mcrawfo1

CindyWC I was also designated as an Alternate this morning and I was very curious and nervous. So I emailed the SMART help desk to see what that exactly meant, and the reply was...

"Alternates are applicants who have not been assigned as first round awardees, but are still being further considered. Alternates still have a chance at being awarded. Your selection is dependent on the funds available to NPS. If they are able to support more applicants, or if any other applicants decline their award you will be considered.



We appreciate your patience throughout this process, and will notify you whether you have been awarded by April 17th.



Thank you"

hopefully the Alternate standing is still good standing, but since we are upcoming sophmores we are being put on the youngster table...but I hope it works out...

by the way, I never got a phone interview

CindyWC

Aw, thats slightly disheartening to hear them phrase it as us not having been "assigned as first round awardees", but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that people decline or that they find enough funds to support us! As for the being upcoming sophomores, I heard that they were actually trying to get more undergrads that were younger since there would be a longer service commitment but who knows if that's true or not.

Thanks a ton for posting that though mcraw!

matheo71

Hi,

Just to make you guys feel better, I actually declined their offer. The $$ was there, but the outlook on the future left a lot to be desired. In my case, they haven't given me any of the 5 choices I outlined when applying. Instead, they have assigned me to a Navy base (not really a lab) where one of my primary objectives would be to lecture/teach --- and since I'm a PhD student who is more into research I ultimately declined.

On a positive note, keep in mind that this is really a recruitment tool for different branches of DoD. In other words, if a particular agency/lab feels they can use you in some way, they will offer you a post -- they aren't really interested in scholars for the sake of scholastic achievement.

Also, (touching upon question of Grad. school upon graduation question) --- it is still possible to do so but only when you are during your "service" (work upon graduation) or when you have fulfilled the service commitment.... in other words --- work upon graduation and then we will see what will happen.

In any event, I must add that I'm little disappointed with the way they run things. Especially after reading your posts and finding out that they send out emails to people advising them that they are "Alternates." --- That should never happen!!! Hearing that you might get a chance if someone (potentially better than you) declines it is not a morale booster!!!

Anyhow --- best of luck to you all!

AdamJW

Hi,

I have also been designated as an alternate. Got the email yesterday, wasn't expecting to hear back so soon, although, I have to admit that every email I've gotten in the last two/three weeks I have been hoping it would be from them. I too, am somewhat confused by the 4/17 date with the original being 4/15 (+two weeks). Regardless, I guess its only a few more days to wait. I'm surprised at the apparent lack of information regarding the acceptance rate of the scholarship online (outside of a few posts on this website), so please keep me posted on anything new.

Best of luck!!

P.S. I am going to be a 3rd year Materials Science Engineer at the University of Florida.

CindyWC

Thanks for the well wishes matheo! I'm sorry to hear they weren't able to offer you what you needed, though congratulations anyway on at least receiving it. And yes.. I'm pretty disappointed with them as well. I would have been much happier not hearing back from them until they had a definite decision, rather than knowing my receipt of the award is dependent on others. It is a little comforting to know at least a few people DO turn them down, so I'll keep my fingers crossed they choose to give me one of the awards. I'll also keep my fingers crossed that I dont end up regretting the service commitment!

And Adam - I've been thinking about it and I'm assuming they let those who were initially given the award know that they had received it in the end of march/by April 3rd which would explain why they'll let us know by the 17th, since by then everyone will have either declined/accepted. And yeah, I really wish they would provide more statistics! I know it's relatively new but it's still frustrating to not know what sort of shot I have at actually receiving the award. It would also be nice to know how many people they designate as alternates, as well as how many of those tend to go on to receive the award..

chikaboomm

Hi everyone,

Yes, I have also been designated as an Alternate. What they basically told me was that they were not done giving out awards... April 15th (I guess April 17th now?) is when they finalize all the allocations. Not that it makes me feel all that much better... but I am hoping they do find funding. I asked them specifically how they choose the alternate if someone were to decline, and they said it's based off your field of study.

"NPS is allocating funding to choose some alternates as awardees. In
addition, if awardees are to decline the slot will open for an alternate
in that field. Your application is still being considered. We will get
back to you shortly on the final decision. Thank you for your patience."

I wonder how the applicant pool breaks down as far as field of study. I noticed that most of the DoD labs are hard engineering (vs. soft engineering... BioE, ChemE) and computer science, math, physics. It was my hope initially that because I am a Chemistry major, I may face less competition... lol. And I agree with CindyWC... I would have preferred just to find out that to be strung along.

Ah, well, good luck everyone!

CindyWC

Yeah as far as I know the applicant pool is largely engineering/math/physics etc. I believe science majors like Chem and Oceanography and Animal Science and such make up a pretty small part of it, which actually worries me more - I feel like there's fewer chances of people declining their offers. But that's just me overly worrying, lol. Anyway, good luck to the rest of you alternates as well!

lhunt2010

I've been thinking what I did wrong in the "second round" to be designated as an Alternate. I have some relatives overseas. Is there a cause?

CindyWC

I doubt it - I think it's more a question of were you matched up with an agency and if someone else was a better match. I also strongly suspect age may play a factor (I'm only a freshman undergrad at the moment, as is someone else that posted they were an alternate). In any case, if that was part of the reason it may have got me also, though all my relatives are in very US friendly countries.

mrcharliebrown

Hi,
I am also in the pool of alternates for SMART scholarships. My field of study is Robotics / Computer Science, and I will be a first year grad student. It's nice to hear from others in the same boat. I'm figuring that there may have been a bunch more applicants this year. I hope they will find the money to award as many qualified applicants as possible. Think of all the scholarships that could be awarded for the cost of one F-22 ($140 million). I know they can't just transfer the budgets that way, but still.

AdamJW

Haha, actually I saw on the news today the pentagon's plans to cancel the f/a-22 program. Not saying that they don't still have a ridiculous amount of money, just like the chance to point out some irony.

Defense Cuts Prompt Protests From Lawmakers Concerned About Job Losses - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

-AJW

CindyWC

Wow yeah I read about that too. Simply ridiculous..

AdamJW

One week to the seventeenth...! Although, if last email is an indication of anything, they may hit you with a decision any time between now and then. Kinda takes the fun out of it.

grex

In case you're curious:

"From a competitive field of over 1500 applicants, approximately 200-300 awards will be made."

CindyWC

I can't lie, I've been checking my email nonstop. Ah well. A little bit less than one week to go now!

And yeah.. From the Naval Research numbers it said in 06 there were 49 initial awards given out out of 316 applications, and then in 07 it jumped to 125 awards out of 1600. I wonder how much the application numbers jumped to this round?