to get it and who's not. Just hang tight, don't get discouraged, and hold out for that final announcement before you start losing sleep thinking you've been eliminated because of an error you are or are not getting on a section of the website that is not yet up and running for this year's candidates.

The error message was different. But different error messages have indicated in both 2016 and 2012 who has received the award, well in advance of the announcements.

In any case, it's kind of a crappy way to learn the outcome.

[Guest]

So just to recap, is this "Portal temporarily closed" error something that happened in the past for people who received the award?

If not, we don't really know what the error means right? I mean, it seems logical to think people have been entered into the system and that's why they're getting the "portal closed" error but it's also not entirely impossible that the error could be because they have been locked out of the system having been eliminated from the running.

It seems like we really don't know anything and until they make that announcement, there's no trick to predicting who's going to get it and who's not. Just hang tight, don't get discouraged, and hold out for that final announcement before you start losing sleep thinking you've been eliminated because of an error you are or are not getting on a section of the website that is not yet up and running for this year's candidates.

The error message was different. But different error messages have indicated in both 2016 and 2012 who has received the award, well in advance of the announcements.

In any case, it's kind of a crappy way to learn the outcome.

No, it definitely was the same error message. Basically the awards page is separate from the candidate portal. SMART only moves your account over to the awards page if you are receiving an award. People getting the "Temp closed" error are able to log in, thus their account have been moved over to the awards page. It'd make no sense for them to move accounts over if they don't plan on giving them awards. I agree, it's a bug that should be fixed but theres no use in complaining.

[Guest147596790]

Well it's certainly too soon to tell one way or another. For those that are getting the portal closed error, I suppose you can rest a little easier knowing that your chances are looking good. For those who are not getting the error, just remember that if they already had all the selections made, there would be no need to wait until May to actually make the announcement. They are going to be running about a month past their expected schedule and I can guarantee someone somewhere is applying pressure to get things done ASAP. Perhaps they're putting people into the system alphabetically, or by SF, or by date the app was submitted, or by degree type... etc. I think there's little reason for people to be concerned if they're not getting this particular error at this time.

I'm mainly writing this post to myself (I was recommended by a SF but am getting the incorrect username/password error) but hopefully it will calm the nerves of anyone else in this position.

[Tacos123]

Well it's certainly too soon to tell one way or another. For those that are getting the portal closed error, I suppose you can rest a little easier knowing that your chances are looking good. For those who are not getting the error, just remember that if they already had all the selections made, there would be no need to wait until May to actually make the announcement. They are going to be running about a month past their expected schedule and I can guarantee someone somewhere is applying pressure to get things done ASAP. Perhaps they're putting people into the system alphabetically, or by SF, or by date the app was submitted, or by degree type... etc. I think there's little reason for people to be concerned if they're not getting this particular error at this time.

I'm mainly writing this post to myself (I was recommended by a SF but am getting the incorrect username/password error) but hopefully it will calm the nerves of anyone else in this position.

Amen to that.

[Guest]

I agree. They could also be going by priority of the SF. I be they've only moved maybe 20-50 accounts over and plan on working through the rest this week and next week.

[Tacos123]

My theory is that they've moved 99% if not 100% of the people who are getting first rounds to the award portal and are waiting until most likely Thursday or maybe Friday to release awards.

If someone's error message changes though it's a different game.

[Guest]

I highly doubt they'll release awards until after the funding bill gets passed. If there's a shutdown or change in funding they'll need time to manage that.

[Tacos123]

I highly doubt they'll release awards until after the funding bill gets passed. If there's a shutdown or change in funding they'll need time to manage that.

If they wait, this may actually extend into the June/July/August area as budget negotiations break down over a wall.